Interview: Andy Serkis, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Andy Serkis: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Interview

Also check out
// How To Walk Like an Ape: Motion Capture and Animation

How To Walk Like an Ape: Motion Capture and Animation

// Andy Serkis interview: 'Audiences are moved by acting, not effects'

“Two things have to be understood: the authorship of a performance happens on set with a director and other actors in a very conventional live action sense. The animation process is what happens afterwards, and the skill and artistry and the brilliant work the animators do in interpolating that performance and manifesting it on screen is an art form which is unparalleled.” Then, almost defiantly, he adds: “Acting is acting and visual effects are visual effects and it’s a marriage, but the authorship of performance - everything you watch on screen that you feel and think about a character - comes from the actor.”



// Andy Serkis Vs. Visual Effects Animators: The Wrong Fight For Both Sides

"And one more thing for vfx artists: You too should stop bickering over who is the author of the performance and work with Andy Serkis — or Zoe Saldana or Jamie Bell or Ray Winstone — to get awards, even if it’s a special achievement award made up for the occasion, for a performance capture role. Because people like winning awards, and helping an actor win an award will make you more desirable for the next film that puts a big actor in a performance capture suit.

 So what if nobody says your name from the podium? At least you’ll have have a great story for bartenders and reporters."


// Where Does Andy Serkis End & Animation Begin?

“It’s a tough question, because obviously Andy gives you the heart and soul of the performance, but we also come at it with creating what you see on top of it. So there’s this hybrid and I think that the Academy… is not quite clear how to honor that combination, because this a new thing where you can take the performance and separate it from the visual image of what you see, but then it all has to come back together again as though they were one and the same to start with.”


// Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: how to act like an ape

"However, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers doesn’t cover motion-capture acting in Screen Actors Guild contracts, classifying it rather as “lower-paying background work”, according to Variety. All that motion capture does, the association says, is assist animators, who ultimately produce the final performance – and there’s no way of telling how closely the final performance matches the actor’s movements. Steven Spielberg wanted his 2011 motion-capture movie The Adventures of Tintin to be considered an animated feature, but equally, when the 2006 movie Happy Feet won the Oscar for best animated feature, having employed motion capture, many animators felt the technique either disempowering or, at worst, a cheat or shortcut."


// Andy Serkis, Star of a Movie Medium That Doesn't Need Stars
'Motion capture has a long history of second-tier kind of acting—or worse, a mere variety of animation'

Andy Serkis Talks Acting And Performance Capture

More interviews with Andy Serkis

'The Hobbit' VFX Breakdowns

There are some really nice VFX breakdown clips of The Hobbit over on the LA Times website. I enjoyed The Hobbit! I saw it twice - once in London and once in Houston, TX. I thought the story and pacing of the film was a bit lackluster but the character performances were amazing!

The Andy Serkis Mocap Performance Channel

Andy Serkis has a new Vimeo channel dedicated to video clips and featurettes showcasing some of his motion capture work. Sadly not much is mentioned about all the animation that is added to his performances in post. There's no question Andy is a fantastic actor but there are dozens of equally talented animators helping to bring these CG characters to life on the other side of the mocap camera. Below are a few 'comparison' clips from Planet of the Apes.

More clips here // Andy Serkis Channel on Vimeo

And lastly some food for thought.

// Should Andy Serkis's monkey capture a mo-cap Oscar? via the guardian film blog


// Can Peter Jackson's Weta studios allow anyone to play a gorilla? via the Independent


Andy Serkis says "At first with Gollum it wasn't even performance capture, it was motion capture and then the facial performance was shot on 35mm film. Then the animators rotoscoped – basically painted frame by frame over my expressions, matchframing every facial expression I made. "
"You don't actually get to see the visual effects until months down the line when they all start to come in and the visual effects shots begin to replace the actual thing, well after the final edit. And the animators can calibrate the character on the computer: you can dial the curvature of the spine, so you'll notice by the end of the movie Caesar's absolutely upright. He's more human in his movements."



Also, here's the Andy Serkis insert from this month's Hollywood Reporter magazine.  

 

Andy Serkis plans UK motion-capture studio 'Imaginarium'

Here's an interesting article about Andy Serkis's plans for a new UK based mocap studio.

Andy Serkis's 'Imaginarium'


Check out the vid as well. Andy has some interesting things to say about actor performances. What do you animators think?

Part 1



Part 2