Andy Biddle, lead animator on “the Grand Budapest Hotel”:
DF: How did you get involved with GBH?
- AB: I worked with Wes on Fantastic Mr. Fox and on that job I did a lot of work with some of the miniature puppets. In the GBH, Wes wanted the skier to also be a miniature so this was perhaps one of the reasons I was able to be involved in another of his films. Before we actually shot anything for the film, the exec producer, Molly Cooper (who I had worked with on Fantastic Mr. Fox), approached me and asked if I could do a simple test of a tiny skier. Wes wanted it to look real and we managed to do a test which demonstrated that this could work using micro puppets.
DF: Can you tell us about the kind of shots and how they were used?
- AB: The stop frame shots of the skier were shot as wide as possible. Normally I guess you would shoot something a lot larger in frame and then scale it down in post, but Wes wanted to shoot with the skier very small in frame to try and achieve the final size of the skier all in camera. The skier was then comped onto live footage of a model ski run that was shot in Germany. Apart from the skiing shots we also had a set up on the outside of the prison where Ralph Fiennes is sent at some point during the film. I animated a rope ladder swinging lightly in the breeze. We had three different lighting set ups for this shot to provide the post guys with different options. These were shot on 3 different exposures in Dragonframe. I also animated a few elements like flags/banners blowing in the breeze. Unlike FMF, in which Wes wanted everything to look stop frame, I believe Wes wanted the stop frame elements in GBH to look believable and to make the audience question if it was actually real or not.
DF: Can you tell us about the process?
- AB: The communication process of getting the stop frame shot was similar to that of FMF. On the GBH we did all our communicating via email again, but this time on a much smaller scale with myself, Molly Cooper (exec producer), Jeremy Dawson (exec producer) and Steve Perkins (one of the editors). Once I shot something I would rattle off a rough comp and send it to all these people. Wes would then send back his notes, if something needed changing I would either adjust the rough comp or change the actual animation. Since we were shooting the skier as a separate element I was able to adjust things like scale and speed very easily in aftereffects. Wes had a very specific idea of what he wanted so it was great that the shots, even when animated, could be adjusted in this way.
DF: Special challenges?
- I am personally not a massive fan of communicating via email in this way as it is always easier to get a handle on what a director wants you do for them when actually speaking to them as misinterpretation is more common, but we got there in the end. Also, being that this was such a small crew I did not have the studio support you would normally get on a film or commercial. Fortunately we were shooting a Clapham Road Studios where I shoot a lot and Matt Day (who runs CRS and is a DOP) helped me a lot with setting up, lighting and camera. Andy Gent (puppet maker and model maker) was also on site to help with puppet maintenance, rigging and set construction. I am so glad we got to shoot at Clapham Road Studios as it was a relief to have had this level of support so close at hand to help out.
DF: Any fun stories from the shoot?
- AB: So as you know, I was first asked to conduct a test to see if this process was a viable way to execute this scene. Molly Cooper had asked me to make a simple little maquette and shoot a quick test in my bedroom (the funds for this test were limited at this time). Anyway I set up the camera and my little wire puppet in my room and sent Wes a frame up. Wes replied that he wanted to go much wider and to make the skier a lot smaller in frame, which I did. I sent another frame up. Wes replied that he wanted to go wider still. This went on for a while until I got to the stage where I had dismantled my bed so that the skier could sit in one corner on the room on the floor and the camera was magic armed above the door next to the ceiling. “The skier needs to be smaller in frame still please Andy”. At this point I was at a loss, as I could not get the camera any farther away. Luckily, Clapham Road Studios did me a favour and we were able to shoot it on their main stage. Now that we were out of the constraints of my bedroom I asked Wes how much longer he wanted the ski run. He asked me to make it 3 times as long. The mock ski run in my bedroom had been 8 feet long (2.4 meters) so this meant he wanted it to be 24 feet long (7.3 meters)!! This was definitely not a quick test I could have done in my bedroom!
(following are for the pictures in the photo gallery above…as described by Andy Biddle)
1. Light rig – A moving search light had to animate across the prison wall. We had no moco so I made this rudimentary rig to do the job. A riggers riser that pulled a piece of string which was attached to a magic arm that levered the light round.
2. me in the basement posing the skier
3. Before and after effects overlay
4. Screen Shot – The original test with the 24 feet long mock ski run at Clapham Road Studios
5. This was photoshopped. I was sat on the set and by using Dragonframe’s line up layer it was made to look like I was sat on the wall. Just a bit of fun, really.
Andy Gent, puppet fabricator:
DF: How did you get involved with GBH?
- AG: Wes had asked me after Fox about working on his next film about which all I knew then was that it had a little stop mo sequence in it. Much later on we heard from Molly to say it was happening and was asked if we could start work on the three lead characters for a fast paced ski chase sequence.
DF: What kind of props / puppets were made?
- AG: We started with a few scales in clay until we had something Wes liked and then moulded and made them in a mixture of wire silicone and cloth. ultimately they were very, very tiny so we could shoot the big open country scene with them in. Prop-wise, well there were 1/4 inch ski poles, a sled and a rope ladder made of everything and anything you could think of as rungs for the escape.
DF: Can you tell us about the process?
- AG: It was a long road in development finding the right scale and dynamic for the sculpts…then to a quick mould, armature, cast, trim, seam, paint and costume before clipping on their skis and shouting, “Allez, allez allez!”
DF: Were there special challenges?
- AG: Making something soooooo small do soooooo much and in that scale and look credible in their world.
DF: Any fun stories ?
- AG: Too much fun working on a big film sequence secretly in our studio and workshop here in London.
Thank you so much for your time, gentlemen, and Bravo! Truly a job well done, one worthy of the impossibly high standards and great tradition of the Grand Budapest, itself!
-Dragonframe
Here is also an interesting avclub.com article on Wes Andersen’s very exacting visual refining process that paradoxically employs Hi-fi technology for the characteristically warm, eccentric, and decidedly Lo-fi feel for which he is so well known.
Animation credits:
Matthew Day stop-motion director of photography
Tristan Oliver stop-motion director of photography
Andy Biddle animator
Andy Gent puppet fabricator
Elizabeth Dalton sculptor
Toby Farrar stop-motion lighting cameraman
Josh Flynn sculptor
Nathan Flynn sculptor
Christy Matta sculptor
Cormac McKee sculptor
Rut Villamagna sculptor
Blog written by Vera Long