FirstShowing.net has an interview with Danny Elfman. The composer discusses his creative process, working with Tim Burton, his future projects, his inspirations, and more.
Also, Elfman fans might appreciate this stop-motion animated short film: DemiUrge Emesis by Voltaire, which was narrated by Elfman, and features music by Voltaire and Rasputina (and Burton-alum writer Caroline Thompson gets a "Special Thanks" shout-out, too):
Here's the interview:
I'm very fascinated with the process and the technique of scoring and I wanted to focus on that. Starting at the top, I was wondering if you could walk through a little bit of your scoring process. Do you read the script at the beginning? And what comes next in creating the score?
Danny Elfman: No. I don't actually start with the script. I'm sometimes sent a script. And I actually — believe it or not, I try to avoid getting any ideas or taking any ideas seriously from the script. And what I discovered over the years is that every time I started early and wrote music, none of it ever survived, not a note, when I actually saw the movie. Because what I came to understand is that there's so many ways to shoot the same script. And depending on how the director decides to shoot that script, really, will have a lot to do with what kind of music [I create]. You can take the same script and shoot it very theatrically, with the lighting and the sets, or shoot it very raw or more naturally. And if the cuts are quick and jarring, if the cuts are smooth with lots of dissolves, they just really want a completely different kind of music. Not to mention the huge factor of the performances. And the performances are really– for me, it just so changes what I imagined in my head. I've never seen a movie that ended up like what I thought it was going to be from reading the script.
So it sounds like your process comes from actually watching the finished product, or close to a finished product?
Elfman: Yeah, exactly. It comes from the visuals. Sometimes it's finished, sometimes it's unfinished. On one extreme, you've got a movie like Batman, where [Burton's] only halfway through shooting. He brought me in to sit in with them for a few days on the Gotham City set. And really, between looking at, maybe, 30 minutes of footage that they'd roughed together and walking around the set, I really did, in fact, on the way home from that trip to London, get the whole Batman theme worked out in my head, what became the main title. But that was the type of theme where 30 minutes was certainly enough to get the tone of it. So you have to see something– or rather, I have to see something. I think everybody works completely differently. But for me, as soon as I have a picture, whether it be rough or finished, in front of me, I start hearing the music. It's just an immediate response to image. And so I'm definitely image driven.
Now, it could be a polished, finished film, which happens sometimes when you step in at the very end. Or, more likely, it's just a big rough mess with huge gaps not there. That doesn't matter. You still get the tone and the feel and the performance and the story enough to get started moving. So it all starts with looking at picture, no matter what form that picture is. And then I just start immersing myself in it, really. I get into it a lot, and I try to write down my initial impulses.
I mean, the best way to describe my process is I'll try to pick three or four scenes that I think are crucial turning point scenes to the movie. Maybe, something in the beginning, something in the middle, and certainly there's always some major moments towards the end that define the bigger or more important moments in the film. And I'll put an inordinate number of hours into those scenes. Sometimes, I'll even add the main titles to that. The main titles may not seem important, but they often are to me. Because that's, again, very often how I'll define the tone of what I'm getting into and how it's all going to work.
So if I've written a main title, and I've got three or four or five scenes leading up to a finale. And I feel like I've got those nailed, and I can understand in my head where the themes go and how I need them to behave for me — meaning, do I need them to: If I have a theme I like, do I need it to get whimsical? Do I need it to get heroic? Do I need it to get serious? Do I need it to get mocking? Do I need it to get sarcastic? You know, what do I need it to do? And I need to know that it's going to do all those things I'm going to ask it to. So it's kind of like the theme become an animal, and I've got to make sure it can do all these tricks that I'm going to demand it to do. Before I, then, go about the process of starting the rest of the score.
Do you do a lot of revisions on a particular theme or a piece of music in the film? And how many revisions usually are there? For example, on the theme for Alice in Wonderland, how many different revision did you go through until you got to the final theme we hear in the movie?
Elfman: Well, I mean, there's two levels to that. But in the beginning, when I'm playing music, let's say on Alice for Tim, it's very common that I'll have half a dozen pieces worked out first time I play music for Tim on a particular scene. Because early on, I'll have a lot of ideas. And I'm not sure exactly what my main themes are going to be. I have pieces that I like. So I might try an approach to a scene that I like. And I might try one or two variations to that approach. And then, I might walk away from it, come back– in fact, that's what I try to do. And then approach the scene completely separately again from a totally different perspective. And then, if I can, to even do that a third time.
