P I NOCCH IO | DRAMA
They’re not supposed to look 100% real, they’re a mix between human and animal
wanting to achieve something that looked seamless; where viewers wouldn’t be able to tell what is digital and what is in-camera effects,” he says. HYBRID CHARACTERS The characters in Garrone’s world are created with an artisanal approach, blending prosthetics, makeup and VFX. The digital effects are blended with the makeup and layered over facial prosthetics, making the characters appear extraordinarily real. “The design of the characters is based on old paintings; they’re not supposed to look 100% real, they’re a mix between human and animal,” explains Demiris. Pinocchio is played by child actor Federico Ielapi. His woodified face really is very strange. It doesn’t look like that of any sort of boy, but rather a man or woman or cyborg in early middle age. “It’s why it didn’t matter if he was cast male or female,” explains Demiris.
The talking tuna, who befriends Geppetto and Pinocchio after he rescues them, closely resembles The Moon from The Mighty Boosh (or the French film, A Trip to the Moon , depending on your knowledge of cultural references), but is wonderful in its fairytale bizarreness. “Maurizio Lombardi, who was cast as the tuna, had makeup and prosthetics on his face, but his body was submerged deep into the water so it wasn’t visible. Then on his back he wore a prop that resembled the shape of a tuna, and this gave me the interaction I needed from the water to create the digital body.” Other zoomorphic characters include the snail, who acts as the maid to Pinocchio’s blue-haired fairy protector, and Grillo, the grasshopper mentor that Disney reimagined as Jiminy Cricket. With the exception of CG antennae, both wore makeup and prosthetics to aid their performance. “Coulier and I discussed which parts of these characters needed to be moving – and if they could be moved practically. The snail was designed to be huge, so we needed to be mindful of what she [Maria Pia Timo] would be experiencing and how the surrounding actors would be reacting,” explains Demiris. DIGITAL DONKEY The donkey that Pinocchio transforms into – as all naughty boys do – is composed of real and digital shots. “The transformation is digitally driven; with hands and arms morphing into hooves and legs. Then there’s a section which includes a real donkey, but he becomes completely CG when he is thrown into the ocean,” says Demiris. “I took a lot of photographs of the real donkey, depicting its different angles, to ensure the CG one was a perfect match. I then applied all the usual
LEFT Maurizio Lombardi, who played the Tuna, wearing the prosthetics for his performance
JUNE 2020 | DEF I N I T ION 1 1
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