Adam Savage's Week at Weta Workshop, Part 5
### Article: Behind-the-Scenes of Creating Special Effects for a Short Film
The following article is based entirely on the provided transcription. It captures the detailed discussions and insights shared during the production process of a short film involving special effects, creature design, and fight choreography.
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#### Preparing for Battle
During the interview, the team discussed their preparation for an upcoming fight scene. The conversation revolved around blocking out the action, ensuring safety, and making the fight look visually stunning on camera.
The script called for a complex fight sequence between two characters: one wearing armor and another dressed as a monster with prosthetics. Shane, an experienced stuntman and monster performer, was set to play the creature. The team emphasized how challenging it would be to coordinate movements while wearing bulky armor and prosthetics.
The director provided detailed instructions on how to stage the fight. For example, one shot involved a soldier entering a frame where a shadow of the monster had just passed. Luke was instructed to charge at Shane with a sword, only to have his sword knocked away mid-swing. The team worked out how Shane could throw Luke or make him fall in a way that allowed him to retrieve a dagger and continue the fight.
The discussion highlighted the importance of timing and visual storytelling. The director wanted to capture moments where the audience could feel the tension and fear, even if the character was outmatched. The team emphasized the need for precision in movements to ensure safety while making the action appear dynamic and realistic.
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#### Designing the Creature Suit
Sam, a talented sculptor, shared insights into designing the creature suit worn by Shane during the fight scene. The suit was inspired by a video game character named Catawba, who served as the final boss in the game. Sam explained how he brought this character to life by creating a full-body costume that incorporated iconic design elements, such as horns and bones protruding from the chest.
The team faced challenges in translating the digital character into a physical suit. The proportions of the creature were larger than a typical human, making it difficult to create a suit that could be worn comfortably. Sam explained how he sculpted the face and designed the costume to retain all the recognizable features of the character while ensuring it could move with Shane's body.
The suit was also required to be lightweight enough for Shane to wear during long shooting days. The team tested different materials and designs to achieve this balance, even though time constraints made the process challenging. Sam mentioned how proud he was of the final result, as people were impressed by its realism and attention to detail.
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#### Production Insights
The article concluded with a behind-the-scenes look at the production process. The director visited Portsmouth Film Equipment Rentals in Wellington to scout equipment for the next day’s shoot. He noted that the facility had previously been used for iconic films like *The Lord of the Rings* and *The Hobbit*.
The team prepared by renting gear such as external monitors, follow focus systems, a dolly slider, lights, and grip equipment like c-stands and apple boxes. The goal was to bring the script to life with high-quality visuals.
The director expressed excitement about working on a project that combined elements of film and live-action carnivals. He mentioned how impressed people were by the realism of the creature suit and the fight choreography, even in early stages of production.
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#### Conclusion
This article provides an inside look at the meticulous planning and creativity involved in producing a short film with complex special effects. From designing the creature suit to preparing for the fight scene, the team demonstrated their expertise in bringing a fantastical character to life. The discussions highlighted the challenges of blending practical effects with storytelling, ensuring safety, and creating visually stunning moments for the audience.
