DEADLINE: When did you take the leap and focus on 120fps 4K?
LEE: We did our own test to see what 120 looks like. And then, finally, we saw the Whole Shebang, and that happened a few weeks before we start shooting. At that point, 60 frames-per-second was for sure our goal. I saw the 60fps test first from James Cameron, who was promoting his own thing. That made me think, this doesn't just have to be 48fps. I thought 48fps was it, but it seemed like people didn't like it so much [when Peter Jackson used it in the first Hobbit film].
DEADLINE: I remember the criticism. What did you think of that?
LEE: I think it was moving in the right direction but people weren't used to it. The filmmakers were trying something new, but in an old movie format and story. People didn't know what to say, so they said things like, it's like a giant TV, which it is not really fair. It was just something new. The second one I think works better both from the filmmaking side and for the audience because they're used to it more, which is part of the process. With this, we were much cheaper. Once we saw the 120fps, and that I could do a more fully experimental thing, I just couldn't resist. We're not a big commercial movie, so why not try?
GERVAIS: The very first test we did was October of 2014. We were evaluating cameras and 3D rigs. At that point we had already knew we needed to shoot at 120fps because, if you shoot at 60, our issue was how do you make a 24-frame version for the projectors that can't do 60?
LEE: Television has 30.
GERVAIS: Because 24 doesn't divide evenly into 60, it means that we could have simulated it but then we would have had to touch up all the shots up with VFX to fix the errors. Every shot in your movie becomes visual effect at that point. So it's a big cost add.
DEADLINE: How did you get around that?
GERVAIS: That's where the decision to make 120fps came from. It started with mathematics; 120 is 60 multiplied by two and it's 24 multiplied by five so it's easy to discard frames or average frames to get back down without needing to involve visual effects whatsoever. It was a mastering format idea, but then once we had made that decision to shoot in 120, what does it actually look like? Our theory going into it was, maybe it looks like the jump from 24 to 48, which is a pretty big difference. Going from 48 to 60 is a little bit less of a difference. We thought maybe it might be a case of diminishing returns, that maybe we don't see much difference. And then we got it up on a screen, only two weeks before we started shooting, and we saw it was going to be something else totally.
LEE: It was not a movie.
DEADLINE: Was that a great moment?
LEE: The crew was shaken. Like, how do we make this movie? It's like all the movie magic we did, all the tricks we know, out the window. That moment was pretty...
GERVAIS: There were a lot of pale faces.
LEE: Dead silence. No discussion. We all saw it, and walked out. For a long time nobody speaks. It's just a dead silence.
DEADLINE: And then what?
LEE: We were already set to make the movie. It was like, what do we do now?
GERVAIS: Everybody is like, back to the drawing board, on everything. Because you see all the makeup, and you see that the set looks fake. You see everything.
DEADLINE: So the make-believe element is gone? I saw those scenes, and it was as stark and fully realized as the three of us sitting here, right now.
LEE: To me, the biggest thing is the acting. How do you act, in 120fps? Everyone knew their lines, but how do they pretend everything they will do is happening for the first time?
DEADLINE: So instead of enjoying this technological breakthrough, it sounds like your reaction was, ”We've created a monster." What adjustments did you have to make? You mentioned makeup.
LEE: Even preparing for 60fps meant you just don't use makeup, and [Luisa Abel] had spent months of preparation on their skin tones. They had to be treated like babies.
GERVAIS: They were on special diets.
LEE: She found this silicone-based makeup because we found that it can see through skin. You can feel the person's essence. So if somebody didn't sleep well or some blemishes start to pop out, you can cover it with a silicone base but that's see through. I'm sure in the future they can invent makeup or other ways to do makeup, but we're the first ones to do it. We didn't have any answers except, no makeup.
DEADLINE: How did your actors feel about that?
LEE: The young ones probably thought, all movies are like this. The experienced actors, I think they were nervous. I just told them, ”Trust me. You'll be OK." When they were cast, we knew by then we wanted to do 120fps but I hadn't seen it with actors, even at 60. I told them, ”I probably won't use makeup. Just prepare for it. Are you OK with that?" They go, ”OK, fine."
Love having that first couple beer with a new TV.
