Supervisors Step Up

Director Eric Brevig—whose visual-effects credits include Men In Black, Total Recall, and Pearl Harbor—solicited advice from such veterans as James Cameron and Barry Sonnenfeld while trying his hand at directing Journey to the Center of the Earth.
Photos: Murray Close © Disney Enterprises, Inc. and Walden Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

When the visual-effects extravaganza Iron Man became a massive hit, scant notice was paid to the fact that its director, Jon Favreau, came from the ranks of actors — not typical training for digerati. But when the 3D film Journey To The Center of the Earth appears, you'll likely see mention of Director Eric Brevig's prior credits — creating visual effects for such films as Men In Black, Total Recall, and Pearl Harbor, the latter of which earned him an Academy Award nomination. It seems obvious why Brevig, who formerly worked for Industrial Light & Magic, should get the chance to direct an effects-filled film such as Journey, but visual-effects supervisors have had an uphill climb to the director's chair. With the notable exception of Andrew Adamson, who toiled in visual effects in the 1990s before directing the first two Shrek and The Chronicles of Narnia films, few visual-effects supervisors have made the leap.

“I was trying to get a directing gig for almost 15 years,” Brevig says. “Either the project didn't get green-lit or the studio people changed.” While having digital skills might appear to be a selling point, Brevig says, “People with technical chops can be driven crazy by the politics. Perhaps having a psychology background would be more useful. The reality is that it's luck more than anything else.”

Being hired based on visual-effects skills can actually bring burdens, says Adamson — whose latest film, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, is one of this year's biggest visual-effects movies. “Effects films, by their very nature, have higher budgets and a large number of concerned people attached, so you can end up in the position of making a committee film,” he says. “I was lucky to start with Shrek, because in animation, you tend to storyboard and workshop the movie over and over. I probably made three bad versions of Shrek that never saw the light of day. That was my boot camp.”

Adamson, who began his film career at PDI as a technical director on Barry Levinson's 1992 film Toys, subsequently supervised effects for three Joel Schumacher films before getting a crack at Shrek.

“Andrew passed through the visual-effects phase of his career rather quickly and gracefully,” says Jamie Dixon, PDI's digital-effects supervisor on Toys. “He used it as a steppingstone, and clearly he had the desire and the ability to direct.” Dixon, who cofounded the visual-effects studio Hammerhead Productions and directed Bram Stoker's Shadow Builder, notes the importance of building upon relationships. For example, Toys producer Mark Johnson (an Oscar winner for Rain Man) went on to produce Adamson's Narnia films, while action-movie impresario Jerry Bruckheimer is backing the directorial debut of visual-effects supervisor Hoyt Yeatman with 2009's G-Force.

“I've been very fortunate,” says Yeatman, an Oscar-winning supervisor on The Abyss. “No one else on the planet besides Jerry would have taken this step with me.” But Yeatman, who supervised effects for Bruckheimer on such hits as Armageddon and Con Air, says his chance might not have come unless he had conceived the original idea for G-Force, a live-action film with CG characters.

“When I made a decision to try to go in that direction, I felt that no one would hand me a screenplay and say, ‘Go direct this,''” Yeatman says. “I felt I'd have to earn that position by coming up with my own idea.” Having now finished shooting G-Force, he says, “That's been beneficial to me because I'm very confident about the story and how I'd like to tell it. It's a grounding I might not otherwise have.”

On both the Shrek and Narnia franchises, Adamson earned script credits, and he says he thinks such experience aids a director's communication with actors and crew. “It certainly helped give me control — to make sure that the project I was making was what I wanted it to be,” he says.

Having authorship can also foster credibility with actors, which is an area where visual-effects supervisors can be perceived as being less well-versed. Adamson's experience directing voice performances of Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy in Shrek certainly prepped him to direct the live-action performances in Narnia.

Andrew Adamson began his career at PDI as a technical director on Toys, and he has since directed the first two Shrek movies. He recently took the helm of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian after much success with the first film of the same franchise, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

Not surprisingly, the challenge of directing actors was foremost in Brevig's mind during Journey to the Center of the Earth. “I spent a lot of time overcompensating in terms of the actors,” he says. “One thing I've learned from doing effects for 25 years is that it doesn't matter how great the effects are if the audience isn't invested in the actors.”