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This article captures the essence of the transcription, providing readers with a detailed account of the production process from start to finish.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwe saw some of your performance in it all right I saw your teeth you're so did you yeah they made silicone teeth yeah I just said I yam just didn't interview with a German TV company who's over here doing the Lord of the Rings thing and um yeah that's what I used to step throw down with that's it that's why before I hand that backhoe is decide you know what I just use it for German TV so I can hit one more day until we're shooting Joey butterflies are full effects exactly so I'm just about to go we're just about to go into the photo studio and block out the fight yeah so we have our location all set no we have seen our Sun corinader our monster and stunt coordinator we have to basically figure out the part of the script that's just you guys fight crook it's all says really complicate a complicated part yeah I'm looking forward this is something that I just love watching it I'm glad to be part of it and Shane has a tremendous amount of experience years of experience playing monsters and doing stage fighting so I'm really looking for this is like one of the things I've been most excited about learning and seeing in action is oh how do you get from here to there and how do we make that look good for camera and it's interesting his expertise and experience I mean it's gonna help with the fact that you were to be two people doing this but you can be wearing costume you're wearing armor and be bulky he's an emphasis prosthetics on except and he's gonna know kind of how to work with that to get the best fighting not every stuntman has dressed up as many many many different monsters and probably also dealt with throwing around people in armor yeah okay let's do it let's do it morning guys hello hello hello so which are we walking through this is just beat by beat yeah yeah okay so this first shot here it's first scene it's essentially just establishing shot soldier loop into into the frame the foreground for that first shot like almost like we're looking at we're just looking at a woods and then like a shadow passes a cross frame which is shame and then Luke enters frame from the other side you know so you realize you're seeing flipping timing Luke is looking at what you just saw is the shadows so it's clearly tell you a little bit of parallax movement exactly and we're not will to see anything we just see the shadow of shame okay and so then Luke enters frame looking at that you know looking at that shadow and that's when we cut to the reverse and you see the monster okay and then the monster we see the monster the monster screams this some type of yeah I saw you do that at the festival just like and that cuts to waking me up where I am yeah well I like pull the sword heading towards the what's going on yes basically just just just for simplicity purposes what I reckon we do is um just like a big slave and you're gonna feel perfect and now at this point you want to disappoint agent right right and so I feel like if you turn around to me and I'm standing here like I don't know what I'm going to encounter but you turn around on it holy moment and there's a pause and maybe you make this tiny fake towards me which shows just how like unready I am for this and then that makes me like oh it I just got to actually come in here so I come in for now this is where I'm trusting on your guy's expertise but like I I have to come I come in and a slash and you knock me away what well so the main for me at this point the main beats that we were thinking was we've got it at some point your sword gets knocked away as a slash my sword gets knocked away and then you have to be either thrown or fall to the ground near loop to get his dagger it was like the method made next okay just slip to the sword away is this our wall yeah fill that out as much as we want and that's what we need to eventually get to but we got all this room to play yeah yeah okay so just for me have you used a sword before yes yes good and how do you want this to look do you does your character do you want to look as if you you're kind of scared and trying to don't know what you're doing yeah I think scared but ready to try and deal with this even though I'm outmatched okay so you want to be quite a good swordsman also like medium sorta maybe okay so I reckon what we do first is just an informal you how much of it do you want to move around tuxedo you want a little bit of movement we want this to be the you kind of cinematic we would spend most of our time okay so so what I'll do then is I'll just have you first up instead of coming on with with the slash which is what I mean I could get you to come on with the slash and but what I think I'd rather have you do you're running it is this slash kind of stops you but I'd rather have you do is y'all have you come under way you're charging it lunging at me I'll just keep the side you run through okay yeah yeah that's uh great so that's yeah so we're standing here good stop yeah it's a good side and so what I want you do first is come up and just cuz believe it or not boy running you'd like this yes hard to see the blade right where I go and with the distance of it us and fooled at the back that does not look very technical if you run in like that okay so so from there you go and then when you go to charge II left out and then you lunge through I'm gonna stop Yeah right I'm pointing my body this way yeah all right and just remain in the stop when you stop bring it up this so I know when you're just starting and point I'm okay I'll do a swap across okay and then see they're coming up like that yeah so I go back to your best meeting Thank You Becky boom yeah I can remove and we'll come straight out when you okay yeah then