A Look Inside “Resident Evil:Afterlife” with Director Paul W.S. Anderson

At Comic-Con 2010 we had the pleasure of sitting at the round-table for Resident Evil:Afterlife and hearing Director Paul W.S. Anderson talk about how Resident Evil: Afterlife is going to be the “first proper live action 3D movie of the year.” He further goes into detail about the challenges of shooting a film with 3D cameras and working with Ali Larter, Milla Jovovich and Wentworth Miller.

Interviewer: Is it nice to be back at Comic-Con again?

Paul Anderson: I love Comic-Con. I think it’s fantastic. I came here about 15 or 16 years ago when it really was just a bunch of us and some comics. So, it’s fun to come back here. This is my fourth year in a row. It’s nice coming full circle talking about wanting to make the movie and being excited about making it in 3D to having now having shot the movie. I literally just came from finishing the film. I filmed last night. It really is the best Resident Evil yet. I am really proud of it.

Interviewer: What are your thoughts on how 3D has been completely overwhelming the industry in the past year?

(PA): Obviously I am excited about it because I do think that 3D is the future of cinema entertainment and home entertainment as well. I just came back from Japan after seeing the new Bravia TV and they are unbelievable. So I am very excited about that. It is funny because we finished shooting Resident Evil back in December. And around then 3D wasn’t as big. And then Avatar came out and suddenly on January 1st everyone back in Hollywood got really excited about it. And we just continued making our movie. I think the interesting thing is that it is going to be the first proper live action 3D movie of the year. And I don’t think anyone has seen a proper 3D live action movie since Avatar.

Interviewer: Does it worry you that films have suffered through these bad conversions?

(PA): No, it doesn’t worry me because I think people are still excited about 3D and from the people that we have shown it to they say, wow, that is what 3D is supposed to look like. And I say, that’s right, that is what 3D is supposed to look like because you are supposed to shoot it in 3D with 3D cameras, you are supposed to build sets that work with 3D, you are supposed to shoot it in a way that enhances the 3D, and you are supposed to edit in 3D. We are actually the first movie to fully edit in 3D as well, so in the cutting room we were wearing these glasses and on set we were wearing these glasses. I spend my life wearing these glasses. I wish someone would design something slightly more fashionable than my dad’s old 80’s Ray Ban look. I am sure that is going to come. I think people are going to see this movie and say, oh, that is why were are paying the extra 3, 4, or 5 bucks to go and see these movies. I think IMAX is a good example of that. IMAX is very picky about the movies they put on their screens especially the 3D ones. They very rarely go with R rated movies. I think Watchmen was the last IMAX 3D movie and that was really only because IMAX has a huge relationship with Warner Brothers because of the Harry Potter movies. So for IMAX to endorse this film by putting it onto 3D IMAX screens I think is a huge thing and the only reason they are doing it is because they know how good it looks. So I think it is going to be a good thing. I have always felt that I wanted to shoot in 3D. I felt that was the right way to do it. We, as filmmakers, have a responsibility. If you are going to ask people to pay a premium price at the cinema, you better present a premiere product.

Interviewer: What was your troubleshooting process on set?

(PA): You know, I am spoiled working with Ali and Milla because they are just not divas at all. They show up to work in a great mood, you beat the hell out of them, you send them home with bruises, they come back to work the next day and they say, yes sir, what would you like me to do now? They are lovely to work with and very committed. They are so not divas and our joke was that the biggest divas on the set were the cameras because they were the ones that never wanted it to work, they always had problems, they don’t like it when it is too cold, they don’t like it when it is too hot, they don’t like it when it’s too dry, they don’t like the rain, they don’t like the moisture. Of course we were shooting big scenes in the rain so we made it difficult for ourselves.

Interviewer: What is it about this franchise and these characters that has maintained your interest and passions?

(PA): I think it is a fascinating world. I think that it is two things. I think the undead touch a primal fear in all of us. I think that there is something very primal about the dead coming back to life and the unstop-ability and the inevitability. We all have these recurring dreams where you are being chased by someone and they just will not stop. And they don’t go particularly fast, but they are coming. Maybe it is just me. But I think they touch a primal fear. I also think the fear of the apocalyptic world and that the modern world is kind of on a knife edge and could tip into chaos very easily I think is something else. I think that is one of the strengths of the franchise and that is why I think that is an endearing franchise.

Interviewer: When you had these troubles with your cameras, is there someone you could call at James Cameron’s company? How did you work through those things?

