SHOOT STORY | WELCOME TO MARWEN
LEAVING THE VALLEY The Polar Express and A Christmas Carol paved the way for director Robert Zemeckis’ latest feature, in which life-like dolls bring the story to life
WORDS JULIAN M ITCHELL / PICTURES UN IVERSAL PICTURES
R obert Zemeckis’ track record speaks for itself: a whole host of films in which he has pushed technology to the limits. It’s safe to say he has become the doyen of movie motion capture with films such as The Polar Express , A Christmas Carol and Beowulf . And don’t forget classic and more culturally significant films like the Back to the Future series, Forrest Gump , Contact and Who Framed Roger Rabbit – all VFX-heavy movies, but not totally reliant on motion capture (mocap). Mocap has taken us close to ‘re-skinning’ someone’s movements, applying the expression and personality of one person to someone or something else. But there’s a fly in the ointment – recreating the human face, something Robert was determined to nail for his new film Welcome To Marwen . The vacant, expressionless look on some motion-captured faces even has its own moniker: ‘uncanny valley’. MY HERO Into this world of revolutionary motion capture came DOP C. Kim Miles, whose
IMDB entry is littered with episodics but not so many features. Luckily for Kim, Robert Zemeckis’ children were avid watchers of one of those episodics, The Flash , and Robert soon arranged a meeting to talk about a possible feature film. “I was doing The Flash in 2017 when my agent called and said that Robert Zemeckis’ office had called and wondered if I was available and interested in doing a movie. Bob’s been a hero of mine my whole career, I’ve looked up to his work and his shot design, and had always tried to create shots that told stories like his. “My agent encouraged me not to count on anything and that he would call back if he hadn’t heard anything more. About 90 minutes later he calls me back and says, ‘They want you to look at a script tonight and also take a phone call tonight’. As I was on-set, we arranged a phone call for the following morning when Steve Starkey, Bob’s longtime producer, called and basically pitched me the movie. “I don’t think there was anything he could have pitched me that would have
IMAGES Robert Zemeckis pushes technological boundaries, breathing life into his inanimate creations.
22 DEF I N I T ION | FEBRUARY 20 1 9
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