PRODUCTION. SHAZAM! FURY OF THE GODS
MIGHTY MONSTER Interaction between Kalypso (Lucy Liu) and the dragon required detail-orientated CGI and the careful use of robotics for Ladon’s movement
it was going to do. For example, it had to fit on the street, meaning we had to get the wingspan inch-perfect to fit the scale.” Getting the right look and feel of the dragon was a major challenge, but it was far from the only one. Lucas Cuenca, DNEG build creature supervisor, says the team realised how the project would pan out once the initial design arrived. “We realised the dragon needed to have a more mythical creature-like appearance, as it felt too small at that point,” he explains. “Therefore, we began adjusting the proportions from there.” Charged with proportion design, Cuenca had many elements to consider. “How would the muscles work?” he says. “It doesn’t matter if the dragon is made of wood or not, it needs anatomy, even if you don’t see it – we needed to get the proportions right. When you go into close-ups in animation, it’s all about the movement, so it must look realistic.” MOVE LIKE A DRAGON Once the team had decided on the look and feel of the dragon, the next issue was movement. It wasn’t as simple as looking at previous attempts at the legendary reptilian creature. After all, modern cinematography isn’t as forgiving as it was when the original Godzilla movies of the fifties hit the big screen. “We had to try to hit the right balance because it’s kind of an amalgamation of different creatures,” Silva explains.
[David F Sandberg] had an idea of how the dragon should walk. He told us the feeling he wanted from it, but wasn’t sure how that would be portrayed.” Silva says that’s when his team grasped the autonomy. The decision was to make Ladon the dragon both powerful and menacing. Nevertheless, that was just the first step. The next one was actually making it happen. “How does that work in the creature design?” Silva says. “How about he moves like a lion, we make the head more like a lizard and get the tail and wings to move
a certain way? We proposed this to the director and it went back and forth.” When it came to moulding Ladon, Silva maintains that the most important thing was to make the dragon feel big, powerful and menacing. “The weight of the creature is something we put a lot of effort into,” he explains. “When the dragon lands on the street, we wanted to get a lot of interaction with the environment to communicate that weight and presence – it took a lot of work. We had to design the creature around where it’s going to be and what
“Getting the right look and feel of the dragon was a major challenge, but it was far from the only one”
BEHIND THE SCENES Dame Helen Mirren on-set as Hespera – the attention to detail reaching across disciplines
32. DEFINITIONMAGAZINE.COM
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