Doom – Junket Interviews, Pt 1

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Q: What are some of the innovations we’ll be seeing in Doom as opposed to other films based on video games?

JR: In this particular film, the challenge was to do everything we have done before only much better, in a way. There were simpler breakthroughs. This wasn’t quite like creating dinosaurs for Jurassic Park, but it was kind of, in way for us, a good old-fashioned monster movie in that there’s horrible looking creatures crawling around in the dark. We just wanted to make sure that what we did create was organic and frightening. For example, with the Hell Knight, some of the breakthroughs on that particular suit was the muscle understructure that we created. It would go onto Brian Steele and it was lightweight, but there were lots of muscles on it. The muscles would replicate, so there were elastics and things, so that when he moved it wasn’t just a big, thick foam suit. There was actually a structure underneath it that helped him moved. It was a very mobile suit. It gave him a lot of freedom. I think some of the other breakthroughs were in mixing and matching with CGI, blended with our effects at times to kind of keep it off-balance and make people wonder how it was accomplished. I think that seems to be one of the things, with such sophisticated audiences out there today… is that mixing the digital with the practical, when done, helps the viewer not to focus so much on the effects. Like, ‘Oh, that was floaty CGI, that’s too puppety, that’s makeup.’ By kind of cross-collateralizing you kind of eliminate that.

Q: And how do you decide which is going to be digital and which is going to be practical?

JR: I think we sat down, Jon Farhat and I, and the producers and everyone, and we kind of sat down and looked at the workload. The Pinky demon, that needed to be a CGI effect because of the his anatomy and how mobile he would be, because of his… But we felt like we were going to, you know, the imps and the Hell Knight we were going to try and get enough shotwise with that and then go back and augment it if need be with CGI. There were a lot of shots with the Hell Knight that we were going to remove the head and put a CG one on it. But the animatronic one ended up working so well that it wasn’t necessary. So you know, that’s a good, unexpected bonus.

Q: So it depends on the movement and the shape of any given creature?

JR: And what it’s going to do. If something is very textural and it’s breaking through something, it’s much easier if you can get it there live on-camera than it is to try and synthetically try and create that, um… It’s just um, I think it even helps in the performance. Even if something was going to get replaced or was definitely going to be a CG element later you still try to have reference with something live for the actors to respond to and act to. I think that helps their performances, because they can have an image in their mind of what it looks like and what it feels like.

Q: In terms of designing the creatures, what sort of nightmares to do you have? How do you come up with those hellish images?

JR: With this film, we had something to riff off of that was great to begin with. I think the designs they had done at Id were very organic, plus we needed to retain the feel of that so that the fans wouldn’t be disappointed. But then again, what we did was take those images in front of us, and we wanted to bring it to the big screen as far as embellishing the form and detail and, um, then we tried to come up with ‘What is the basis of what is going on here?’ So our reference that we use to bounce off of was, ‘What is horrible?’ So we were looking and forensic pathology books and photographs, and based color schemes off of what would you respond to as a human and turn your head and go, ‘Whoa… well, that’s… you know…’ We’d look at the books and go, ‘OK. Well, that’s absolutely horrendous. Let’s borrow that color.’ And then we were also looking at genetic mutations which is sort of what the gist of this film is, and getting that. In a strange way, borrowing from nature, even the horrific side of it, helps make the unbelievable more believable in a way. Because you can kind of identify with something you’re seeing there. You might not be able to pinpoint it, but I think that helps. It’s not just something completely out of the imagination. It’s rooted in some form of reality.

Q: Where do you find this stuff?

JR: There are all sorts of medical books that have it. They shows things like after Chernobyl, but also birth defects, children that are deformed, and… um, I’m a father of three… There’s all sorts of horrible, horrible things that survive even when they shouldn’t. And there’s things that sometimes don’t, because you can see how the bone structure has twisted and that becomes your inspiration. As horrible as that is, it inspires you in your drawings. [It’s depressing.] But I hope that ultimately audiences just have fun watching the monsters die in Doom! [laughs]

Q: Do you prefer a director who gives you a lot of room, or do you like a narrow path to follow?

JR: It becomes a different experience each time. In each one that you get into, you have to embrace that working relationship. A James Cameron, for instance, is very specific, you know. He tells you exactly what he wants. Andrzej Bartkowiak, on this film, was more open-minded. He even wanted us to bring ideas to the mix and he would pick and choose amongst them. So you know, each experience is different. You can have fun in all of them, if you have someone like a Jim Cameron who has very specific ideas, he takes you to place as an artist that you might not even have thought about because it’s coming from his mind and not your own. So that can be fun. And obviously, being free to come up with your own ideas and solutions that’s another liberating experience too.

Q: How do you work in each phase of the production?

JR: Immediately after reading the script, you meet with the director and producers, and in this case it was also our visual effects supervisor, Jon Farhat. He had a lot of creative ideas, Lorenzo had a lot of creative ideas. The directors switched on this at one point, so we started out with a different director. Enda was from Ireland, so we had some of his ideas on the table as well. Then when Andrzej came on board, he was already very receptive to the ideas we already had. This was very helpful, because we were very deep into the building and creating at that point. It would have been tough to go back and start over again. But he truly did like the direction we were moving in. This was tough [on the early crew] because it was at Warner Brothers to begin with, then it made a shift over to Universal. So we lost some time. We actually started sculpting in the middle of July and then needed to be in Prague in October, so that’s only three months. We usually like to like to have a couple more months for a show of this size. So we had to work quickly and figure out a way to get it done without shortcutting the art in the finished product. The steps in-between, you still had this due date. [laughs] We still had to deliver quality, which is never a question. You still have to do your best work. That was hard.

