Gareth Edwards On His Film, Monsters

hi this is sci-fi talk the podcast on how sci-fi fantasy horror and Comics help us explore our Humanity this is Tony tato a few years ago more than a few years ago now I believe it was 2010 I spoke to Gareth Edwards the director of a film called monsters at New York comping Hong we talked about how he made this particular film and how he used his background and special effects to craft story here's gyth Edwards what I like what about this film that appeals to me is the fact that the way you you kind of attacked it was the story where a lot of the stuff you did handheld and shot it almost gorilla style and it's really the Journey of these two people and what they experienced yeah I mean I think one of the biggest criticisms I mean at least I have when I come out of the a lot of the Blockbuster movies or s I love science fiction I can you know it's it's if I was to be trapped in a genre for the rest of my life I would race towards the science fiction room and and get trapped in there um but but a lot of modern science fiction not all of it but a lot of the modern stuff that that that Hollywood produces the biggest criticism you have when you leave the cinema or I have is is yeah it was an amazing spectacle it was a great looking film but I really didn't care about the characters and I wasn't engaged in the story and so my background is visual effects and I'm really the honeymoon is over with with visual effects like I I have a terrible analogy for it which I I don't know if I can say or not but it's like being a gynecologist it's like when you when you see that thing every day for work it it stops turning you on and so so I go to the movies and I just don't care about the graphics you know I just doesn't I I just want to get into the story like when people watch Pixar movies they don't people aren't running home saying oh it was brilliantly rendered and they're coming home saying how great the the story was and how it moved them or something so I really wanted to make a film that was a science fiction movie about giant monsters But ultimately you hopefully you know are affected on an emotional level because of because how you engage with the the characters in the movie there's more with Gareth Edwards on his film monsters in a moment and you actually shot it in different locations you actually you know I mean you kept you kept your crew to a minimum and you were able to go to different locations to really add some real yeah I mean um there's not any green screen sort of shots in the movie or anything like that I think I think the real trick to doing visual effects is is to try not to use them like if you can shoot it all in camera then do only use computer Graphics when you can't possibly shoot it for whatever reason and so every single shot in the movie even if there's CGI in it was based on a shot that I was that I filmed where else we were stood in a real place with real people imagining it was really there and there's something it's so hard to fake about that in the computer that cuz you get all the limitations and all the annoying things that don't quite work quite right when you're filming for real and that's good it makes things feel real and the problem with computer Graphics is you can you can finesse it and perfect it so much that it's So Perfect by the time it's finished or it's so exactly what the director wants that it just feels fake and so I kept saying it during the shoot it's like the perfect version of this film would be full of imperfection it's like that that's exactly what we were going for and I think you only get that by being in a real place and filming real things talk about your casting and and your actors and essentially what their story is in the film so um cast the movie I bet I mean the whole premise was we wanted to do a realistic monster movie and when I say that what I really mean is that it's amazing how quickly humans adapt to Crazy situations like I don't know you like you've got a mobile phone in your pocket 100 years ago that would have been magic the idea that you could talk to someone on the other side of the world through a device on your phone would be incredible but you don't we don't walk around with these phones thinking they're incredible we're just completely used to it so if aliens came um it would be amazing and incredible for what I don't know a month a year whatever and then eventually people would calm down and it'd be normal and that's where I wanted to set this film where it was part of everyday life and so we're going for this realistic feel and I'd seen this movie with um basically the Distribution Company uh in the UK that financed uh monsters they were also uh Distributing a a film that stared scoop mcir and he came across really well in this film that was very low budget but it looked great and in search of a midnight kiss it was called and I really liked him but I wanted a genuine couple at the heart of the movie cuz I know one of The Inspirations for our film in terms of the character element was uh like Lost in Translation that sort of thing about how you can be stuck with a member of of the opposite sex and it's it's not about what you do it's about what you don't do it's about what you can't do and you can't be together and I much prefer that's a much more poignant like way of doing a a love story if you will um than doing um everyone declaring how much they're in love with each other and all this sort of nonsense and so so I wanted to do the kind of experience that I've had when I've been traveling when you you like someone but you can't say it cuz it's too a claustrophobic environment that if you come out with