what we'll discuss the around Rick man and then I'll come down for a slice actually you you go for a 45 down yeah yeah boom I'll come for 45 down you stick down all right and then way to do that I'll come back yep okay and what am i sir would you come back no you just put it out there's a bit distance so I can have yeah yeah but like boom yeah that one was right yeah you did the backsplash fix what favorite yep 45 and then from there so from there I reckon come back in down yeah and go again ok I'll see ya ok and then I fall out of frame or well actually you know what speed-up and sooner we knocking it out yeah do that backhand again ok actually no game ok ok that way boom yeah look I'll just take it out that's great yeah that's beautiful and then that way perfect roll of you light you look at me you see the dagger grab the dagger let's run that through one more time boom and then that way is looking forward take is here okay grab this dagger and then you can you can come up that way that's great okay so so looks is on you for the reading but you know yeah yeah yeah yeah alright so I mean so you fall off yeah or do you want to come down see the dagger grab the dagger and then Tom it so that I can I can see it yeah so it's like that so the plate up your forearm and you're like that can I come up grab you pick you up and then from there it's just the back edge the blade you pop the blade out that's the one that's all yeah that's great and then there way we can we can cheat it as well so we can see you pop that blade out mhm boom and you just come straight across of the blade never comes forward mm-hmm just pop it up what and that's when I come over yeah and I great right I grab like yeah grab and you've got a moon come like this and this is when you knock my basically you knock my arm off okay so I know this ah mph yep oh yes yep that's great that's absolutely great so when you put your hand I guess almost the way I was thinking about it - was it I mean if you're falling dead you're almost falling forward he stops because he wants to get that and now we see me spurt spurt spurt yeah right maybe I maybe the very next shot is that just like our soldier I back it back Marie of my arms and that's when I turn the camera and go is this too much blood and then yeah then when you try to step up twist and then to my right shoulder yeah but actually alright so turning oh I'm turning the other way here clockwise yes you are right right right so why are you talking go that way yeah yeah I'll pick you up and I'll do that so they're you know perfect which way to go yeah yeah and then that way you're facing yeah looking sort and then we can cheat it as well you you're landing in there that way too if we just want to shoot the dagger and you'll ending in to see the dagger you can already stance at like this you're just rolling right right into the friend and taken to the Franklin considerations you have won the armor it won't be a shirt so it will have a collar a hard color we also know your fingers are extensions yeah exactly so that grabbing yeah yeah which is which is which is why when I grab and I'll be and then and then and then also put pressure on Jonas also he knows which way to do okay yeah don't be nothing to grab there it'll be metal yeah yeah holding that's fantastic yeah then that way you can play or you see the Degas yeah grab it comet and palm you dig is easy to scrape is healing just twist it so the bike goes up then I pick you up yeah we'll do it tomorrow yeah remember yeah so we're here at what uh workshops sculpting room and Sam you're one of the very talented sculptors here I heard you work with a Jason to help design the creature that we're using for our short film but it wasn't made for the short film was made for a video game right yeah this was for the carnival for the LifeStraw in China mm-hmm and so I've been art director for the whole job and I sculpt this character named Catawba and also we bring this collectible to on you know life-size and bring something from the game screen to the real life real life so we've been help Jason to try and design the face and I actually sculpt the face as well oh you did yeah oh that's great Catawba is the name of the characters boss as I understand it right we didn't realize there's a whole history behind this character tell me a little bit about about the history because it's definitely bigger than a normal person at the scale so you can see them anyway talk about this character he is the final boss for this whole game so if you pull a this game you need to have long journey to meet this guy and the first time you meet him in the active file and in there he was hiding a human statue so he / done he pretend himself as a goat and a lot of people follow him but actually he hiding the hand of God and the very evil thing and try you know give people the wrong direction and make his Fuller psycho fight for him so he's very badass so first time will you meet him as a statue you pretty much broken the statue to show this guy his true form yeah and then he cured you mm-hmm you can't fight it with him he's too powerful and the you be you being served by Andrew and you need a star again to make you more powerful and in the act attend so it's long journey and your family to against with the sky and you're going to kill him in the wind this world saved the world yeah Adam doesn't win in our short film either and I don't know if he knows he's fighting the final boss so it's gonna give him a little more depth here yeah he needs the angel to save him so in designing a costume though right like this is many times size of a normal human how did you get the proportions what was the thinking and trying to get it as a creature suit something that Shane well yeah yeah this is a really good question I mean for the scale is another BIG's the public photo shop so everybody who working here as a sculpture we are dealing from this size