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DGA QUARTERLY 31 aged in free-flowing "experimentation" sessions to build a repertoire of weird, off-putting gestures, behaviors and noises that could be incorporated into Pennywise's scenes for unpredictable effect. "Human performance is unbeat- able," says Muschietti. "In a scene where brutality and sur- prise are the main things, nobody can do it like an actor. So I relied on Bill's performance, and then enhanced it." For the pivotal scare in which the kids, operating a projector, are shocked by an enlarged Pennywise erupt- ing from their projected image, Muschietti merged the practical and digital with the actorly: "We first shot the kids' performances in the garage location, reacting to a gi- ant cardboard cutout of Bill. Then we did a reduced-size mimic of the garage with green screen, with Bill perform- ing out of that so he would look big. We replicated every angle on that tiny set, with eyeline references for each kid using little sticks." Later, Muschietti enhanced Skarsgård's mouth with CGI, which was also deployed for shots of Pennywise's bared teeth. "It doesn't matter how big an actor's mouth is, there's a limit to how fangs look. You don't want to see an actor with a den- ture trying to open their mouth as much as possible. And now, the effects houses have reached a level of detail and hyperrealism that is unquestionable." The sightless, foreleg-stabbing predators in A Quiet Place were all the work of ILM wizards, led by visual effects legend Scott Farrar, but Krasinski knew his Jaws history, and how memorable not seeing the shark was until the audience had built up its mythic presence in their own minds for over half the film. "I tried to take a page out of their book, so even when we did see him, we could tuck him away in the cornfield, the silos, places like that," says Krasinski. "It's true, what Spielberg said, that your imagination is more powerful than anything I can show you consistently." James Wan finds it funny when he's accused of using CGI when zeroes and ones had nothing to do with an otherworldly effect. Case in point: the spooky Crooked Man's unforgettable appearance in The Conjuring 2, for which Wan went old school with gangly, dou- ble-jointed actor Javier Botet and tricks as old as cinema. "I had him walk in reverse doing weird body movements," says Wan, "then I ramped it forward in editing, and jump-cut every frame or two. So the unnatural quality of it makes people think CGI, but it's just re- verse camera technique. It's been around forever, so it's just knowing when to use it." For her low-budget debut, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, Ana Lily Amirpour knew simply the image of a night-stalking, chador-wearing vampire in a rundown Persian town would carry its own unnerving impact, but she also worked extensively with her lead actor Sheila Vand to discover the corporeality and state of mind that would deepen this portrayal of an ancient soul. PHOTOS: (TOP TO BOTTOM) EVERETT (2); PHOTOFEST For Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G., director Anthony Hemingway, above, often filmed at original locations, such as the Vegas crime scene where Tupac Shakur was gunned down (far left) and hired actors, (below right), who closely resembled their real-life counterparts. Director Andy Muschietti, above on the set of It, says he encouraged experimentation in Bill Skarsgård's approach to Pennywise the clown: "Human performance is unbeatable," he asserts. John Krasinski, in T-shirt, directing Emily Blunt on the set of A Quiet Place, says the imagination "is something more powerful than anything I can show you consistently."