Just after lunch, Ben and Charlotte (the producer)
greeted me with smiles at the California Science
Center in Los Angeles. I thought it quite an
appropriate place for the interview, the IMAX theater
just outside the door and Ben's Alma Mater (USC)
adjacent to the museum grounds. In fact, I'd
overheard Charlotte expressing her delight when this
IMAX theater opened last year, "It meant we could
finally view our dailies (daily footage of
"Encounter") nearby! I didn't have to go driving an
hour and a half in the rain at midnight."
Ross: What got you interested
in filmmaking?
Ben: Actually I studied Political Science
in Belgium you know, but I'm French- speaking and
this was a Dutch college. So I decided to make my
essay with a camera. Although, my motive was only to
avoid writing and speaking in Dutch, I enjoyed the
medium and since the school also happened to have a
very good audio/visual facility, I switched my major
to communications.
Ross: Here we are at the
California Science Center shortly after a screening
of Encounter "a ground breaking film" in your own
words and you, a USC alum -- just across the street
-- did you invite any of your old professors to the
viewing?
Ben: No, I didn't. But that would have been
fun.
Ross: Perhaps you can set up
a special screening for USC film prof's and selected
students?
Ben: That's not a bad idea.
Ross: In the production
notes, you talk about integrating the computer
generated world with real life. In the film, I
remember the Professor (Stuart Pankin) in his
fantastic studio lab with his machine pal Max buzzing
around him ... was Max completely computer generated,
or was there a ball or something on a string for the
actor to watch?
Ben: There was nothing in that room but
Stuart and a stool. Max was 100% computer
created.
Ross: Wow! What was it like
directing Stuart under those circumstances?
Ben: Well, Stuart is a fantastic actor with
lots of green screen experience. He just had to trust
me. There was one time though, when he moved his eyes
too fast for Max, so I just invented something else
for him to look at in the computer -- it was
seamless. Oh, and then when Max comes out of the
simulator and hits Stuart -- I did a poor job of
directing him then, I should have had Stuart put his
hands up to protect himself or something -- but it's
a small thing.
Ross: You must be aware that
the "absent minded professor" plus floating sidekick
idea is quite similar to that in Flubber.
Ben: Oh is it? I haven't seen that
picture.
Charlotte: That's right. But the sidekick
was a female in Flubber.
Ben: Actually, I'd first imagined Max as a
flying camera. Then after I talked it over with the
art director, he evolved into all these gadgets -- it
was great.
Ross: You also mentioned in
the notes, that when creating the footage from CGI
you first developed the frames from one eye's
perspective then re-rendered them all again for the
second eye's perspective ... just how long did that
take for say 10 seconds of film?
Ben: Forget 10 seconds of film. Let's talk
about one frame.
Ross: Okay...one
frame?
Ben: An hour and a half -- every frame. The
total was over 200,000 hours of re- rendering.
Ross: Wow! I'm glad I
asked.
Ben: Yeah, there were 114,000 frames.
Charlotte: 114,000 times 2?
Ben: No, 57k times 2.
Ross: Let's talk about fun
vs. education...
Ben: Yeah, most of these large format films
start with a scientific idea and then try to make it
entertaining. We started with an entertaining subject
matter and played with it in an educational, but fun
way. Another thing is, so often people produce 3D
films to be released in 2D also. That's no way to
make a 3D film, because if it works in 3D it simply
cannot work in 2D. "Encounter" is the only one being
released in 3D. You know, all those films, they're
sponsored at least in part by a consortium of
theaters. We were the first to produce such a picture
without that funding. I mean there are other teams
out there doing this kind of thing, but our team ...
well, we're having the most fun.
Ben Stassen has a long list of large format and
"Ride" film credits. He was excited to tell me to
look out for "Alien Adventure" which is being
presented at the LA IMAX convention May 18th at the
Cal Sci Center. In this next large format film, space
gypsies looking for a comfortable corner of the
universe to relax in, drop unknowingly into a Theme
Park.
|