to even wore a big site like a Gallipoli formation and for us I think for this job particular the most challenging is how you corporation a game character to a human body this is a mostly challenge so we you know the makeup always build up from you body you never can cut off the skin cut cut off the fresh so you have to think about how to use this guy to corporation with the shine and let him wear the suit same times you know how is a human feeling so he make him when he has smiling oh he's angry this looks so real rather than just something you know never change the experience you unite him actually performed yeah in in in that makeup and also still retain all the iconic elements of the character you know I see the horns that are on cross hair or the the bones coming out of the chest these are all things that made it - yeah final costume but of course things you can't do like hooves are like that the bend of a name the couple ways I mean it's very difficult if you have enough budget sure yeah you can do it but the challenges we have to hate the time for the carnival otherwise if you had you can finish your miss everything so we have to organize all of the time to think about how to finish it in the war shot schedule and and also you need to try and build it look amazing yeah one of the things we're most impressed by is how light the suit is because you guys designed it so that Shane could wear it for a full day essentially in many cases you know we were producing for film your on and off and on and off he was on our the whole time and we could tell and the the fight choreography he knew the physicality of that there his case is so good you when you know when he was in China in carnival this is all early tense time and Chinese tense and game carnival but still the first time would be we bring some you know film feeling into the carnival so compared with the cosplay which is they are really good yeah but look like us our work so scary yeah and so real yeah now it's in some footage of people being very impressed oh yeah never one having a lot of fun yeah a lot of fun hopefully gonna have some fun tomorrow as we bring the character into the into the production I don't know Adam will be scared he get acted thing yeah thank you so much Sam it's all eyes on wheelchair and what a beautiful character thanks a lot thank you yeah you drive time thanks well I never normal finished up over at what a workshop I drove over to that Portsmouth film equipment rentals in Wellington to do a tech scout for tomorrow's shoot now Portsmouth is the home to the film crew in use and films like The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and I got a chance to walk through the aisles and figure out exactly what we needed to bring the script to life we expect out a red dragon and built enough with accessories like external monitors and follow focus we've grabbed a dana dolly slider a couple lights and a small grip package that consists of c stands and Apple boxes we then tested everything out and loaded it up into the van in preparation for the big day tomorrow youwe saw some of your performance in it all right I saw your teeth you're so did you yeah they made silicone teeth yeah I just said I yam just didn't interview with a German TV company who's over here doing the Lord of the Rings thing and um yeah that's what I used to step throw down with that's it that's why before I hand that backhoe is decide you know what I just use it for German TV so I can hit one more day until we're shooting Joey butterflies are full effects exactly so I'm just about to go we're just about to go into the photo studio and block out the fight yeah so we have our location all set no we have seen our Sun corinader our monster and stunt coordinator we have to basically figure out the part of the script that's just you guys fight crook it's all says really complicate a complicated part yeah I'm looking forward this is something that I just love watching it I'm glad to be part of it and Shane has a tremendous amount of experience years of experience playing monsters and doing stage fighting so I'm really looking for this is like one of the things I've been most excited about learning and seeing in action is oh how do you get from here to there and how do we make that look good for camera and it's interesting his expertise and experience I mean it's gonna help with the fact that you were to be two people doing this but you can be wearing costume you're wearing armor and be bulky he's an emphasis prosthetics on except and he's gonna know kind of how to work with that to get the best fighting not every stuntman has dressed up as many many many different monsters and probably also dealt with throwing around people in armor yeah okay let's do it let's do it morning guys hello hello hello so which are we walking through this is just beat by beat yeah yeah okay so this first shot here it's first scene it's essentially just establishing shot soldier loop into into the frame the foreground for that first shot like almost like we're looking at we're just looking at a woods and then like a shadow passes a cross frame which is shame and then Luke enters frame from the other side you know so you realize you're seeing flipping timing Luke is looking at what you just saw is the shadows so it's clearly tell you a little bit of parallax movement exactly and we're not will to see anything we just see the shadow of shame okay and so then Luke enters frame looking at that you know looking at that shadow and that's when we cut to the reverse and you see the monster okay and then the monster we see the monster the monster screams this some type of yeah I saw you do that at the festival just like and that cuts to waking me up where I am yeah well I like pull the sword heading towards the what's going on yes basically just just just for simplicity purposes what I reckon we do is um just like a big slave and you're