Behind-the-scenes production of terra nova

Earthlings invade Terra Nova

Speaking of the source of inspiration for the creation of Terra Nova, it can be traced back to the time when Aristo Tesser Bass, a Canadian filmmaker, was a dream-chasing teenager. After reading "War of the Worlds" written by H·G· Wells, this native child born in Montreal suddenly came up with an idea that requires reverse thinking, that is, what kind of story will be derived by switching all the roles in the story and letting human beings invade other planets and seize the living environmental resources? Tesser Bass still remembers that when he was reading a novel, he was completely attracted by the concept of "invasion" described in it-what the aliens showed was the same imperialist hegemonic behavior that had ever occurred in human history, including aggression, colonization and forced territorial expansion by violent means, but their motivation for doing so was that they did not have any deep basic needs. After observing and testing this type of story about "alien invasion" in an all-round way, Tesser Bass came up with an idea to break the established dogma. He said, "I find that I seem to be more interested in the motivation of alien invasion, rather than the response of human beings in the face of one crisis or another ... If the aliens in these stories have similar behaviors and wisdom with us, then why can't we switch the relationship between them? Let aliens show a socialized feature as much as possible, and then what kind of view will they have when they experience an invasion from the earth? One of the most important components of this story is to give the invaders-that is, we human beings some profound reasons or purposes, rather than simply describing them as the bad guys with inflated selfish desires. "

Aristo Mnis Tesser Bass immediately recorded the general structural framework of the story and wrote an outline, which became the cradle of Tirol Planet ... But all this happened in 2. During this period, Tesser Bass devoted all his energy to the production of short films and the specialization of visual effects, hoping to realize his wish of bringing Tirol Planet to the big screen one day.

In p>23, Terra, an animated short film written and directed by Aristo's Mnis Tesser Bass, won several short film awards including the Audience Award at Palm Springs International Film Festival, which quickly attracted the attention of the producer Keith Calder. At that time, he happened to be looking for an animated work for Snoot Entertainment, a production company specializing in shooting live-action movies. Calder recalled: "We reviewed the winners of all the short films at the film festival, and then saw the short film" Terra Planet "made by Bath, Tesser ... We all agreed that the idea of swapping the position of aggression and aggression between humans and aliens had a strong impact, and this short film was different from what we saw in the past.

after being incorporated by Snoot Entertainment, Aristo Mnis Tesser Bass, along with Keith Calder-including other producers such as Dane Allan Smith, Jessica Wu and Ryan Colucci, * * * With the development of the initial short film into a complete animated feature film, Jessica Wu Shuo: "We all like the script outline written by Tesser Bass before, and then we hired the screenwriter Evan Spiliotopoulos, who brought us fantastic content and made the whole story glow with a dazzling color again. When he was at Disney Company, Spirio Tupoulos had accumulated a lot of experience in writing scripts for cartoons, so he brought us not only an amazing script, but also his professional attitude and unparalleled tolerance. "

after discussion, several filmmakers decided to define the basic story concept of Terra Nova as the action adventure field of "saving family", and then convey the equally powerful potential social and environmental information: the reason why human beings have the desire to seize Terra Nova-"Terra Nova" means "Earth" in Latin is because they not only destroy the ecological environment on the earth. There is also a large-scale civil war between galaxies. Aristo Mnis Tesser Bass explained: "In the film, one of the reasons why humans are forced to give up the earth is that they have used up all the natural resources of this planet ... I think when Planet Terra finally goes to the cinema, a large part of its audience will be children, so for me, this is also a very important content that needs to be included. We must warn our next generation-and these have also been verified by the most respected scientists, that is, the purposeful transformation of the natural environment by human beings will lead to very dangerous consequences sooner or later. What Terra Planet shows is a hypothesis that represents the worst future: the earth is no longer suitable for living, and human beings have to go to other planets to find another home. " In the view of producer Keith Calder, he thinks that the best science fiction works are stories that can make people have real connections. Calder said: "We always regard Planet Terra as an animated film related to family, and I think the principle of protecting our planet promoted in it is a very important topic for any family in the world."

From impossible to possible

In p>24, several filmmakers who wanted to make Terra Nova into a movie learned that it was simply impossible to make a sci-fi action adventure epic without the process system of the film company. Completely adhering to a fearless and brave spirit, several filmmakers who are the first to get an electric shock have formed a powerful behind-the-scenes team. Together, they assisted Aristo Mnis Tesser Bass, who directed the film for the first time, and verified that these so-called "impossibilities" can all come true.

It seems that Aristo Mnis Tesser Bass, who graduated from the Montreal Film Academy, has become the director of Terra Planet for a long time. No one has questioned this. The producer Keith Calder said: "I think anyone who has seen the previous short film knows what an amazing craft Tesser Bass shows. After being remake into a movie, you will find that many contents in the short film will play a key role here.

In fact, Aristo Mnis Tesser Bass originally wanted to make a feature film into a realistic sci-fi epic, but when he learned that he could choose a more efficient CG animation, he naturally did not show any hesitation. Computer digital technology provided Tesser Bass with a real movie tool he needed, and successfully created the world full of psychedelic colors where the Terra people lived, including the huge spaceship and the spectacular "Star Wars" scene that the earth army took. At the same time, even the young audience could easily understand the basic story that the film wanted to convey.

