In July, during a town hall discussion between directors Gareth Edwards, Justin Simien and Louis Leterrier at San Diego Comic-Con, the latter mentioned that Gareth Edwards’ The Creator could “change cinema.”
The director of Fast First of all, the budget of the film that has just been released is 80 million, a very reasonable sum for a Hollywood blockbuster – Fast X cost 340 million. Then it was shot “backwards.” Gareth Edwards explained his approach during a virtual press conference attended by La Presse.
“Normally, to make a film like this, you design the environments and then present them with illustrations to the studio executives. They tell us that we will never find places that look like what we are looking for, that we will have to build a set, that it will cost 200 million and that we will mainly have to film on green screens, summarizes the director of Monsters, Godzilla and Rogue One. What we suggested is to shoot and then design the environments afterwards. »
Thus, the decor elements and futuristic vehicles were added during the assembly stage. Each plan was first improved by graphic designers then different studios, including Industrial Light
We follow Joshua (John David Washington) who has been mandated by the American army to destroy the new weapon created by the enemy camp. This one is in fact an android which has the appearance of a little girl (Madeleine Yuna Voyles). Danger will pursue the improbable duo in different places.
To reduce filming costs, Gareth Edwards assembled a small team who traveled to eight countries to capture as many images as possible. Among other things, they visited the volcanoes of Indonesia, the ruins and floating villages of Cambodia and the Buddhist temples of the Himalayas. “The people we see in the film actually live in the village near the temple,” explains Gareth Edwards. Children even agreed to have their heads shaved to play androids. »
The filmmaker managed to film John David Washington at an altitude of more than 3,000 m, also thanks to a very lightweight Sony FX3 camera that cost only $5,000. This allowed him greater freedom of movement, often with a single light held by a pole operator or only the glow of the moon. “We did 30-minute takes in which we adjusted the light without stopping the scene. I think the result is more natural and lends itself well to science fiction,” says Gareth Edwards.
“When I started writing [The Creator] in 2018, artificial intelligence was an idea that maybe would happen in my lifetime, but probably not, like flying cars or living on the moon. […] In my story, she is a metaphor for people who are different from us. I have to admit it’s all become a bit surreal now that she’s a part of our lives,” says Gareth Edwards.
Although The Creator depicts a reality in which the use of artificial intelligence is causing a world war, the Briton is optimistic about the future. “All the technological progress of the last century has been followed by seismic disturbances that we have managed to overcome,” underlines the filmmaker. Now that the dust has settled, I am happy to have electricity, computer and internet. The next few years will be difficult to navigate, but I believe that artificial intelligence is a powerful tool that can help us in many areas and whose positive impacts will be greater than the negatives. »
Gareth Edwards jokes that he says all this because when the robot apocalypse comes, he will be spared by them thanks to his comments on this recording.