gonna feel perfect and now at this point you want to disappoint agent right right and so I feel like if you turn around to me and I'm standing here like I don't know what I'm going to encounter but you turn around on it holy moment and there's a pause and maybe you make this tiny fake towards me which shows just how like unready I am for this and then that makes me like oh it I just got to actually come in here so I come in for now this is where I'm trusting on your guy's expertise but like I I have to come I come in and a slash and you knock me away what well so the main for me at this point the main beats that we were thinking was we've got it at some point your sword gets knocked away as a slash my sword gets knocked away and then you have to be either thrown or fall to the ground near loop to get his dagger it was like the method made next okay just slip to the sword away is this our wall yeah fill that out as much as we want and that's what we need to eventually get to but we got all this room to play yeah yeah okay so just for me have you used a sword before yes yes good and how do you want this to look do you does your character do you want to look as if you you're kind of scared and trying to don't know what you're doing yeah I think scared but ready to try and deal with this even though I'm outmatched okay so you want to be quite a good swordsman also like medium sorta maybe okay so I reckon what we do first is just an informal you how much of it do you want to move around tuxedo you want a little bit of movement we want this to be the you kind of cinematic we would spend most of our time okay so so what I'll do then is I'll just have you first up instead of coming on with with the slash which is what I mean I could get you to come on with the slash and but what I think I'd rather have you do you're running it is this slash kind of stops you but I'd rather have you do is y'all have you come under way you're charging it lunging at me I'll just keep the side you run through okay yeah yeah that's uh great so that's yeah so we're standing here good stop yeah it's a good side and so what I want you do first is come up and just cuz believe it or not boy running you'd like this yes hard to see the blade right where I go and with the distance of it us and fooled at the back that does not look very technical if you run in like that okay so so from there you go and then when you go to charge II left out and then you lunge through I'm gonna stop Yeah right I'm pointing my body this way yeah all right and just remain in the stop when you stop bring it up this so I know when you're just starting and point I'm okay I'll do a swap across okay and then see they're coming up like that yeah so I go back to your best meeting Thank You Becky boom yeah I can remove and we'll come straight out when you okay yeah then what we'll discuss the around Rick man and then I'll come down for a slice actually you you go for a 45 down yeah yeah boom I'll come for 45 down you stick down all right and then way to do that I'll come back yep okay and what am i sir would you come back no you just put it out there's a bit distance so I can have yeah yeah but like boom yeah that one was right yeah you did the backsplash fix what favorite yep 45 and then from there so from there I reckon come back in down yeah and go again ok I'll see ya ok and then I fall out of frame or well actually you know what speed-up and sooner we knocking it out yeah do that backhand again ok actually no game ok ok that way boom yeah look I'll just take it out that's great yeah that's beautiful and then that way perfect roll of you light you look at me you see the dagger grab the dagger let's run that through one more time boom and then that way is looking forward take is here okay grab this dagger and then you can you can come up that way that's great okay so so looks is on you for the reading but you know yeah yeah yeah yeah alright so I mean so you fall off yeah or do you want to come down see the dagger grab the dagger and then Tom it so that I can I can see it yeah so it's like that so the plate up your forearm and you're like that can I come up grab you pick you up and then from there it's just the back edge the blade you pop the blade out that's the one that's all yeah that's great and then there way we can we can cheat it as well so we can see you pop that blade out mhm boom and you just come straight across of the blade never comes forward mm-hmm just pop it up what and that's when I come over yeah and I great right I grab like yeah grab and you've got a moon come like this and this is when you knock my basically you knock my arm off okay so I know this ah mph yep oh yes yep that's great that's absolutely great so when you put your hand I guess almost the way I was thinking about it - was it I mean if you're falling dead you're almost falling forward he stops because he wants to get that and now we see me spurt spurt spurt yeah right maybe I maybe the very next shot is that just like our soldier I back it back Marie of my arms and that's when I turn the camera and go is this too much blood and then yeah then when you try to step up twist and then to my right shoulder yeah but actually alright so turning oh I'm turning the other way here clockwise yes you are right right right so why are you talking go that way yeah yeah I'll pick you up and I'll do that so they're you know perfect which way to go yeah yeah and then that way you're facing yeah looking sort and then we can cheat it as well you you're landing in there that way too if we just want to shoot the dagger and you'll ending in to see the dagger you can already stance at like this you're just rolling right right into the friend and taken to the Franklin considerations you have won the armor it won't be a shirt so it will have a collar a hard color we also know your fingers are extensions yeah exactly so that grabbing yeah yeah which is which is