While Journey star Brendan Fraser brought extensive experience acting in visual-effects movies such as The Mummy, the film's other actors were novices. So Brevig devoted two weeks to rehearsals, during which he showed them rough previz animation of the planned effects. “During all the years I was a visual-effects supervisor and second-unit director, I figured out what helps actors give good performances when they're acting to thin air,” Brevig says. “So by the time I got to this movie, I was extremely comfortable knowing I could help them give performances. I didn't spend a moment on set talking to them about effects.”

Supervisors who are now tackling directing often have directed second unit on major visual-effects films, commanding crews as large as what they have as fledging directors. But Dixon cautions that this experience can be deceptive. “It feels like you're directing actors, so you can end up thinking you're doing something that you're not really doing,” he says. Having recently supervised effects for director Harold Ramis' upcoming comedy Year One, Dixon says he was struck by how effortless directing can appear in the hands of a pro. Watching other directors, he says, “is like going to school.”

Because successful supervisors frequently see top directors in action, they know whom to call for advice. While making Journey, Brevig solicited opinions from Adamson, James Cameron, and Barry Sonnenfeld. “They were very generous,” he says. “Sometimes they said, ‘Here's what I did in that situation.'' I followed their advice, and it proved to be the right way to avoid pitfalls. Other times, they'd say, ‘Yeah, you're screwed!''” Brevig says a key piece of advice was to not let studio people see incomplete visual effects without showing them an example of what the finished product will be. Most people don't share an ex-supervisor's skill for extrapolating from a work in progress.

Because first-time directors don't get the budgets that a Cameron commands — Journey was made in Canada for the tax advantages — visual-effects knowledge can help a supervisor-turned-director get the most bang for the buck. “You can help guide your crew through that minefield of efficiency. Don't shoot wide if you don't need to,” Dixon says.

“I saved tens of millions of dollars on Journey because I designed the sequences knowing what's technically expensive and what isn't,” Brevig says. “I'd place the camera 2in. to the left of where I wish it could go because that would save $30 grand in compositing.”

Cutting corners is no longer necessary for Adamson, whose huge success with The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe has earned him world-class visual-effects crews. But on Prince Caspian, he still remained very involved in planning and overseeing the effects. “The decisions about where money will be spent ultimately will impede or aid your vision,” he says. “Having some involvement gives you the control to put the money in the right place.”

A key example on Prince Caspian was Adamson's reliance on Scanline VFX to simulate a towering water god for a climactic scene. Scanline's Stephan Trojansky, who recently won an Academy Sci-Tech Award for fluid simulation (see digitalcontentproducer.com/mil/features/video_water_water_everywhere), had to come up with new solutions for this effect. “I wasn't entirely sure we'd have it together,” Adamson says. “I couldn't cut around it, and I said, ‘Stephan, don't leave me hanging!'' I used to write that kind of software — not anywhere near the level of complexity Stephan does, but at least we could communicate on a fairly technical level when necessary. I like to think that's one of the benefits of understanding the medium — you use it where it's necessary as opposed to using it because you're excited by the technique itself.”

Adamson says he is betting that fellow supervisor John Dykstra will bring a similar savvy to the task of directing The Tortoise and the Hippo, which Adamson will produce for Walden Media, producer of the Narnia films. Dykstra, an Oscar-winning visual-effects supervisor on Star Wars and Spider-Man 2, will make his directing debut on this film, which features realistic CG characters in live-action scenes.

“I think this is ideally suited for a visual-effects supervisor looking for a directorial gig,” Dykstra says. “If it were a live-action romantic comedy, then it would be kind of hard to sell visual-effects talents as a value-added skill. I'm looking forward to working with Andrew because his experience will be invaluable.”

So we may yet see an emerging network of visual-effects supervisors helping each other take the step to directing. “It seems like a natural extension of what we've been doing,” Dixon says. “When you've gotten good in your field, it makes sense to look for new challenges. We lust after learning more.”