So whatever I've been working on, whatever I think, "Oh, that's interesting," I'm going to intentionally go back. Leave it for an hour, come back, and then try to write music for the same scene again and do something totally different. That's the kind of variation process when I'm first bringing the director into my world. When we get to the point where, okay, we've got all that stuff nailed down. We've got the big scenes nailed down, and I start scene by scene, there's really no limit to the number of revisions I can do. I mean, there are scenes — there's one scene I know I wrote 23 pieces of music before the final one actually got in there. That's kind of extreme on Alice. Others might've been three or four revisions.
Where does your biggest inspiration come from in composing in general? Is it other musicians or artwork?
Elfman: I don't know. I still think I'm inspired by what I grew up on, in a way. That's a hard one to answer. I grew up as a film music fan, as a young man, way before I started scoring or even was interested in the possibility of scoring. I was a huge fan of Bernard Herrmann and Nino Rota. And I could tell, listening to an old movie, was that a Max Steiner score? Was that a Franz Waxman score? Korngold? Tiomkin? And I loved playing the game of tuning into a movie, an old movie on television, and then trying to guess who the composer was on old stuff, then seeing if I was right. I was definitely a film music nerd, but it never occurred to me to actually do it. So I liken myself to a fan that got pulled into the game, like a basketball player that suddenly gets thrown the ball.
Can you still do the guessing game with today's movies? Can you watch something on TV today or go to another movie now and guess who the composer is from today's movies as well?
Elfman: It's much, much harder today. But there are certain composers that have a real clearly defined style. I might be able to go, "Oh, that's a John Williams score. That's a Tommy Newman score." And there's certainly a lot of composers that surprise me. I go, "Wow. That's really good. I don't know who that is." And then I'll find out. But much more today than back in the old days, you've got a lot of very successful composers who really make their living by imitating other composers.
Of course.
Elfman: In that sense, it's really, really hard. Because I'll go, "Well, am I hearing — is this Jerry Goldsmith? I don't think so. I think it's somebody doing Jerry Goldsmith. But now, they're doing John Williams. And now, at this point in the movie, it seems like they're doing– oh, look at that. They're doing Danny Elfman. Hmm. Interesting." They sound a little bit like a smorgasbord of composers. So in that sense it's harder to tell. Because composers, back in the old days, they didn't freely, in the context of the same move, borrow the style of two to three other contemporaries of theirs and mimic them. But that's a big chunk of film music today.
So then how do you differentiate yourself? How do you continue to stay original and fresh and unique in the scores that you create, so that you can stand out from the others? It seems like that would be a challenge for you, at this point and time, to do that.
Elfman: Well, I mean, it's always a challenge, and I can't say, for a fact, that I do sound original or stand out from the crowd. I mean, that's for others to say. I try to just approach things the best I can. And I hope that what I'm doing is, to some extent, original. You know, nothing's totally original, of course. And believe me, it's also hard not to rip off ourselves. At a certain point, once we have a certain kind of style, there's always a temptation to fall back and do something exactly like we've done before, as well. And that's always a heavy temptation, even if a director doesn't tell us, "I want this style for this scene, and this style for this scene, and this style for this scene." Because I think the biggest difference in composing today and the old days isn't so much the composers — it's the way films are made.
When Alfred Hitchcock made a film with Bernard Herrmann, he wasn't telling Bernard Herrmann, "I really want this cue to sound like this Korngold score. And I really want this one to sound like this Alex North score. But for this cue, can you please give me that thing from, you know, whomever?" He hired Bernard Herrmann to do Bernard Herrmann. And they hired Alex North to do Alex North. The directors didn't get that involved in the music. It was a completely different system. In fact, the director frequently moved onto another film and the editor and the composers were just left to do their work. So it was just night and day completely different. And I'm not saying that that's better. It's just very different.
Now, you have directors who frequently will insist on different scenes in their moving sounding like something that they've already got in their head, or something from another movie. So I'm not really– I'm not trying to blast other composers for being derivative more than they should be or need be. It's really about the filmmaking process. Because I've been there, and every composer goes through this problem of a director's got something in their head. And it's just really hard to shake them out of it. It's the fact that directors are who they are, and their own personalities cause that. Composers, like everybody else, we have to– at a certain point you have to give them what they want. Or you have to, at a certain point, turn your back and split. It's a very difficult process.