which is why when I grab and I'll be and then and then and then also put pressure on Jonas also he knows which way to do okay yeah don't be nothing to grab there it'll be metal yeah yeah holding that's fantastic yeah then that way you can play or you see the Degas yeah grab it comet and palm you dig is easy to scrape is healing just twist it so the bike goes up then I pick you up yeah we'll do it tomorrow yeah remember yeah so we're here at what uh workshops sculpting room and Sam you're one of the very talented sculptors here I heard you work with a Jason to help design the creature that we're using for our short film but it wasn't made for the short film was made for a video game right yeah this was for the carnival for the LifeStraw in China mm-hmm and so I've been art director for the whole job and I sculpt this character named Catawba and also we bring this collectible to on you know life-size and bring something from the game screen to the real life real life so we've been help Jason to try and design the face and I actually sculpt the face as well oh you did yeah oh that's great Catawba is the name of the characters boss as I understand it right we didn't realize there's a whole history behind this character tell me a little bit about about the history because it's definitely bigger than a normal person at the scale so you can see them anyway talk about this character he is the final boss for this whole game so if you pull a this game you need to have long journey to meet this guy and the first time you meet him in the active file and in there he was hiding a human statue so he / done he pretend himself as a goat and a lot of people follow him but actually he hiding the hand of God and the very evil thing and try you know give people the wrong direction and make his Fuller psycho fight for him so he's very badass so first time will you meet him as a statue you pretty much broken the statue to show this guy his true form yeah and then he cured you mm-hmm you can't fight it with him he's too powerful and the you be you being served by Andrew and you need a star again to make you more powerful and in the act attend so it's long journey and your family to against with the sky and you're going to kill him in the wind this world saved the world yeah Adam doesn't win in our short film either and I don't know if he knows he's fighting the final boss so it's gonna give him a little more depth here yeah he needs the angel to save him so in designing a costume though right like this is many times size of a normal human how did you get the proportions what was the thinking and trying to get it as a creature suit something that Shane well yeah yeah this is a really good question I mean for the scale is another BIG's the public photo shop so everybody who working here as a sculpture we are dealing from this size to even wore a big site like a Gallipoli formation and for us I think for this job particular the most challenging is how you corporation a game character to a human body this is a mostly challenge so we you know the makeup always build up from you body you never can cut off the skin cut cut off the fresh so you have to think about how to use this guy to corporation with the shine and let him wear the suit same times you know how is a human feeling so he make him when he has smiling oh he's angry this looks so real rather than just something you know never change the experience you unite him actually performed yeah in in in that makeup and also still retain all the iconic elements of the character you know I see the horns that are on cross hair or the the bones coming out of the chest these are all things that made it - yeah final costume but of course things you can't do like hooves are like that the bend of a name the couple ways I mean it's very difficult if you have enough budget sure yeah you can do it but the challenges we have to hate the time for the carnival otherwise if you had you can finish your miss everything so we have to organize all of the time to think about how to finish it in the war shot schedule and and also you need to try and build it look amazing yeah one of the things we're most impressed by is how light the suit is because you guys designed it so that Shane could wear it for a full day essentially in many cases you know we were producing for film your on and off and on and off he was on our the whole time and we could tell and the the fight choreography he knew the physicality of that there his case is so good you when you know when he was in China in carnival this is all early tense time and Chinese tense and game carnival but still the first time would be we bring some you know film feeling into the carnival so compared with the cosplay which is they are really good yeah but look like us our work so scary yeah and so real yeah now it's in some footage of people being very impressed oh yeah never one having a lot of fun yeah a lot of fun hopefully gonna have some fun tomorrow as we bring the character into the into the production I don't know Adam will be scared he get acted thing yeah thank you so much Sam it's all eyes on wheelchair and what a beautiful character thanks a lot thank you yeah you drive time thanks well I never normal finished up over at what a workshop I drove over to that Portsmouth film equipment rentals in Wellington to do a tech scout for tomorrow's shoot now Portsmouth is the home to the film crew in use and films like The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and I got a chance to walk through the aisles and figure out exactly what we needed to bring the script to life we expect out a red dragon and built enough with accessories like external monitors and follow focus we've grabbed a dana dolly slider a couple lights and a small grip package that consists of c stands and Apple boxes we then tested everything out and loaded it up into the van in preparation for the big day tomorrow you\n"