new loaded video: “The Invisible Man” | Anatomy of a scene
transcription
transcription
“The Invisible Man” | Anatomy of a scene
The writer and director Leigh Whannell recounts a sequence from his film with Elisabeth Moss.
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Hello, I’m Leigh Whannell. I am the author and director of the film “The Invisible Man”. Much of the film deals with paranoia and whether or not the character of Elisabeth Moss really sees anything. And it’s a scene where she faces a physical presence and a physical threat. We are not fortunate enough to meet our antagonist, Adrian. You don’t need to learn much about him over the course of the film. And so I wanted the threat to suddenly become very real. And I thought it would be an interesting way to shoot a scene like this where two people are fighting, but you can only see one of the participants. [RUNNING WATER] And I could see it in my mind. I could see what it would look like if we were successful. It turns out that it was quite difficult to achieve. It took a while to get there, to get the thing on the screen that I could see in my head when I was writing. But we got here, finally. [LOUD NOISE] There are obviously moments in this scene that Elisabeth Moss could not play. She is not a trained stuntwoman. It cannot be thrown on a table. So the question becomes: how do you shoot Elisabeth Moss and then cut someone else? So in the middle of the shot, we have to match a stunt person. And then it will do the actual throw and it will launch, then it will land, and we have to freeze it and then put the Elisabeth frame back in place. And it was very difficult technically when she interacted with the stuntwoman in a green suit and when she was not. Because as we discovered when we created visual effects, it’s easier to add something to a frame with CGI. It is difficult to remove something, especially a human body in a bright green suit. As if this person is moving and blocking the other actor, and what are we going to do with this moment when the stuntman’s arm blocks Elisabeth’s face. But I do know that the visual effects guys, a company called Cutting Edge, in Sydney, have had a lot of sleepless nights to make it look amazing. [BREAKING DISH]
Recent episodes Anatomy of a scene
The directors guide viewers through a scene from their films, showing the magic, the patterns and the mistakes behind the camera.
The directors guide viewers through a scene from their films, showing the magic, the patterns and the mistakes behind the camera.