[0:00] hi i'm daniel kwan i'm daniel scheinert
[0:02] i'm zach stoltz we directed and i'm
[0:04] visually affected everything everywhere
[0:06] all at once
[0:07] oh first take
[0:13] daniel's new movie is about a chinese
[0:15] immigrant who finds herself in a sci-fi
[0:17] action film
[0:21] we ended up having almost 500 visual
[0:23] effects shots but we did that with
[0:24] mostly just five people which is kind of
[0:27] unheard of you look at any modern movie
[0:29] and you look at the visual effects
[0:30] credits and it's it just goes forever we
[0:33] ended up doing a lot of music videos
[0:35] together where you know music videos
[0:37] have no budget and very tight
[0:38] turnarounds you know our film is an
[0:40] independent film it's fairly low budget
[0:42] for the ambition of the script and this
[0:44] was the only way that we could pull it
[0:46] off it was so creatively fulfilling for
[0:48] us because we love to be in there in the
[0:50] weeds as well because that's just how
[0:52] we've always done things daniel's used a
[0:54] combination of special effects and
[0:55] visual effects to achieve the look and
[0:58] feel of their new film special effects
[1:00] their their team is all about the
[1:02] practical effects the onset puppets
[1:04] visual effects is all in the computer
[1:05] the movie had a lot of wire removal
[1:07] and a lot of like simple secret hidden
[1:10] visual effects and then a couple
[1:12] sequences that are full blown official
[1:13] effects craziness across the multiverse
[1:17] i've seen thousands of evolutions
[1:20] so evelyn has to zoom through a lot of
[1:23] universes to get to the desired one
[1:25] which is a kung fu universe in which you
[1:27] can fight we knew for a while that this
[1:30] sequence was going to be in the movie so
[1:31] i actually got just like a little camera
[1:33] like a little pocket camera that shoots
[1:35] 4k and i just like everywhere i went i
[1:37] would just kind of walk around and just
[1:39] film streets like this this shot of new
[1:41] york was just me going through new york
[1:43] the camera had like shutter angle and
[1:44] shutter speed setting so i just made it
[1:47] super blurry the order of events is dan
[1:50] shot a bunch of stock footage himself we
[1:52] cut it together then we cut that
[1:53] together
[1:54] acted it out ourselves to demonstrate it
[1:56] to michelle and she had to act i think
[1:59] in slow motion we tried different tempos
[2:01] then they placed michelle in front of
[2:03] led panels you know how on the star wars
[2:06] shows they have this massive led screen
[2:08] that is like basically a good background
[2:10] we had like the 99 cent store version of
[2:12] that three panels this way three panels
[2:14] this way and they're vaguely leds like
[2:16] really they're really big pixels but
[2:18] enough that we could then send um the
[2:20] video footage through these led screens
[2:22] they're very very
[2:24] minimal um and michelle could sit in the
[2:26] middle and pretend to be flying through
[2:28] it so we had these these plates all
[2:31] linked together and then what we did in
[2:32] visual effects was take it and say okay
[2:34] well let's add evelyn to this now and
[2:37] what does it look like when we're
[2:38] actually going by that fast what are
[2:40] some of the additional elements that
[2:41] we're going to add so we ended up toying
[2:43] around with a bunch of different streaks
[2:44] that we were doing like anime style
[2:46] motion lines that were just barely
[2:48] perceptible adding like some glass that
[2:51] would shatter when we went through and
[2:53] just adding as many things to it that
[2:55] made it feel like there was this extra
[2:57] energy to it without distracting too
[2:59] much from what she was actually doing
[3:02] and being able to see her actually going
[3:03] through this stuff
[3:04] now let's look at how the daniels did a
[3:06] practical effect the first time michelle
[3:09] yo does a verse jump where she connects
[3:10] to another version of herself in a
[3:12] different universe is in an office place
[3:14] an office cubicle she shoots back in her
[3:17] office chair and flies through a closet
[3:19] door what's happening and the fun thing
[3:21] about that shot is it's 100 practical in
[3:23] camera we didn't change anything we
[3:25] basically cranked open the shutter so
[3:27] you get these really nice streaks and
[3:29] then we pushed her slowly through the
[3:31] office she had to act like she was
[3:33] freaking out in slow motion we had
[3:35] hidden a leaf blower behind her yeah and
[3:37] so it's just her in slow-mo getting
[3:40] pushed on a wheelbarrow and then we just
[3:42] sped it up and she's actually in the
[3:44] space flying backwards which was fun to
[3:46] introduce verse jumping with something
[3:49] so practical and with the practical
[3:51] effects came a lot of puppets
[3:53] some more interesting than others so
[3:55] jason hamer and the hamer effects team
[3:58] built our raccoon and our hot dog hands
[4:01] they functioned like this but they were
[4:04] um
[4:05] made with
[4:06] super realistic uh skin and i think
[4:09] maybe had some hairs threaded in it was
[4:12] basically just a a glove that the
[4:14] actresses could um wear
[4:17] yeah basically he molded our actress's
[4:19] hands and then he just
[4:20] stuck hot dogs where the fingers were
[4:22] and that's it there's something about
[4:24] things like that being 100 practical
[4:26] that just makes shooting it
[4:28] so
[4:29] fun and and makes it so much easier
[4:31] because you the actors know exactly what
[4:34] they're reacting to and they can play we
[4:36] didn't have to have someone act opposite
[4:37] a tennis ball for the raccoon or act
[4:39] like they had weird fingers they just
[4:41] had them you know it's such a gift to
[4:44] ourselves and the whole crew
[4:48] the core thing that we all realize as
[4:50] we're doing visual effects on daniel's
[4:52] film is that it really does need to stay
[4:54] grounded in what is going on in the
[4:56] story the visual effects should never
[4:58] overtake that like there are moments
[5:00] when we have big visual effects stuff
[5:02] going on like there's something so
[5:03] charming about michelle gandri's work
[5:05] which we love and we were like we don't
[5:07] want this to be a movie where there's
[5:08] waves of blue energy like coming off of
[5:12] everybody as they punch each other like
[5:14] this is decidedly not
[5:16] that genre um
[5:18] we wanted to celebrate the magic of just
[5:20] like
[5:21] editing of a jump cut of something
[5:23] popping and being something different it
[5:25] goes back to like you know one of the
[5:26] first sci-fi movies a trip to the moon
[5:28] that's what they did just mash cuts and
[5:31] then smoke
[5:32] so simple we're just doing that with
[5:34] like cheating because we have after
[5:35] effects that's the only difference it
[5:36] really is all about the story 500 visual
[5:39] effects shots done with five guys in
[5:40] their bedrooms uh during the pandemic
[5:43] and you watch the movie and they're not
[5:44] perfect and they're not going for
[5:46] realism but they work and they're
[5:48] beautiful and very proud of them because
[5:49] they have their own unique style we need
[5:51] to be encouraging other independent
[5:54] filmmakers to understand this language
[5:56] because this is how all movies are going
[5:58] to be made now is like there's always
[6:00] going to be some
[6:01] elements of visual effects even when you
[6:02] can't tell because the technology has
[6:04] become so easy and effortless to use
[6:09] [Music]