So in terms of where it is and where it was and where it's going, it's really hard to say. But in the process of knowing that directors can be very, very picky and very difficult, I try, as all composers that are worth anything– and there's a lot of really good composers out there today. You try to keep your own voice. You try to sell it to the director from the perspective that you think makes the most sense. And sometimes you have to pick your battles. Sometimes it gets really bloody in the process. And sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's really easy.
So you never know what to expect. Every movie is like walking out onto this landscape. This is the best way I can describe it. Each film you start, as a composer, you're walking out onto this huge landscape. And you can talk about music until your blue in the face with a director. It doesn't mean shit. Because when you start actually playing stuff for them, it's never going to be what they're expecting. Because there actually is no way to describe music. And you can't show a picture of it. You're going to talk about it in an abstract level. At a certain point they'll hear it. And they're going to respond the way they're going to respond. And often, they don't even know why they're responding the way they respond. It's just how they're emotionally responding to the music. And that landscape, sometimes, is like this lovely bucolic stroll, where it's like being on a boat and gliding down a river. And sometimes that landscape, you find yourself in the middle of World War I. The army's tanks are coming from every which direction and gas grenades are getting thrown. And there's shells coming from everywhere. And you really put out your energy and try to keep your head down and not get hit.
So the crazy thing about it is that you often just never know what– you open a door, and you start into this landscape. And you take a few steps, and you really have no idea what that landscape's going to become. So that's really the best metaphor I can describe for what it's like starting a new film. Sometimes, you finish a film, and you go, "Man, I was expecting that was going to be so difficult. And it was just so smooth, such a lovely experience. And it was such a nice, straight, easy path." And then, sometimes, you know, you get to the other side really feeling like you just survived a war. And that can feel good, too, by the way.
Yeah. With Alice, you've, obviously, worked with Tim Burton I think more than any other director. And that must–
Elfman: Well, yeah. Yeah, 13th time, and I have to say I can't predict him any more now than on Pee-wee's Big Adventure.
So he's just as unpredictable?
Elfman: Yea, completely unpredictable. People think we have some kind of shorthand, that I know what he's going to be looking for. And he knows what to expect. He really isn't that way, at all. I appreciate and understand his sensibility. But how he's going to react to a particular piece of music, I have no way of predicting.
Does he want something new from you in every film he does? Or does he even reference his own films and say, "Oh, I want the sound from this one, or I want the sound from this other one?"
Elfman: No. He'll never say from anything. He'll really just say, "This music makes me feel this way." And I don't know why, but it does. And then, I have to sit there and go, "Okay. What is it? Is the orchestration? Is it the melody?" And so I'll, then, do a lot of trial and error. I'll take the same piece– sometimes, I'll write something completely different. Sometimes I'll take the same piece and just change a few things. Change the tempo and change the orchestration. And suddenly, he really likes it.
So there's a very tricky intuitive process of what's making the director feel this way. Is it this instrument? Is it the sound of the trumpet? Is it the sound of the clarinet? Or, really, is it just the melody? Or is it just this turn in a melody? And if I take this turn and change it, suddenly, it's feeling completely different. And so very often, there's a lot of experimentation, changing it, rearranging it, re-orchestrating it. And if it's still not working, at a certain point, you have to abandon it completely, and just go somewhere else. But sometimes, it's also surprising what an impact a small adjustment can make to a piece of music and in the actual orchestration of it.
What are you working on at the moment. Do you have anything else coming up? I think you're on The Green Hornet, right?
Elfman: Not quite yet. I'm doing Restless, for Gus Van Sant. And then, we move on to The Green Hornet with Michel Gondry.
How are those two going? I mean, I look forward to hearing all of your scores, but it's always exciting to know so early out how they're coming along.
Elfman: I don't know. I've really just written a little bit of music for Gus. I haven't presented him anything, yet. I know Gus well enough to know that we'll take a journey together. And I'll try lots of different things. Gus will encourage me to try lots of really radically different things. You know, approach it from completely different angles. And it'll be interesting. I've never worked with Michel, and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm a big fan of his. So I have no idea to expect from that.
I think that's a perfect place to wrap up.
Elfman: Well, great.
Thank you very much for your time. I really appreciate it.
Elfman: My pleasure, totally. I'll talk to you again some day.
The new documentary Waking Sleeping Beauty is now in select cinemas in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco. The film examines the "renaissance" of Disney feature animation in the 1980s and 1990s, and features numerous people who have affected the world of animation today, including a young Tim Burton.
