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movie making
How do directors conceive and
think through monster and action
scenes?
JJ Abrams, Writer-Director
every scene has its own unique requirements. This is true
whether it's a comedic scene, a still scene, or a busy scene, a
scene that's all in-camera vs. one that requires visual effects
and CGI. As you break down a scene with increasing resolution,
the first thing to do is figure out what you want the
sequence to be and how it serves the story. once you figure
out what the scene is supposed to do, your mind races trying
to figure out what would be cool.
In a sequence with a creature, first and foremost you want
to approach it from as visceral a place as possible. You need
to figure out what the endgame of the sequence is. once you
figure that out and what you're going to do, then the fun becomes
how you are going to do it. You often begin to come up
with a sequence, but what you discover is that a dozen shots
that you thought were critical are actually superfluous. Part
of what works is sketching it out, either yourself or with a
storyboard artist.
In terms of visual effects shots, you need to really be as
practical as you are inspired. Which means you need to be
able to tell the crew: what we need to build, what we're going
to shoot live, what we're going to do in-camera, which scenes
are going to be entirely CG, which are going to be filmed in
CG, where we're going to create sets, where we're going to be
creating a piece of the creature physically with special effects,
etc.
A monster scene is like a magic trick; you're saying "I want
to put a Testarossa on the stage, I want to cover it with a
cloth, and I want to rip the cloth away, and I want there to
be a '67 VW bug." once you know what effect you are trying
to achieve, then you start getting into the the mechanics and
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