it you're going to ruin it all and and so so that was at the heart of this and I wanted a real couple and um scoot was like well my girlfriend's an actress you know we could do the movie sort of thing and he sent through her picture and and and Whitney is so attractive she's like she'd done a few things for like FHM or GQ or whatever the magazines were a glamour kind of stuff I was like I don't want to I don't want her like she's too perfect like I want to do a realistic film and and then I met her and and she's so not what you expect and she's and so she was so so Keen not to play that kind of role that that I kind of fell in love with Scoot and her and it was like God if I could just get part of these guys on screen then then like the one of the hardest problems with this film is fixed and and so in terms of their characters I was looking for initially there were going to be Backpackers like the way that our world works in the film is that it's an annual migration of these creatures once a year they they kind of roughly go through this part of the world as as they migrate and they trash accidentally um they attack certain cities and places along the way and people die and so it's very much like hurricanes in the way that they catch people out so the story was going to be about two Americans trying to get back home through this area and initially it was Backpackers but I started thinking well the reality is if you were Backpacker there's no way you would go on this journey you would just stay put no matter how bad it was and so I turned one of the guy the guy into a war photographer so he's like a photo journalist and so he won wants to go to the problem he wants to get these pictures and the reason he's stuck with this girl is cuz it's his boss's daughter and so his career hangs on getting this girl back home but really what he would prefer to be doing is finding these creatures and taking pictures of them and trying to you know make his career and so that was like the initial premise and then the whole thing basically is is very much a road movie it's their Journey back to the States as they try to get home I'll have more with Gareth Edwards talking about his movie monsters in just a moment let's get back now to Gareth Edwards talking about his film monsters that's fantastic and I like the fact that you you know you that you put character development in this in this plot and that you know that the special effects aren't the star of the movie I think that's so key uh but that being said how how much as far as your effects being that's your experience how much did you actually designed uh for the film and did you pretty much use what you thought or did you make some changes in terms of the creature design I didn't I didn't know what the hell they looked like when we were filming it I had to pretend to the actors I did because they're like what the hell is this Gareth what are we looking at and I would and I felt reassured that when they made Close Encounters they didn't know what the uh the mothership looked like or anything like that so I kind of thought well this this is this you know if it worked for Close Encounters it's going to it's fine for me and so um it was the biggest thing hanging over me whilst we were in post production was uh what the hell these creatures look like and how the hell am I going to do them and um I spent all my spare time if I was ever on the phone or just waiting for the editor or I just do the little sketches of preaches and I collected hundreds of them and at the end of this whole process I I shortlisted it to about 140 different images that I liked that I was all happy with and we had the world's craziest beauty pageant where I presented them to the production company and I put them all on the on these boards and we went in and and I wanted them to pick one for me to cuz I couldn't see the woods for the trees I was like which one it's cool and um and they couldn't pick either and so there was one that I sort of stood out as my favorite and and so um but it's a cliche but the creatures evolved in the computer it was what looks good on paper doesn't look good in three dimensions and then what looks good in three dimensions doesn't look good when it's lit then what looks good when it's lit doesn't look good when it's animated then what looks good when it's animated doesn't look good when it's in the final shot and so it was this chicken and egg constantly going back to the design changing the look and I kept doing this and I was supposed to to be doing nearly two shots a day to keep on schedule and I was achieving that over 5 months um cuz there's 250 shots in the film and then I got to my first creature shot and it took two months before I did a single one cuz of this chicken and eggs situation I was just it just took me forever to get to that point where I was like okay that's that creature that that that that's good now as far as your post production how long did that take you um there was 8 months pretty much editing and then we picture locked and then there was 5 months of me doing the visual effects then I guess you know the usual kind of month to do sound design and and the grade and the whole final polishing that it goes on and um but from the day I walked into the production company and said I want to do a monster movie to the day we had our world premere um was about a year and a half and as far as monsters is it making the film festival circuit or there is some showings that are being shown in some of the major markets actually yeah we've had we've been we done really well we we we premiered it South by Southwest and then since then we've you know ended up I've done like