Cartoon Brew had these details for people in New York City and Los Angeles:
Don Hahn will make Q&A appearances in L.A. after the following showings this weekend:
Friday, March 26 — Q&A following the 7:45pm showing at AMC Century City
Saturday, Marcy 27 — Q&A following 1210p-150p show at the AMC Burbank 16, 125 East Palm Ave Saturday, March 27 — Q&A following 7:55-9:35p show at the AMC Burbank 16, 125 East Palm Ave
[Producer] Peter Schneider will make Q&A appearances this weekend in NYC after the following showings at Landmark’s Sunshine Cinemas on Houston Street:
Friday, March 26 — Q&A following the 5pm and 7:15pm showings. Saturday, Marcy 27 — Q&A following the 12 noon, 2:30pm, 5pm and 7:15pm showings. Saturday, March 27 — Q&A following the 12 noon, 2:30pm and 5pm showings.
Mia Wasikowska talked about tackling the legendary role of Alice for Jessica Szohr's TeenVogue photoshoot promoting Alice in Wonderland. Here's the video:
Video: Elfman Composing "Alice in Wonderland" Score
ABC News has a special report on the extensive filmography and creative process of Danny Elfman. The video includes footage of Elfman and Tim Burton working on the score for their thirteenth feature together, Alice in Wonderland, giving some insights on their collaborative process that has continued for 25 years. Here's the Hulu link:
On Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010, New York Times bestselling author Seth Grahame-Smith released his newest novel, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Grahame-Smith also wrote Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, a gory reinterpretation of the Jane Austen classic, and will adapt the Abraham Lincoln screenplay.
Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov (director of Wanted and Night Watch) recently produced the independent animated feature 9, which was released last year in 2009. Jim Lemley, another producer of 9, will also produce the Abe Lincoln alternative history.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter warps history by telling the story of the 16th president's secret battle with the undead -- a battle that began during Lincoln's childhood as a way to avenge his mother's murder. Here's the trailer for the book:
The talented women of Alice in Wonderland -- Mia Wasikowska (Alice), Helena Bonham Carter (The Red Queen), and Anne Hathaway (The White Queen) -- interviewed each other and had a fun time talking about their experiences on the film. The questions were submitted by fans. Here's the entire video interview from MovieFone:
Here are some videos from two press conferences with Tim Burton and the cast of Alice in Wonderland, courtesy of YouTube user laudepp126x. Also, after the videos, scroll down to read some other comments from Burton and the cast at the London press conference, courtesy of FilmShaft.
Here are some videos from the recent London press conference:
From FilmShaft: Hungarian Journalist: I have a question for Miss Anne Hathaway: You were cast as a princess and now you’re a queen. There are so many Disney princesses who couldn’t make it. They are desperate and wanted to get the role of Alice. I wanted to ask you, what do you suggest for those who studied like you…there are so many out there. What would you say about why you made it and they didn’t?
Anne Hathaway: (laughs) I don’t know I can necessarily answer that. I owe so much of my career to luck. My mother always told me that luck is preparation meets opportunity and, um, I’ve been given extraordinary opportunities to work with filmmakers long before I was talented enough and deserved to work with them. I’ve learned a lot from them. I just keep getting hired. I consider myself lucky and I don’t know who is responsible for it. HJ: You wouldn’t suggest anything for them that they shouldn’t do?
AH: Why don’t you tell me what you suggest?
HJ: You’re interested in my opinion?
AH: (mockingly) We all are!
HJ: I never see you not wearing panties.
AH: I’m not sorry to say I’m happy to hear that.
Mia Wasikowska on the pressure of playing Alice:
“There’s a certain amount of pressure when you’re playing such an iconic character and very well known and loved by some many people. We discussed that from the beginning and one of the things we wanted to do was take away that baggage that comes with being Alice and get behind the teenager behind the iconic image.” Johnny Depp on playing the Mad Hatter with a Scottish accent:
“The Scottish accent was something I did mess around with on Finding Neverland. That was a bit more Aberdeen, and Tim and I talked about the Hatter being made up of different people and going to extremes…go dark and dangerous with the Scottish accent. I hope I arrived there.”
Tim Burton on the Disney versus UK cinema chains boycott:
“I’m happy it’s resolved. I’m just happy.”
Crispin Glover and Anne Hathaway are asked would they consider living in Wonderland, if they could:
Glover: “I’d definitely consider it.”
Hathaway: “I’d be happy to live in a world with no rules!”
Johnny Depp on how Helena Bonham Carter affects the Burton-Depp dynamic and why he will always work with Burton:
“We only started quarrelling when Helena showed up.”