From the very beginning, Aristo Mnis Tesser Bass had many special and clear ideas about the pictures that would be presented in Terra Nova. For example, he hoped that the characters in it would be vivid enough to be genuine, so that the audience would not regard them as one animated character after another, but as real people, just reflecting them with an animated quality. Similarly, when showing the angle of some pictures, Tesser Bass deliberately imitated the limitations and incompleteness that may be produced when the camera shoots live-action movies.

In order to highlight the dizzying visual effects, Terra Nova is also filmed in 3D. Aristo Mnis Tesser Bass said: "As far as this film is concerned, 3D is really a perfect technology, and the stereoscopic effect is a wonderful supplement and even improvement to the invasive quality of the alien's world, and it also increases the dynamic feedback and intensity of the war scene."

At first, Terra Nova was produced in 2D, but it gave people the impression that there was a second camera here, which recorded the edges and corners of the editable three-dimensional props, and 3D technology could be added to it at any time. Aristo Mnis Tesser Bass said: "When the finished film was shown on tour at major film festivals, it attracted great attention and attracted many film companies in terms of distribution. This allows us to' reprocess' the whole film and recolor it from another point of view or perspective, and the very personal production system we invented before also enables us to make the most precise control over the film, no matter where we want to add stereoscopic effects. "

Even in the process of "reprocessing", there are unique challenges at this stage. Aristo Mnis Tesser Bass still remembers the obvious anxiety and anxiety when they set up a channel connecting two completely different softwares-CG and 3D. Everyone is eager to combine the powerful influence of these two technologies. Tesser Bass said, "What we need to solve is a huge number of problems and worries. When we colored and rendered the first picture through this channel, we got amazing results. It can be said that we succeeded and everything was perfect. We even looked at each other in disbelief, as if to prove that we were not in a dream ... Then, I'm sure we made a 3D animated film that everyone thought was impossible. "

Making a movie is like a journey

In p>23, animator aristomenis tsirbas was told: "It is impossible to make an animated film outside the current studio system, even if it is a low-cost alternative science fiction film". The unbelieving Thubas led a group of equally unbelieving animators to start making Terra Planet in their own homes. They wanted to know whether it was really "impossible" to make an animation outside the studio. When producer Keith Calder joined the team, there was no problem to stop Thubas from making this film. Sebas, who graduated from the University of Montreal majoring in film and television, is not a mercenary director. On the contrary, he has his own ideas and personality. Card said: "Thubas is the kind of workaholic. He is very, very passionate about animation. In the film, his role is decisive, and he has worked hard for this film for seven years. It can be said that without him, there would be no Terra Nova.

In the production process, the animation production team used their talents and abilities to put Thubas' ideas on the screen one by one: the panorama of Terra Nova, human aircraft, space station, people ... Thubas used the same storytelling method as in the live-action movie. "I think only this kind of storytelling order is most acceptable to children," Thubas said.

At first, Thubas had a very different idea about the film. He wanted to restore the real world with CG animation. He hoped that his characters could move like real people. He had different requirements for the texture of joints and skin. In addition to the look and feel of the film, Thubas also has a unique pursuit of the camera angle. He said: "I hope the camera can really move and shuttle back and forth between the characters." Because it is an animation, I can set the camera's angle and moving direction at will. In this way, the movie is interesting to open. "

why shoot a 3-D movie when you have already shot a 2D animated short film? Thubas said: "The reason why I chose 3-D expression is because I found that if I used 2D animation, I would not be able to express the Taro planet in my heart. No matter the light or the setting of the plane seat, I feel stretched. Especially the camera position, in 2D animation, the camera position is very rigid, and it is impossible to shoot 36 degrees around the object, and I just like the flexible camera position very much, so 3-D is the best means of expression for me. " In any case, for Thubas, who found the expression tool, no matter how hard the project is, it is worth it.

Thubas also said: "3-D technology was born for shooting such animations. No matter the scenery in space or the ships, no matter the battle scene or the scenery on Terra Nova, 3-D technology perfectly displays them." In fact, at first, Thubas didn't intend to make the film into a 3-D cartoon. However, the 2D shooting method is difficult to show the director's thoughts. And 3D can completely set off the whole story, which is why Thubas decided to choose 3-D.. He said: "We made another film first to test whether 3D can meet our needs. As expected, 3-D is the expression we are looking for. After that, we began to use 3D to make cartoons on a large scale. And compared with 2D, one of the advantages of 3-D is that I can set more and more flexible seats, which greatly enhances the expressive force of the film. "

Challenges are everywhere

After finding the expression of 3-D, the crew faced a challenge, that is, the choice of technology and methods. The software they used in the animation process was LightWave 3D and the famous Maya. After numerous attempts and difficult explorations, the crew, who was out of the studio and studio, finally took the first shot on the ordinary desktop and Apple computer. "It was perfect," Thubas recalled. "I was so excited that I didn't know what to say. No one expected the effect to be so shocking and unforgettable. Before filming, we all looked at each other, because even the most professional engineers in the crew didn't have a score, and we didn't know whether this shot could be filmed. But, thankfully, it was a success. The next thing is much easier, and we took the last shot from the first shot according to the method we have explored. "

For directors who insist on shooting 3-D animation, nothing is more exciting than making pleasing 3-D animation. Producer Card said: "Thubas chose a challenging road to go. If he did two-dimensional animation, Thubas would be familiar with it, but he chose 3-D alone. From the final result, 3-D animation does show its own advantages, and the audience will easily enter Terra Nova.