INTERVIEW: Green Lantern Director Learns CGI On The Job
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- Last Updated: Tuesday, 12 November 2013 06:31
- Written by Lupe Haas
Shooting live action stunts and visual effects is second nature to Campbell, but for GREEN LANTERN, the New Zealander had to learn CGI technology and shoot the majority of the film on a blue screen. Martin Campbell is best known for action films including reviving the James Bond franchise with Casino Royale starring Daniel Craig. He also helmed many action-adventure films such as The Mask of Zorro (1998) with Antonio Banderas and it's 2005 sequel Legend of Zorro, Vertical Limit (Chris O'Donnell), and the Pierce Brosnan Bond film Goldeneye (1995).
To film the universe of the Green Lantern Corps and Green Lantern's super powers, Ryan Reynolds and Mark Strong acted opposite a blue screen. The galaxy and Planet Oa would later be added in with computer graphics. Parallax, one of the villains of GREEN LANTERN, was created entirely in digital during post production. A blue screen instead of the usual green screen was used for obvious reasons -- the primary color for the hero is green. In order to factor out the background from the actor in post production, the background must be a different color.
CineMovie recently asked Martin Campbell during a press conference in Beverly Hills, how he approached the new technology and what surprised him the most about it.
Cambpell may have learned all about CGI on the job, but he did bring his knowledge of live action stunts to the blue screen production and treated the action scenes similar to his previous work.
Campbell didn't take it easy on his star Ryan Reynolds on the make believe set, bringing real-life elements to the action scenes.
Ryan Reynolds can attest to Campbell's "tough and hard" methods on set with a shoulder dislocation to prove it. For Ryan, GREEN LANTERN was also his first film which required "so much post-production."
For Martin Campbell, the hands-on experience with CGI proved the best learning ground.
GREEN LANTERN is now playing in movie theaters nationwide.