“He’s one of the true artists working in cinema.” Tim Burton on what attracted him to making the film:
“What really intrigued me was the opportunity to make a 3D Alice in Wonderland. It seemed like a proper mix of the medium and the material. A few years ago, I don’t know if I’d have been intrigued by it, but it just seemed like the trippy-ness of the world and the tool of 3D seemed like a good mix. And also, going back, there’s about twenty different versions and I’d never really connected with them. The characters and imagery and the icon way it has infiltrated culture was just so strong.”
How the actors felt reading the books as children:
Helena Bonham Carter: “You know what? I can’t remember. Okay, so my made up answer is…I can’t remember.”
Mia Wasikowska: “My most vivid memories of Alice as a kid were when my mum used to put myself and my siblings in front of the stop-motion Czech Alice. I remember watching it and feeling incredibly disturbed.”
Anne Hathaway: “When I was a young kid I had a wonderful teacher in the fifth grade who had us memorise the poem, The Jabberwocky, and we all had to get up and recite it to everyone.
Johnny Depp: “I can remember reading the book as a kid…the condensed version and then obviously the Disney cartoon. The story is so episodic and all over the place, but I remember more than anything was just the characters. Even people who haven’t read the book know the characters.”
Tim Burton responding to a question about the different between Underland and Wonderland:
Alice in Wonderland had its world premiere on Thursday, February 25th, at the Odeon theater in London's Leicester Square. Here's an hour's worth of footage:
If you can't make it to London on Thursday, February 25th, Disney has announced that you will be able to see the red carpet events at the world premiere of Alice in Wonderland via live webcast. Click this Facebook link to become a fan and RSVP for the event.
The Royal World Premiere of the film will take place at 9:30 am PST / 5:30 pm GMT on Thursday, February 25th and be streaming live via a Ustream webcast.
Jake Hamilton spoke with Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, Mia Wasikowska, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Michael Sheen (the White Rabbit), and Matt Lucas (Tweedledee and Tweedledum) about Alice in Wonderland. Here's the press junket:
Alice in Wonderland marks the seventh collaboration of director Tim Burton and actor Johnny Depp. Their first pairing was for Burton's iconic Edward Scissorhands -- 20 years ago.
"I think we always treat each thing as what the project is," Tim Burton explained, insisting that it isn't simply automatic that any movie he makes star Depp. "[Whether I cast Johnny depends on] what the character is."
"[Just] because you know somebody ... [we don't make movies] just to work with each other, but it has always been great," the filmmaker said of their solid track record. "You want to make sure each thing is on the same level, or better. We always just treat it as what the project is — no pressure either way."
When it came to Alice in Wonderland, Burton did call up Depp. But the actor didn't know exactly what to expect.
"To be honest, when he called I didn't know what character he wanted me to be," Depp admitted of the duo's initial Wonderland conversations. "For all I knew, I could have been Alice — which would have been fine also."
"You would have liked that," Burton teased.
"I was just prepared to do whatever he wanted, whatever character it was," Depp said of their recurring collaborative efforts and what keeps bringing them both back. "Each time out of the gate with Tim, you just try something a little different. You try something and try to keep him interested. You want to try to stimulate the atmosphere."
"Which is great, because that's what movies are all about," Burton explained. "It's fun and interesting to see how his character develops [as we shoot a movie]. How it feeds off of me and the rest of the crew. It's why you like to make movies."
He said: "It's funny because they've seen it but they have a difficult time watching it because it's their dad and they make that connection, but it's Edward Scissorhands. That's by far my kids' favourite.
"They just connect with the character and also they see something, their dad feeling that isolation, feeling that loneliness. He's a tragic character and so I think it's hard for them.
With Alice in Wonderland, Burton and Depp have made seven films together -- yet Depp hasn't seen a single one of them. The actor said his kids are more likely to see Alice before him. Burton says of Depp, "From working with him for so many years, the one thing I knew from the very beginning is that he goes for anything, and that's very exciting. ... That's what creation is all about."
Burton jokes of choosing Depp for the Mad Hatter character, saying, "After he lobbied for Alice, we went to the next logical character."
Depp explains why he continues to work with Burton, saying, "The atmosphere that he creates for that set is so conducive to creating essentially whatever you want and not being afraid to try something. ... There is the element of trust that's there."
Along with discussing Wonderland, Depp recalled how their previous collaboration, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, would put the director into fits of laughter. "It was the most normal I've ever looked in any of his films and that alone made me feel really uncomfortable," Depp tells ET's Mary Hart. "Then I'd come to the set and [Burton] would burst into hysterical laughter."
