Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1097515
60 DGA QUARTERLY successfully navigated an abrupt tran- sition from small-scale live action to VFX-driven spectacle. Hired by 20th Century Fox to reboot the iconic pri- mate franchise on the strength of his Brian Cox action drama The Escapist, Wyatt suddenly found himself teamed with WETA Digital and its ground-breaking motion-capture technology. "I had virtually zero visual effects experience when I came onto Rise," Wyatt recalls. "I approached it as if the studio said, 'Here's a Ferrari—drive it.' I fig- ured out how to drive the Ferrari but to this day, I still don't know how the engine works. For me, it just came down to using the tech- nology so I could tell this story." Distinguished by some 380 motion capture shots and $481 million in global box office receipts, Rise of the Planet of the Apes remains a case study in how an astute director can harness computer-generated ef- fects without losing sight of characters' emotional arcs—even when those characters are covered in fur and communicate with grunts. Wyatt's tight working relationship with WETA Digital director PHOTOS: (TOP) EVERETT; (BOTTOM) 20TH CENTURY FOX made? Bill helped structure all of that for me." In giving direction to several hundred far-flung artists, Jenkins succeeded in establishing real-world foundations for imaginary locations, including Wonder Woman's mythic island home Themyscira. "Having never done visual effects before on this scale," Jenkins says, "I went out and shot el- ements on the Amalfi coast of Italy, on film, exactly how I wanted it to look. The visual effects then had to match everything I'd filmed. Instead of it being a 'make up what- ever island you want' free-for-all, where people could bend the rules about what a plant should look like, or how those cracks in the stone should be, we planted a flag. That helped every artist down the line see what they had to achieve in order to make the scene look real." For Wonder Woman's tumultuous action sequences, Jenkins utilized digital face-replacement on stunt dou- bles so they resembled title-role player Gal Gadot when glimpsed briefly from a distance. "Wonder Woman was the first time I'd worked with digi-doubles, and I quickly learned what they can and cannot do," Jenkins says. "For example, you can't do a close-up performance. Wonder Woman was such a photo-real show, we didn't try to push that technology to become something it couldn't be." H I L E P R E P P I N G the film, Jenkins studied other VFX-intensive mov- ies to see how some of her peers handled big action. "I know a lot of superhero movies do digi takeover for all kinds of jumps and heroics," she says, "but I didn't like the way it looked for our film. So on Wonder Woman 1984, we used wire con- traptions for people taking off and doing stunts. Given the amount of time and effort it takes to get [action] shots to the point where they look right with digi-doubles, I find it's [costing] less to just shoot the action scenes [practically] in the first place." Like Jenkins, Rise of the Planet of the Apes director Rupert Wyatt Andy Serkis, top, plays Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Above, an actor rehearses a scene from the film with director Rupert Wyatt. W