Backstage Interview Transcript | 81st Academy Awards
Achievement in visual effects
CATEGORY: Achievement in visual effects
INTERVIEW WITH: Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton and Craig Barron
FILM: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
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Q. This was a really hard road for you guys. You went through such hard times I'm wondering if you could talk about what this means, the struggles you went through getting back to this level again?
A. Eric (inaudible) you know after TITANIC when we're on top of the world, then WHAT DREAMS MAY COME, we were part of that and then from there it seems to have been kind of a drought. The companies have gone through many changes. And recently in the last few years have been bought out and a major re vamp. I'm so happy with what's happened with Cliff Plumber taking over and Mark Miller coming on board. Certainly (inaudible) whose been there for many years tremendous management team its all good from here we're back.
Q. What were some of the challenges that you faced doing this movie? When did you realize that you had something really special?
A. I guess for me I realized that we had something special when I got this. Up till then I
A. Tell the truth.
A. I don't know the truth. I mean I think we having worked on the film we had a very critical eye of it so until I guess last night, the SciTech awards and tonight. At least a number of us. We're always wondering how the public was going to view it.
A. And the voters, because we're so close to it. We know what we've done but maybe it's been said that maybe the work was done too well, so that the voters wouldn't really know what was done and we couldn't tell where our work stopped and Brad took over. Even people that we were competing against couldn't tell so, if they didn't know, how would they vote?
A. For me I think the thing is that you know scripts are different and stories are different but the way films are made are pretty much the same. When we learn about what they had in mind for this film we knew it was going to be special. It really pushed the state of the art, of traditional visual affects and created whole technologies that allowed him to make this film so he inspired us to do our best work. Thank you.
A. I've been doing this for 33 years. I'm the lone physical effects man here. The visual effects on it were stunning. That's what got all the attention. We support and build all the rigs that make the background for all of this but when the visual effects are so good you can't tell it from real versus visual effects and I know hundreds of members in the Academy and they couldn't tell the difference. And that alone is when I knew something special was happening here.
Q. Congratulations.
A. Thank you.
Q. With this film, you just won an award for visual effects that were very much based on performance of the character. That performance is nominated to the best actor category with Brad Pitt. His nomination what does it say about the direction that visual effects is going with regard to the techniques that you used on this film?
A. Well, I think for me, when I saw the Screen Actors Guild Awards and that Brad was nominated for and they showed one of the shots that was our shot, to me it said that you know, not only was the work accepted but clearly Brad's performance that came across and that just tells me that, you know, what we've done here is just taking an actor's performance and we've augmented it with the look, but ultimately it's a still the actor that has to come across and portray the character and Brad did an amazing job doing that.
A. I would say that there is, in my opinion, at least at this point, no way to do this kind of thing without the actor and in this case, Brad, who was absolutely amazing to work with.
Q. Congratulations to you guys. Let's go back to the nomination date back in January to find out that you're up against THE DARK KNIGHT and IRON MAN and now you stand here with the Academy Award. Go back to nomination day and tell us what you're thinking.
A. Well, I mean honestly, the work on THE DARK KNIGHT and IRON MAN is amazing, so I thought I mean to me I felt it was a level playing field. You know I didn't want to believe that our work was better. I just wanted to let everyone else decide who was the better which was the better work. I know we broke some new ground but I wasn't sure how that would be perceived. It was really on the film hadn't been out but about a month, so you know, I didn't want to believe we could actually win. I've been on pins and needles up until they had announced us.
A. We obviously loved the summer blockbuster visual effects movies we work on them all the time. THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTONS is very special. It's the type of visual effect that doesn't attract attention to itself. Of course in Hollywood it's all about getting attention so we're very honored to be acknowledged for all that kind of
A. This is the kind of film the nomination came out and the work that was done on face replacement and how it all worked, it's actually ground breaking. It's going to change how films are made in future, so we knew we had a chance. The other work was phenomenal. This was the only one that actually made a significant difference in the films that I've seen in the past 33 years.
Q. Congratulations. Give us a little taste of where we go from here both with CGI (inaudible) and with visual?
A. Well I think maybe we've shown the other visual effects companies what could be done. I think we'll see scripts come off shelves that maybe have sat there for a long time until, you know, someone believed it could be done. It's not too dissimilar from when we first saw those dinosaurs walk in JURASSIC PARK and everybody believed, yeah, we could make dinosaurs walk. We can make amazing creatures. Now that we've done a Polaroid human, I think others can bring some great characters to life that have been sitting on shelves with people directors not knowing how to make those films. I think that's already happening.
A. Thank you for mentioning visual environments. You can create any environment and tell a story within it now, and make it believable and compelling. It's a real plus and if we do our jobs well, the audience isn't aware that we're doing a special effect at all. But this whole thing is very dependent on directors who want to use this technology and switch to the state of the art and are willing to go out on a limb and say this can be done. We needed to do this picture and so we're very dependent on the directors that have the vision that want to work with us and David is such a person. Thank you.
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