Real Steel hits UK cinemas tomorrow. It’s a great action movie with more robots than you can shake a stick at. We got to speak with it’s director, Shawn Levy at the Big Screen event back in August about the movie, how it came about and what we can expect from it.
Shawn has previously directed Cheaper by the Dozen and Night at the Museum, and Real Steel was a very different movie to shoot that either of the films. In this interview we also get to hear how he learn to use motion capture and what it was like working with legends Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis who Produced the film.
Real Steel is out tomorrow, 14th October.
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HeyUGuys: Can you tell us about how the fight sequences were filmed?
Shawn Levy: All the suits were motion capture, actual boxers. We would then take the raw motion capture data and we would put it through the system, harden the movements and then render it out. Sometimes we would make CG tweaks but 95% of the boxing was motion captured real fighters.
HeyUGuys: So was the movie shot on location or was it all done in a studio?
Shawn: It’s called mo-cap SimulCam B and it’s an offshoot of thee way Cameron did on Avatar. We captured the fights six months before we shot it. The system, then converted every fighter into their robot avatar. Then six months later, I went to Detroit and I would do a shot for instance of Hugh Jackman in the ring. The system then plugs in the fight action from the matching perspective if where I put my live action camera, and that’s what’s called SimulCam B so when I was watching my monitor and operation my camera, I was already seeing Hugh, Noisey Boy and Midas in the frame. That’s why operating is so dynamic as you’re not guessing. You’re operating the fight in your eyepiece.
HeyUGuys: How did you find that as a Director when never using it before?
Shawn: This was an intense learning curve, much like going from Night at the Museum from Cheaper By the Dozen from no effects to many digital effects, and then on this one, from some visual effects to next generation visual effects but after a few weeks, I had it dialled in.
HeyUGuys: You must have a great team of people around you who are able to help with this transition?
Shawn: I have a guy in particular and you can safely say he’s the best First Assistant Director in the world, his name is Josh McGlaglin. He did Titanic, Avatar, Night at the Museum, Castaway. And when I took on this project, I said to him ‘Zulu’ cos that’s his nickname, I said ‘Zulu, you have to teach me everything!’ and he did. It’s like being in high school or college where you’re sitting in class and you’re completely lost. You’re so lost that you don’t even understand the words that people are using. For me I was so determined not to let it beat me and I then I figured it out.
HeyUGuys: What year is the film set?
Shawn: It’s mentioned on in passing twice. It’s set in 2020. If I had to do it again, I’d have set it a little further in the future but as you’ve seen in the movie, I wanted a world where it looked like our own in which a new sport had evolved. We used the word retro-forward a lot and you’ll notice in the movie that it has a very retro Americano look but it’s got these futuristic touches. Like Charlie Kenton’s truck for instance. The cab of that truck is 50 years old. We bought this truck which is a vintage item, sheared it off behind the steering wheel and we build a futuristic body. It’s got those weird glass panels and we custom built that at great expense but it’s why the movie has a unique design look.
HeyUGuys: What was it like for you getting names like Steve Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis on board for the project?
Shawn: Best ever! When I went to meet with Steven in New York, I haven’t been nervous like that in ten years! But it’s a good nervous! Really, deep down you hope that when you make these movies, you hope that the success of them will earn you the privilege of diversity; that’s at least how I’ve always approached my career. To have that happen, to get a call from such a lofty mentor, to do a movie so completely unlike anything I’ve done, it’s really what I’ve been working for.
Bob isn’t in LA as much but he came in and consulted with me on the robot designs and the truth is, if you’re doing a creature design movie, and you’re two advisors are Zemeckis and Spielberg, it’s pretty amazing company.
HeyUGuys: Did you have visions inside your head of what the robots would look like and the screens that controlled them?
Shawn: The consoles in the corners of the league fights are called the fight deck. They were super cool and super expensive!
HeyUGuys: So were they real consoles which you digitised afterwards?
Shawn: Yes, with double joysticks and keypads and interactive screens. The design of it, some of the ideas were mine, some of them were Tom Myers the designer, we designed 19 robots. But I wanted everyone of them to have their own pallet, their own style of fighting, their own look. And Tom Meyer oversaw an amazing team of illustrators and gave them that visual diversity. But the real triumph in my opinion is Atom’s design is so simple and evocative and I’m really happy with how he turned out because he’s the third lead in the movie.
HeyUGuys: In the background of the film, there were loads of 3D cameras – does that mean you think 3D will be the standard? Also adverts for Virgin Galactic and Xbox 720, how did you go about getting permission to put in all these futuristic brands?
Shawn: Getting the permission of the brands was a nightmare, but really worth it. I think 3D will be much more interwoven into the fabric of our media yes so that#s why I did that. When I went to the Aldo fight in Vegas, a big title fight, I was amazed at how there is music, constant music. And it’s why we have an amazing soundtrack. I screened the movie for Crystal Method, for Timberland, for the Beasties. These venues likes soccer venues are wall to wall adverts so we approached dozens and dozens of adverts. In many cases we asked them not only for the chance to use their logo but also to help them design a future logo.
HeyUGuys: What can we expect from the sequel?
Shawn: When we started screaming the movie, we started seeing the overwhelmingly response to the movie so Dreamworks asked us John Gatins and I to develop a second movie. We took a while, we took three of four months before we had a take that we thought was worth doing. The next one will explore more of the rivalry between the underworld and the league and we’ll also explore what happens to Zeus and Tak Mashido but it’s a pretty cool next iteration of the story.
HeyUGuys: Can we expect Real Steel 2 to be in 3D, especially with Spielberg behind it?
Shawn: It could be. Steven certainly in support of 3D but on this movie, he very much thought that 2D was the way to go to keep the focus on the characters. We’ll see how we feel and we’ll also learn about our franchise if it becomes a franchise with the way that people react to the first movie.
