notes from underground

John Gaeta, on Speed Racer:

We felt that the pivotal barrier in moving toward more expressive, less real, visuals was the perception that today’s audiences require photorealism from their effects in order to prevent a drastic disconnection from the photographed drama . . . but that notion is really connected to the reality of the story universe itself. The Wachowski’s were aiming at a whole different wavelength of narrative which they were attempting to port from their childhood imaginations. Besides, we wanted to have fun, and we wanted to do it across an entire picture.
Thus, we attempted to devolve away from the techniques of precision integration of all live and fx elements and evolve toward a more emotional-graphic underscoring of moments. Like things were done in older days of animation, before computers.

Overly wordy to be sure, and I can’t say how well I think they succeeded until I’ve seen the movie next week, but the man hit the nail on the head: photoreal effects shouldn’t necessarily be the target. If your audience goes in expecting to be transported beyond normal “photographed drama,” as in films like The Matrix, Sin City and evidently Speed Racer, they will be willing to buy in to effect that don’t conform to realistic cinema but instead strengthen the visual impact of the film because of the discontinuity and nonconformity between the photographic elements and the effects. Take a risk, and try to take your audience to a place they haven’t been before. Chances are that they will come with you.

Full interview with Gaeta about Speed Racer is available on VRMag’s website.