Q: How many creatures did you make, total?

JR: We did the Hell Knight and we had a few different suits with different types of heads to do different things. We had one that was burnt, and lit up on fire, that Brian [Steele] was actually in. You see that in the movie. Then there’s an after-burned look with burned skin. There were two hero versions of the head; one that was more for stunts and one that was for close-ups and then there’s various imps that Doug Jones was inside. When Dr. Willits was in the sewer, Carmack comes running down the hallways and gets trapped in the wall. We used a couple of different ones in the first-person shooter sequence of this film, which I think is a pretty creative nod to the video games.

Q: What do your stunt people bring to the table as far as their own physicality?

JR: Doug is very physical. Brian is, too. But they’re very different. Brian is more muscular and bigger, and he comes with a more powerful physique. Doug is more wiry and his movement is extraordinary. He can do some amazing poses and unusual motions. His type of acting lended itself well to imps which are more wiry. The Hell Knights is a more powerful, big brute.

Q: And what does Andrzej bring to it, with his extensive background in cinematography?

JR: I think he did a wonderful job of shooting. He enjoyed it. He spent times with the actors and gave us all a lot of freedom in suggesting what we thought as far as how to shoot the creatures. But I think his idea was to take the Alien approach. At least the first three quarters of the movie Alien, where you’re getting snippets of it. Its functioning in the dark and it allows your imagination to fill in some of those blanks. You’re like, ‘What did I see? What was that?’ I think that’s creepy. When I’d go to dailies, I just thought he was doing an amazing job of shooting it. Although it was Tony Pierce-Roberts was the DP, but between the two of them, you’ve got two great DPs. I had no fear it was going to be shot right.

Q: How many movies do you right yourself working on at once? The Stan Winston Studio is so big.

JR: I try to just work on one film at a time. I mean, the shop concentrates on several. I’ve been with Stan for 23 years now, so I’ve been there a while but I still just like to concentrate on one film at a time.

Q: How do you feel that he gets all the glory?

JR: He always gives us a nod. He does. I don’t need all that attention, though. I’m not that kind of guy. I’m alright with it. Keep me behind the scenes. I enjoy my work, and probably, if I had been of a different personality I might have ventured out on my own to do this, but I feel like I have all the opportunities that I need. I’ve gotten to work on some great films. I started as a sculptor and painter, and a makeup person. Hands-on.

Q: Can you outline a typical workday for yourself?

JR: For example, during Doom it would have been, first thing to field all the phone calls coming through production. Then you get new script pages. Things coming in, changes being made, updates. You make sure everything is on track. Then I walk out on the floor and check the progress with the sculptors. It helps to come in with a third eye; I’ve been guilty of this too — sometimes when you’re the one doing a sculpture and you’re doing it all by hand. Sometimes you can see what’s wrong because you’re so close to it. Or you don’t want to hear, ‘No, that cheekbone has got to come off and be moved down.’ But when you come in fresh and you use your artistic eye or your gut feeling and you look at it and… when you’re not the one doing it, you can see it clearly. I had years of Stan doing to me! [laughs] So I know that feeling. But I think that’s all part of the collaborative process. You go through the sculptures and you see what’s going on and you make sure that what is being created will also move properly and film properly, because no matter how beautiful the sculpting and paining, that part of the creation is nice but what ends up on set, what ends up on film, if that doesn’t work you’re in trouble. It’s those seconds, those few moments on film that will be remembered, not the exact sculpture or paint.

Q: Is Stan himself very involved in the design and the painting and all that?

JR: He is, he is. He still stays very involved. He puts a lot of his energy now into our production company. There’s a film shooting right now that we’re producing, called Skinwalkers. It’s shooting up in Canada, and it’s a werewolf movie. I’ve got to go up there shortly and film some of the more complex scenes. But Stan puts a lot of energy into that, but he still loves this part of it. He enjoys walking through the shop and offering up his opinions and his thoughts.

Q: Do you guys play pranks on each other, with all these creatures and things?

JR: Sometimes. Sometimes we do. It’s hard to scare anybody in our business, though! [laughs] This is what we do all the time. But yes, there’s some tomfoolery.

Q: [unintelligible, something about scenes of war.]

JR: Well, that’s difficult. That’s something that’s always hard because it’s real. It’s horrible. Looking at the forensic stuff. It still affects me. Especially with children, because I’m a father. I have three kids. When you see that kind of thing we, you know…

Q: Do you show them that stuff?

JR: No. Let them be kids as long as they can. [I think he misunderstood the question — the interviewer meant do you show them the movie]

Q: How old are they?

JR: My son is 12, my stepdaughter is 12, and my youngest daughter is 9.

Q: How do you explain your job to them?

JR: They’ve been around it. They’re growing up with it. Of course, I don’t show them some of the horrible things, but a lot of the things we have done, fortunately, aren’t all graphic and horrible things. You know, we have the dinosaurs. They’re amazed by it all. They’re interested. But they are not as interested as I was when I was their age. I think it’s like, ‘Oh, that’s what dad does.’

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Staci Layne Wilson reporting