The trailer for the upcoming documentary Waking Sleeping Beauty has made its debut. The film chronicles the story of the renaissance of Disney feature animation in the 1980s and 1990s. Directed by Don Hahn (who is working on Tim Burton's upcoming animated Frankenweenie as an executive producer, and produced the 3D re-release of The Nightmare Before Christmas), the documentary includes such animation titans as John Lasseter, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Don Bluth, Michael Eisner, Roy Disney, Glen Keane, John Musker, Howard Ashman, and many more, including Tim Burton himself.
Official Avril Lavigne "Alice (Underground)" Music Video
The official music video of the new Avril Lavigne song "Alice (Underground)" has been released. The song will be available on the Almost Alice album, available on March 2nd.
"Maybe just any time I've called him," Burton grinned, looking over at his frequent leading man.
"I remember one morning on 'Sleepy Hollow,' " Depp began, referring to the 1999 hit that had him playing Ichabod Crane. "I came in to block a scene, getting a cup of coffee — you're only half awake. Tim was there, giggling a little bit.
"I said, 'OK, what's the scene?' " Depp continued. "And he said, 'Well, this is where we're going to strap you to this large metal thing — which is attached to these giant horses — and then we'll drag you across two soundstages for the entire day."
Added his director with a smile, "That was on Christmas Eve, I believe."
"Yeah, it was on Christmas Eve!" Depp agreed. "And the horses ... well, I suspect they might have gone for curry not long before I was strapped in."
"Both of them," Burton said with no hint of apology. "He was dragged around for a couple hours by these flatulating horses."
They also considered a hypothetical future television adaptation:
"We did discuss doing 'H.R. Pufnstuf,' " Burton teased. "With him playing Freddy the Magic Flute."
"Jimmy! Jimmy!" Depp screeched in a tiny, high-pitched squeak.
"Look, he's got the voice down!" Burton beamed with approval. "Perfect!"
Helena Bonham Carter on Craig Ferguson's "Late Late Show"
Helena Bonham Carter was on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on February 17th. Here's the video, in which she discusses Alice in Wonderland and more:
Burton was unable to attend the awards ceremony, so instead, he made a short film as his acceptance speech in the style of a Japanese horror film. Click here to view the J-horror parody:
Third Times Online Sneak Peek of "Alice in Wonderland"
The third and final exclusive sneak peek of Alice in Wonderland has made its debut on Times Online.
Click here for the video. This short clip includes words from Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, and Mia Wasikowska.
Some of the images featured in the slideshow. (Captions from the website, which contains SPOILERS.):
Bandersnatch illustration by Bobby Chiu.
Bayard illustration by Bobby Chiu.
Baynard the Bloodhound is voiced by Timothy Spall.
The Tweedles sketch by Tim Burton.
"I imagine them as naughty Victorian children, with their hand in the honey jar," says Matt Lucas, the British comedian and actor who plays them both. "And so I have made them quite child-like, which does come naturally to me, because I’m a big kid anyway."
Click here to see a short video with footage from the movie and input from Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, producer Suzanne Todd and senior visual effects supervisor Ken Ralston.
Also from Times Online are these images that demonstrate the evolution of a few of the many wild characters of Underland, from sketches and illustrations by Tim Burton and Michael Kutsche to their final rendered, costumed, and realized forms. (Captions in quotes are directly from the Times Online galleries. Potential spoilers have been omitted in this article. Go to the original galleries to learn more about the characters, their relationships, and the storyline of the film.):
"The first animated character Alice encounters is the White Rabbit. Here, a storyboard sketch is done as the first step in creating the scene in the film."
"The artists at Imageworks create a low-resolution version of the CG character and place it in the CG environment - low-res allows the animators speed and flexibility while working on the scene."
"Once the character animation is completed, a high-res version of White Rabbit’s performance is checked on a more detailed model called a pit render."
"The performance approved, the Rabbit gets his fur and clothing. There are complex programs designed to make hair, fur and fabric move and behave as realistically as possible."
"This scene shot shows the final product, with all of the high-resolution elements including a furry and clothed Rabbit, his computer-generated surroundings, the matte painting background, the effects of moving leaves - all lit and textured. Elements are combined by a compositor."
"Here is the White Rabbit as illustrated by Michael Kutsche."
"Knave of Hearts sketch by Tim Burton."
"Knave of Hearts illustration by Michael Kutsche."