Edinburgh Korea Rio Toronto uh La uh Torina laano uh Melbourne you know it's like the it's the world's they actually said the producers kept telling me as we were making it like Gareth anywhere in the world you want to go you'll get to go just pick a film festival you know and they've been right it's just been it's been the most insane way to travel and meet people and it's it's it's a it's a side to film making that I never ever thought about which is you think you finish a film you hand it over and then you start the next one but there's this good six Monon or so period of promotion and and doing press interviews and doing film festivals and it's something I never ever thought about you know it's only just occurred to me and it does affect you a bit and and it will certainly affect the way I approach the next film and like I'll have all my answers ready next time you know I won't be caught out so easy yeah welcome to the film business this is what it's all about promotion is so much a part of it but uh as far as the DVD release are there some goodies that we be able to look for when that happen oh for sure I mean we're going to um when we were filming we had a guy flew out for about 2 weeks and filmed all the load of behind the scenes stuff and we also had little pocket cameras that um that we shot the whole time so we got a lot of coverage of of of all the how we Shot the movie and um I'm going to break down how I did all the visual effects and so so I'm not sure how long the making of will be it'll be as much as we can fit on the DVD but um there's so much to say about how we did this cuz we approached it quite differently to normal film um and I just want to I just want to get as much out as we can because I I mean to me the biggest success of this film is if it inspires other filmmakers to just pick up a camera and go make a movie because that's what kind of we did and it and it completely worked out for us so so I'd highly recommend it well I I do too I think it's a really cool movie and I do like that it's very character driven and not just you know a monster wrecking Havoc I've seen some bigger films that go in that direction and I'm I'm kind of tired of it too uh what's is there anything else on the table you have after monsters that you're working on yeah I mean when you finish a film um what happens is if if it blips on the radar of Hollywood somehow there's like a slight little blip um you you kind of go end up going over and I I I got um I was very lucky on the night of our world premiere there was a a gentleman in the audience uh called Mike Simpson from WME and and uh I ended up getting signed with him and um and since then like it's been nonstop it's like I did about a two we stay in La where I met probably about 100 people and you literally did I did 50 meetings and it's what you've always dream of when you're a kid like the idea of going into Universal Studios or Warner Brothers or Paramount or Sony or whatever and um and being a filmmaker and driving into the lot and getting your little badge and walking up to an exec's office and all this sort of thing and it was the most surreal two weeks ever and and off the back of that what happened is I'm basically uh Teo be MTO who um the Russian filmmaker who's about to do um Abraham Lincoln vampire Hunter with Tim Burton and that um he has been very very kind and supportive and he is financing me to develop and hopefully we'll make uh the next idea I have which is a science fiction it's a we have a tagline type thing which is very vague on purpose which is uh an epic human story set in a futuristic world without humanity is what we say and there's only a few things that can mean um and so uh as soon as this calms down properly and and the film is out I'll hopefully get chance to sit down and write it for for proper and we can start trying to make it um certainly uh I'm really excited that's what's so strange is is a year ago or whatever it was like flying over on the plane the most inspiring thing is like listening to music and walking around I listen to film soundtracks and I picture films I want to make one day and just recently occurred to me it's like I can actually make these you know what I mean it might actually happen now and it's so exciting to to be in a position where where whatever you picture maybe you could you can go and create it and and so and I hope that what monsters shows is that even without any Hollywood backing you can still still go off and make a movie in your mind you know um with just thousands of pounds not necessarily Millions well you're definitely a talent I mean you could see that in what I saw and uh I'm looking forward to this film and seeing I think a whole lot more from from thank you very much really appreciate it thank you I you do Twitter a lot right I do Twitter I've been twittering you a lot I've seen it I've seen it I know your logo oh thank you I don't do Twitter um i d and do it there's someone on there that is that people think me is me and it isn't I don't know who it is but um I didn't do it and uh but I watch I'm a spectator but I have been twittering you a lot no I know is it the it's the kind of circular thing with the like it's a green yeah there is right there there you go see I know this I know this okay than a lot I'll keep twittering no that's great that's great thank you I do I do say it special thanks to Magnolia pictures and New York ComicCon monsters is available wherever you get your digital content in addition of course he did Rogue one a Star Wars story as well and is working on some other projects as we speak until next time on sci-fi talk this is Tony tato thanks so much for listening