PRODUCTION WONKA
“When we were designing that world, we wanted it to have the feeling of the Pure Imagination scene in the Gene Wilder film. We analysed what they had done, and what came across was the fun and vibrant colour palette.” One of the most vibrant elements from Dahl’s novel and the two cinematic adaptations are the Oompa Loompas, the small humanoids who help Wonka run his factory. In the Wilder movie, they were memorably presented as orange- skinned, green-haired men in striped shirts played by actors with dwarfism. In Wonka , audiences meet just a single Oompa Loompa who is introduced
as the hero’s bête noire before their relationship thaws. Hugh Grant brings the character to life – with more than a little help from the VFX team. Grant says: “Paul King explained how much he loved the Oompa Loompas in those early films, particularly for being so unpleasant. He said, ‘whenever I think of someone really curmudgeonly and unpleasant, I immediately think of you’. And so that was his pitch.” Creating the character was a difficult process for all involved – including Grant, who referred to the head-mount camera he wore for certain takes as his own ‘crown of thorns’.
For Framestore, the starting point was the design of the Oompa Loompa: “Looking at the silhouette – the costume, the physique, the hair and even little things like the width of his trousers,” Page reveals. “Part of the process was working out what age we felt was right for the character. Paul wanted the Oompa Loompa to be younger than Hugh is in real life; I think we settled on the Bridget Jones 2 era for his age.” The actor’s face was then scanned, “which involves lots of photographs being taken at the same time from a scanning rig, and then photogrammetry is used to build geometry,” adds Page. “Within that process, Hugh would pull different expressions – and that rough data is rebuilt. Then, it needs a 3D sculptor to tighten it up and add the right details.” Alongside the digital work, the filmmakers also had to shoot Grant on-set interacting with Chalamet. “The problem there was Hugh is six foot tall, and the scene’s written as a tiny room. We could barely fit the cameraman in
WE WANTED TO HAVE THE FEELING OF THE Pure Imagination scene ”
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