"The final product: Ilosovic Stayne, The Knave of Hearts, in the film," played by Crispin Glover.
"Red Queen sketch by Tim Burton."
"The final product: Helena Bonham Carter is the tyrannical monarch of Underland. With her oversized head, fiery temper and propensity to scream for people’s heads to be chopped off, she rules her subjects through fear."
"The iconic shot of Alice’s first meeting with the Cheshire Cat, who’s grinning at her from his tree limb, begins with what’s similar to a storyboard sketch, using an assemblage of low-resolution character stills."
"The scene moves to animation, where the character is dropped into a low-resolution environment: the images are kept low-res to allow Imageworks’ animators to create the Cat’s performance without having a lot of data to manipulate."
"The biggest challenge is to create a realistic cat that can generate the trademark exaggerated grin. Here, the all-important hair has been added, ensuring it behaves as it should, where it should be, with the Cat now curled on his limb."
"Here, final lighting is added, along with a full-resolution environment behind the Cat, including the flora and atmosphere added for visual effect."
Starting January 31st, several TV networks in the US will be showing some brand-new, exclusive footage of Alice in Wonderland. The promos will air for one week, and will be about 60 seconds long each. Here's a promo for the promos:
The final spot will appear during Super Bowl XLIV on Feburary 7th, which begins at 6 PM ET. According to Disney, the spot, entitled "Tick and Tock," will include "intense imagery and a few surprises".
"We wanted to kick off our television campaign for 'Alice in Wonderland' in a big way," says David Singh, executive vice president of worldwide marketing for Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. "With Tim Burton at the helm and a cast that includes Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter and rising star Mia Wasikowska, the film already has a passionate following. Fans are eager to step into the incredible 3D Wonderland that Burton has created and get a glimpse at what he's done with these brilliant characters, and we're ready to give it to them."
Times Online has a brief, exclusive video interview with Johnny Depp. He discusses the various moods of the character and playing such an eccentric role.
In case you missed it, here is the superb interview with Tim Burton on The Charlie Rose Show, which premiered on Thursday, November 26th, 2009. This is most of the episode. It begins with the three curators from the Museum of Modern Art discussing Burton's art, then goes to the man of the hour himself. Rose describes Burton as the "perfect guest", as they enthusiastically talk about a plethora of topics including his most personal films, being a parent, children's artwork, his creative process, and much more:
MTV News got a hold of Danny DeVito at the MoMA retrospective of Tim Burton's art in New York. DeVito enthusiastically reminisced about his role as the twisted Penguin in Burton's Batman Returns:
"I loved being with [Burton] on the set. We love hanging out," DeVito told MTV News during the red carpet opening of the exhibit. "I love to watch where he's going, what he's trying, all the different things he does."
"Talking about 'Batman Returns,' he's got me in this armadillo suit and I'm in a place that's so freezing — the stage was so cold — I was the only one comfortable," he laughed. "Everyone's walking around in scarves and hats ... I'm in pounds of latex or whatever the hell it was."
To help promote MoMA’s Tim Burton retrospective, we asked Burton himself to animate the MoMA logo for a thirty-second video that would be used to promote the exhibition on television, at the Museum, and online. Tim quickly came up with a concept utilizing stop-motion animation, and he asked Allison Abbate, his producer on Corpse Bride (2005) and the upcoming full-length version of Frankenweenie, if she could help pull things together.
Tim Burton's original robot design
Abbate turned to Mackinnon & Saunders, a U.K. firm that designs and builds animation puppets, models, and maquettes and produces TV commercials and entertainment programs for children’s TV, because they had worked on past Burton projects, including Corpse Bride. Company heads Ian Mackinnon and Peter Saunders pick up the story: “For the promo, Tim had designed a cute and quirky little robot character whose job was to inflate four typically Burton-esque balloons spelling out the MoMA logo. The whole premise sounded very simple, until we found out the timescale. We had just three weeks to create the character, the balloons, animate them, and get the footage out to Los Angeles for post production.”
The robot model and storyboards
Mackinnon continues, “Tim was very keen for the whole piece to be rendered in stop motion. For the robot character this wasn’t so much of a problem, Joe Holman, one of our lead sculptor/designers, broke all records to get the character fully sculpted and broken down into his constituent elements, head, body, arms, legs ready for moulding.”
