How a 5-Person Team Made an Oscar-Winning Movie's Effects | WIRED

[00:00] hi i'm daniel kwan i'm daniel scheinert

[00:02] i'm zach stoltz we directed and i'm

[00:04] visually affected everything everywhere

[00:06] all at once

[00:07] oh first take

[00:13] daniel's new movie is about a chinese

[00:15] immigrant who finds herself in a sci-fi

[00:17] action film

[00:21] we ended up having almost 500 visual

[00:23] effects shots but we did that with

[00:24] mostly just five people which is kind of

[00:27] unheard of you look at any modern movie

[00:29] and you look at the visual effects

[00:30] credits and it's it just goes forever we

[00:33] ended up doing a lot of music videos

[00:35] together where you know music videos

[00:37] have no budget and very tight

[00:38] turnarounds you know our film is an

[00:40] independent film it's fairly low budget

[00:42] for the ambition of the script and this

[00:44] was the only way that we could pull it

[00:46] off it was so creatively fulfilling for

[00:48] us because we love to be in there in the

[00:50] weeds as well because that's just how

[00:52] we've always done things daniel's used a

[00:54] combination of special effects and

[00:55] visual effects to achieve the look and

[00:58] feel of their new film special effects

[01:00] their their team is all about the

[01:02] practical effects the onset puppets

[01:04] visual effects is all in the computer

[01:05] the movie had a lot of wire removal

[01:07] and a lot of like simple secret hidden

[01:10] visual effects and then a couple

[01:12] sequences that are full blown official

[01:13] effects craziness across the multiverse

[01:17] i've seen thousands of evolutions

[01:20] so evelyn has to zoom through a lot of

[01:23] universes to get to the desired one

[01:25] which is a kung fu universe in which you

[01:27] can fight we knew for a while that this

[01:30] sequence was going to be in the movie so

[01:31] i actually got just like a little camera

[01:33] like a little pocket camera that shoots

[01:35] 4k and i just like everywhere i went i

[01:37] would just kind of walk around and just

[01:39] film streets like this this shot of new

[01:41] york was just me going through new york

[01:43] the camera had like shutter angle and

[01:44] shutter speed setting so i just made it

[01:47] super blurry the order of events is dan

[01:50] shot a bunch of stock footage himself we

[01:52] cut it together then we cut that

[01:53] together

[01:54] acted it out ourselves to demonstrate it

[01:56] to michelle and she had to act i think

[01:59] in slow motion we tried different tempos

[02:01] then they placed michelle in front of

[02:03] led panels you know how on the star wars

[02:06] shows they have this massive led screen

[02:08] that is like basically a good background

[02:10] we had like the 99 cent store version of

[02:12] that three panels this way three panels

[02:14] this way and they're vaguely leds like

[02:16] really they're really big pixels but

[02:18] enough that we could then send um the

[02:20] video footage through these led screens

[02:22] they're very very

[02:24] minimal um and michelle could sit in the

[02:26] middle and pretend to be flying through

[02:28] it so we had these these plates all

[02:31] linked together and then what we did in

[02:32] visual effects was take it and say okay

[02:34] well let's add evelyn to this now and

[02:37] what does it look like when we're

[02:38] actually going by that fast what are

[02:40] some of the additional elements that

[02:41] we're going to add so we ended up toying

[02:43] around with a bunch of different streaks

[02:44] that we were doing like anime style

[02:46] motion lines that were just barely

[02:48] perceptible adding like some glass that

[02:51] would shatter when we went through and

[02:53] just adding as many things to it that

[02:55] made it feel like there was this extra

[02:57] energy to it without distracting too

[02:59] much from what she was actually doing

[03:02] and being able to see her actually going

[03:03] through this stuff

[03:04] now let's look at how the daniels did a

[03:06] practical effect the first time michelle

[03:09] yo does a verse jump where she connects

[03:10] to another version of herself in a

[03:12] different universe is in an office place

[03:14] an office cubicle she shoots back in her

[03:17] office chair and flies through a closet

[03:19] door what's happening and the fun thing

[03:21] about that shot is it's 100 practical in

[03:23] camera we didn't change anything we

[03:25] basically cranked open the shutter so

[03:27] you get these really nice streaks and

[03:29] then we pushed her slowly through the

[03:31] office she had to act like she was

[03:33] freaking out in slow motion we had

[03:35] hidden a leaf blower behind her yeah and

[03:37] so it's just her in slow-mo getting

[03:40] pushed on a wheelbarrow and then we just

[03:42] sped it up and she's actually in the

[03:44] space flying backwards which was fun to

[03:46] introduce verse jumping with something

[03:49] so practical and with the practical

[03:51] effects came a lot of puppets

[03:53] some more interesting than others so

[03:55] jason hamer and the hamer effects team

[03:58] built our raccoon and our hot dog hands

[04:01] they functioned like this but they were

[04:04] um

[04:05] made with

[04:06] super realistic uh skin and i think

[04:09] maybe had some hairs threaded in it was

[04:12] basically just a a glove that the

[04:14] actresses could um wear

[04:17] yeah basically he molded our actress's

[04:19] hands and then he just

[04:20] stuck hot dogs where the fingers were

[04:22] and that's it there's something about

[04:24] things like that being 100 practical

[04:26] that just makes shooting it

[04:28] so

[04:29] fun and and makes it so much easier

[04:31] because you the actors know exactly what

[04:34] they're reacting to and they can play we

[04:36] didn't have to have someone act opposite

[04:37] a tennis ball for the raccoon or act

[04:39] like they had weird fingers they just

[04:41] had them you know it's such a gift to

[04:44] ourselves and the whole crew

[04:48] the core thing that we all realize as

[04:50] we're doing visual effects on daniel's

[04:52] film is that it really does need to stay

[04:54] grounded in what is going on in the

[04:56] story the visual effects should never

[04:58] overtake that like there are moments

[05:00] when we have big visual effects stuff

[05:02] going on like there's something so

[05:03] charming about michelle gandri's work

[05:05] which we love and we were like we don't

[05:07] want this to be a movie where there's

[05:08] waves of blue energy like coming off of

[05:12] everybody as they punch each other like

[05:14] this is decidedly not

[05:16] that genre um

[05:18] we wanted to celebrate the magic of just

[05:20] like

[05:21] editing of a jump cut of something

[05:23] popping and being something different it

[05:25] goes back to like you know one of the

[05:26] first sci-fi movies a trip to the moon

[05:28] that's what they did just mash cuts and

[05:31] then smoke

[05:32] so simple we're just doing that with

[05:34] like cheating because we have after

[05:35] effects that's the only difference it

[05:36] really is all about the story 500 visual

[05:39] effects shots done with five guys in

[05:40] their bedrooms uh during the pandemic

[05:43] and you watch the movie and they're not

[05:44] perfect and they're not going for

[05:46] realism but they work and they're

[05:48] beautiful and very proud of them because

[05:49] they have their own unique style we need

[05:51] to be encouraging other independent

[05:54] filmmakers to understand this language

[05:56] because this is how all movies are going

[05:58] to be made now is like there's always

[06:00] going to be some

[06:01] elements of visual effects even when you

[06:02] can't tell because the technology has

[06:04] become so easy and effortless to use

[06:09] [Music]