Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1097515
DGA QUARTERLY 61 PHOTOS: (TOP) EVERETT; (BOTTOM) PHOTOFEST For Rise, the New Zealand effects house developed technology that enabled Wyatt to direct performers in mo-cap suits on exterior locations with natural lighting. Filming in Vancouver and San Fran- cisco, Wyatt became accustomed to the high-tech accoutrements. "There was this sort of NASA-like preparation every day when the actors put on their mo-cap suits and got synched to the computer programs," he says. "But once they stepped onto the set, I directed them just as I would any other live-action actor." Wyatt spent about 10 months in postproduction, incorporat- ing WETA's painstakingly rendered composites into the final cut. "I'm a big believer in delegation, provided you have the right team, which WETA certainly was," Wyatt says. "In post, we had to devel- op shots with WETA that were faithful to the performance yet were also anatomically correct. That's why I left the actual texture of the fur, and the hair, and the anatomical builds very much in their hands. But as the director, I followed the same set of rules on Rise as I would on a live-action show. How do we find the performance? How do we find the narrative within the edit and how do we cut that?" Colin Trevorrow made the leap from low-budget live- action to tentpole spectacle when he steered Jurassic World to nearly $1.7 billion in worldwide box office. His previous movie, Safety Not Guaranteed, boasted a grand total of four visual effects. Jurassic World featured more than 2,000. But in rebooting the fabled dinosaur franchise for 21st century mov- iegoers, Trevorrow recognized the balance between spectacle and character was key. "My background as a writer of stu- dio movies prepared me for Jurassic World as much as Joe Letteri and visual effects supervisor Dan Lemmon played a critical role in making the performances pop on screen. "For me, the most magical moment of the entire process happened early into postproduction," Wyatt recalls, "when Joe showed up at the Fox lot and said, 'I've got something to show you guys.' They'd been beavering away in New Zealand and prioritized one particular shot of Andy Serkis as Caesar when he's behind bars in the primate facility. In the basement screening room of Building 88, Joe put up a three-second shot on a loop. Everyone just sat there with their mouths on the floor because we saw this ape, 100 percent CG-built, yet it was completely Andy Serkis with this extraordinary emotional sentience. We watched Caesar's eyes sweeping from left to right watching a human character pass by his cage, and at that point, everybody thought, 'Okay, we have a movie.'" Colin Trevorrow, far left, confers with actors Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard on the set of Jurassic World; below, Pratt interacts with the velociraptor "Blue." "As the director, I followed the same set of rules on Rise as I would on a live-action show. How do we find the performance?" —Rupert Wyatt