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n the spirit of "Steven Spielberg
Presents", Ray Harryhausen and his agent Arnold
Kunert have envisioned a way to help talented
artists make a name in the industry. Where
Spielberg spotlighted discoveries such as Robert
Zemeckis, Joe Dante, and Chris Columbus in the
1980’s, “Ray Harryhausen Presents” has found a
similar way to showcase talent through projects
under his name and approval. Thus the stop
motion short “The Pit and the Pendulum” was
created, falling under the umbrella of "Ray
Harryhausen Presents", which includes
Harryhausen’s launch of comic books, movies,
video games, trading cards and his official
website.
Two
years ago Kunert suggested the idea to
Harryhausen, after a discussion about his
projects that time and clearance had kept
unrealized. Harryhausen liked the idea. They
settled on a project using Poe’s short stories,
usually 10 to 15 pages in length with a small
number of characters. “We selected Poe because
it was one of the projects Ray was interested in
doing in the 40’s”, Kunert explained. “The Pit
and the Pendulum”, with one primary character,
was an ideal start. |
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Kunert contacted Steve Jaworski,
who in turn contacted former colleague Marc
Lougee, who directed and co-produced the short
with his wife, Susan Ma. Under Lougee, the team
began to take form. Lougee enlisted the company
Switch VFX from Toronto, Canada, during the
preliminary development stage. Jon Campfens,
Co-founder and VFX Supervisor at Switch, was
impressed when he heard what Lougee intended to
do. “We felt we really had to be part of this
film. I am a big fan of stop motion animation
and with the recent resurgence of this art form
I knew that Marc would be able to bring a real
visual style and be faithful to the poem”. Jon
was brought on board as the VFX Supervisor and
to help with technical requirements that might
be needed in shooting the film.
Lougee
also sought out Fred Fuchs, known for producing
the films “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein”, “Bram
Stoker’s Dracula” and “Godfather III”. “I was
asked to come on board as Executive Producer,”
Fuchs explained. “I was to help with overall
creative and also financing and distribution. My
company was producing a stop motion television
series so had lots of interest in the medium. We
were able to help by providing equipment and
technology at no cost”.
Fuchs’s
involvement and the Canadian programs that
support this sort of work made the production
feasible. “We had no money!” Lougee exclaimed.
“I got grants from Bravo!Fact in Canada, as well
as the NFB in Montreal, a real blessing”. Lougee
credits Judy Gladstone at Bravo!Fact, an
organization through CHUM Network, and Michael
Fukushima at the NFB for the support. The short
was partially financed independently by Marc
Lougee and Susan Ma, and a shoot studio was
provided by Pete Denomme, Laurie Thompson and
Jon Campfens. Fuchs supplied editing facilities,
and Casablanca North helped with deals to post.
Kunert estimated the short would have normally
cost roughly $50-$60K, but it was a labor of
love done between other projects with a
tremendous support base. |
Harryhausen had script approval,
striving to maintain faithfulness to Poe's
story. He also consulted and confirmed visuals
were impressive and reflected his style of
animation. Since Harryhausen lives in London,
updates were handled via email.
Time and
money were always a factor, and Lougee was
working on this between other projects. He,
Kunert, and Harryhausen were scheduled to meet
in July of 2005 to view a rough cut of the film,
so the rush was on. Matt Taylor wrote the
shooting script and provided the concept art.
Scripts and designs took about 4 to 5 months to
complete, and were done during the puppet and
set construction. There were four puppet
characters: two monks, a French soldier, and of
course the prisoner.
The puppets stood
roughly 14” tall and were constructed over an
armature kit from England that Lougee modified.
The puppets needed to be light with replaceable
parts at a low cost, not an easy combination.
Lougee selected a ball and socket setup, made
from bronze tubes brazed to steel joints.
“Surprisingly, they were pretty tough. I use to
build all my armatures for commercial work, but
these were the first I had done in years”. The
heads and hands were constructed from silicon,
and the fabric wardrobe was furnished by costume
designer Rosary Kwak.
Space was
extremely limited, so sets were designed with CG
augmentation in mind, and were built on four by
four foot tabletops, creating a challenge by the
shear limitation of space. Lens choice was key,
to extend the set as far as possible. The
practical sets would then be shot on green
screen and extended with CG mattes. |
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The actual shoot was only about
four-and-a-half weeks, but animators Mike Weiss
and Ryan Fairley worked with Lougee from nine AM
til one or two AM, six to seven days a week. “We
all had gigs to jump into at the end of the
shoot, so we went full on to get the film ready
for post, while ramping up for the next job,”
Lougee said. “We focused on using the same
armatured heads, to keep the integrity of the
faces intact. Logistically, we only had the
budget for a couple of heads, one for each
puppet, with a spare facial skin each that we
could peel off and replace quickly, a feature I
designed into the construction process to keep
up with such a tight shot schedule. Mike and
Ryan pulled it off. They are a couple of
heroes.”
Harryhausen and Kunert met with
Marc Lougee in Toronto in July 2005 to see the
rough cut. They were pleased with what they saw,
and confident in Lougee’s skills. The short was
now entirely up to Lougee and his team.
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