|
|
Henry Selick
|
|
In his Digital Cinema Summit Super Session Monday, "Blending Classic and Digital Techniques for a Timeless Experience" Henry Selick, director of films including "The Nightmare Before Christmas," "James and the Giant Peach" and, most recently, "Coraline," described his stop-motion animated filmmaking style in terms of delivering the warmth of a vinyl recording in the digital MP3 music world.
Stop-motion work, Selick's in particular, vibrates with the energy of the artists who crafted it and is enhanced by the medium's inherent imperfections because they enforce the idea of a real, physical world you can touch.
While adhering to the long-established tenets and aesthetics of stop-motion animation — crafting and moving just about everything by hand — the "Coraline" production moved the process into the digital age, "embracing the new to keep the classic alive," Selick said.
The director, screening clips from "Coraline," explained that his technology-enabled brand of stop-motion animation takes advantage of new technologies such as facial animation, motion-controlled camera rigs with 4K digital motion picture cameras and rapid-prototyping 3D printers, resulting in "a spectacle that seems modern, not a quaint, old approach to filmmaking."
Offering audiences what Selick called "a fully immersive 3D moviegoing experience," "Coraline" is the first stop-motion animated feature to be shot entirely in stereoscopic 3D. It is significant that not only is the film presented in 3D in theaters (although it can be converted to 2D film or digital prints), it was conceived from the start as a 3D film.
"Coraline" was shot, Selick explained, in 4K "with little 3D digital cameras from Redlake." Using a precise motion-control rig comprising a single 3D camera, the same frame is shot twice, once for left eye and once for right, before the crew moves on to the next frame.
Throughout the course of the film, based on an illustrated book by author Neil Gaiman, Coraline discovers an "Other World' that encompasses an alternate version of her life. On the surface, this parallel reality is similar to her real life, only better. But when her off-kilter, fantastical visit turns dangerous, Coraline musters all of her resourcefulness and bravery to get back home.
The two worlds in "Coraline" are both seen in 3D, Selick said. "In the world that Coraline lives in, we made the sets more claustrophobic." Through a clever use of 3D stereoscopy, the real-world sets feel compacted with very little depth of field, like a stage play.
"When she gets into the Other World, the sets may look similar but we built them deep and more dimensionally. We also tone up the color a bit and move the camera more. In her real life, the camera's locked and it's like a series of drab tableaux. So the Other World feels more 'real' to her — and to the audience."
"How we embraced 3D and used it as a storytelling tool really enhanced this movie," Selick said. "With 'Coraline,' we are using 3D to bring viewers inside the worlds that we create and convey the energy that our miniature sets exude for real."