Sculptor/designer Jo Holman renders the Robot in modeling clay
At the same time the problems of creating the illusion of four balloons being inflated in stop motion was being addressed. “The first thing we did was buy some large foil balloons and blow them up just to see what dynamics we were dealing with. We considered creating actual rubber balloons and inflating them with helium and shooting them time lapse but in such a short time if we hadn’t got it right the first time we would miss the deadline,” says Mackinnon. The team also considered replacement animation, a technique whereby each stage of a balloon’s inflation would be rendered as a separate model. “Again time was against us and there was no way we could produce the literally dozens of stages we’d need in time.” adds Saunders, “For all these reasons we decided to go with CG for the balloons and called our friends at Flix Facilities to create a test shot of the 3-D balloons for us.”
Lead CG artist Simon Partington took up the challenge. Within a day he had a beautiful bobbing balloon for us to see. “It was gorgeous,” says Mackinnon. “A bit too gorgeous. It didn’t have that quirky stop-motion feel that Tim was looking for so we asked Simon to try again.” Sculptor/designer Noel Baker quickly produced plastercine sculpts of the balloons and painted them to match Burton’s designs. These were then photographed and shipped over to the Flix team. “We reproduced the shape of Noel’s fantastic sculpts as closely as possible in CG.” explains Partington, “We then took Tim’s actual drawings and textured them onto the balloons before adding some of the same imperfections such as fingerprint detail that Noel had deliberately left on his sculpt. This all helped to recreate the sense of realism that stop motion provides.”
John Whittington maps the Burton design onto the 'M' balloon
Over the course of two days Partington and his team nailed down a technique that not only gave the light, fluffy feel of big rubber balloons but also had the slightly staccato feel of stop motion. The tests were rushed over to Burton, who was deep into post-production on Alice in Wonderland. “There was a huge sigh of relief when Tim gave the thumbs up. In all honesty I don’t know how we’d have got this done in time without the Flix team’s work,” MacKinnon smiles.
The Flix CGI team: Simon Partington, Neil Sanderson, John Whittington, and Mike Whipp
Meanwhile, head puppetmakers Caroline Wallace and Richard Pickersgill completed mold-making and cast out body parts for the robot character in fiberglass, rubber, and silicone, while at the same time constructing the intricate metal skeleton, which fits inside the puppet and enables it to hold any pose during the animation process.
Richard Pickersgill adding the finishing touches to the robot
“Typically a puppet character can take anywhere between twelve to eighteen weeks to produce,” says Pickersgill, “But Tim’s design lent itself to a very economical build and we put the puppet together in just ten days, probably something of a record!”
Pickersgill completed the final paint job a mere twenty-four hours before photography was due to begin. “As he was a bit of a beat-up looking little fellow, I decided to add streaks of rust around joints and arms. We sent pictures off to Tim and the only change he made was to remove the rust—so there was an eleventh hour (literally!) repaint.” Pickersgill chuckles, “I think the paint was possibly still tacky when we put him on the set!”
An arm is released from the mold
With the delivery deadline only four days away, lighting cameraman Martin Kelly and animator Chris Tichborne took over. “Our set was very simple,” says Kelly, “Tim wanted the robot and the balloon against a flat grey background. It was great because it further emulated the look of his original pen-and-ink drawings on a plain sheet of paper. We had three days to shoot the whole piece and my first take had to be right. I’d spent a day the previous week videoing myself performing the robot part. You feel a bit silly but Neil Sutcliffe, who edited the footage into his animatic, was very kind. He didn’t laugh too much!” Even for such a short piece, Tichborne tried to cram in as much in as he could. “Richard and Caroline had included a hinge top to the robot’s head which bobs open and closed as he walks. I also had in my mind Charlie Chaplin when the robot walked—not directly copying him but more just how he would create an idiosyncratic walk.”
DOP Martin Kelly slates a shot
CG lead Simon Partington was on set the whole time doing test composites of the balloons and the animation, just to make sure everything was lining up in terms of lighting and the timing of the dynamics. “The CG and stop-motion animation had to be delivered simultaneously; there would be no time to fix things later so we were literally doing the CG renders and the animation at the same time. Seeing it come together shot by shot was fantastic!”
Although the shoot took three long days over a weekend, the team’s experience and preparation paid off and the shoot went off without a hitch. The precious footage was beamed off via a high-speed data link for Tim Burton to oversee the final post-production in Los Angeles.
Chris Tichborne helps the robot pump it up
“Tim and the folks at MoMA seemed very pleased with the results,” says Ian Mackinnon, “It was a great little project to have been involved with and we hope the audiences at MoMA like it too!”