(PA): Yeah, Vincent Pace who built the cameras with Cameron, was very attentive. They provided very good support for us. It is like any new technology. It is a little more difficult to work with. You move a little slower. You don’t get as many set ups which means it takes longer to shoot the movie which means the movie costs more money to make. But getting back to the point of if you want people to pay a premium, you have to deliver a premium. I felt that was what we had to do. Certainly the easier and cheaper way to do it is shoot it in 2D and dimensionalize it but that bandwagon is going to crash and burn pretty soon because once people start to get used to the new wave of 3D movies such as Resident Evil, Pirates of the Caribbean, you know, all the big ones that are being shot in 3D… Scorsese’s new movie…

Interviewer: But is this helpful to the technology? You said this is the first movie filmed with this camera outside of a studio…

(PA): Absolutely. You learn through the problems and the problems get fixed. It was funny because the cameras were big. Essentially it was two cameras together. So you realized there is no steady cam because there was no steady cam rig built that can handle that weight. There was no motion control rig. We had to build our own motion control rig because one didn’t exist. Because you realize is that in the last 10 or 15 years cameras have gone through this process where they have been miniaturized. They have gotten smaller and smaller and the lenses have gotten lighter. So the hot heads and the cranes… all the technology is built for light weight cameras. Suddenly 3D cameras come along and they are beasts. And I was looking at the techno crane one day and we had a hot head on it and the camera starts vibrating and makes a really loud noise and the camera just pointed towards the ground. The gears in the computerized hot head just couldn’t take the weight. They were always jamming up. It is weird that there is millions of dollars worth of technology and there was a man with a hammer that would bash it like crazy trying to free up the gears. And I would ask if that was really the best way to solve that problem and he would say, yeah, its fine. He would continue to bash it and then the camera would start working again. It was fun being on the cutting edge of technology because I really feel that this is the equivalent to sound or color photography coming in. I think these changes in cinema only occur once every 40 or 50 years and it is exciting being a filmmaker working on the cusp of one of these changes.

Interviewer: Can you talk to us about why you casted Wentworth. Why did you see him playing this character? Did you audition him?

(PA): No, we didn’t. I was a huge fan of his from prison break. He was a very appropriate actor for us because the thing that Milla and Wentworth have in common is that they are very serious actors. They take their craft very seriously. I think if you are making a movie with creatures in it, that is what you absolutely need from your actors. I always go back to Alien and Sigourney Weaver because having made an Alien movie myself; you realize that it is not the most terrifying creature in the galaxy. It is actually a man in a rubber suit who can barely stand up and he is not scary at all. But Sigourney Weaver in the first Alien sells the horror. She sells the believability. And that is what Milla does in our movie. She sells the terror. She sells the undead. Even when I say cut, the undead get on their cell phones or they go to the craft service table and they drink a diet coke. They are not scary unless the actor makes you believe that it is scary. And Wentworth is from that school where he takes the situation very seriously. He, like Milla, sell the believability of that world.

Interviewer: And how was working with Wentworth?

(PA): It was great. He was very prepared. He would have lots of thoughts about the character and the dialogue well before hand. We would have lots of talks about how he saw the scenes and we discussed a lot. But then when he came to set he would be ready to do it. And also he is really magnetic and charismatic. He comes across great in the film. He is very cinematic. He reminds me of 1970’s actors. He has this dark allure of a Richard Burton, Richard Harris, or a young Anthony Hopkins. I think that is the kind of mold that he comes from. Quite old fashioned in a way. He is like that really old school 60’s or 70’s movie star. I think that he has a huge career in film.

Interviewer: How were things different working on this movie with Milla in terms of it being a fourth installment and personal relationships being different.

(PA): You know, we have obviously made four of these movies together and we have been together four of the films. The change this time is that we have a daughter. It was one of the pleasures of making the movie having my family around me at work and then at home as well. Milla is a very serious actress and she takes her craft very seriously and she is very committed to the work she does. So we don’t really let our personal relationship effect the set at all. It was a delight really. The thing about us is that we love what we do. We both love filmmaking and we both love Resident Evil. We take our work home with us and we talk about it when we are laying in bed. It’s fantastic. It’s great to be able to combine your work life and your personal life like that.

Interviewer: How much actual zombie action is in this film compared to the others? It seems like they are getting away from the standard shuffling.

(PA): A lot. They speed it up because they speed it up in the game. When we did the first movie I was very insistent that they be the slow, Romero-esk zombies because that is what they were in the game. They weren’t running fast. But slowly as the games evolved, the undead and the creatures evolved. As they have evolved, so have we. One of the big things is the Majini undead. I think that you can’t just have the same thing over and over again. If a franchise is to survive, like the T-virus, you have to evolve and mutate. So I don’t think we would be correct making Resident Evil: Afterlife with the same shuffling zombies we made the first Resident Evil with. We definitely have a lot of undead but we have gone with the Majini style of undead. They move faster and they may just want to eat you and something unpleasant will burst out of their mouths. You never really know. We have gone with the Majini dogs as well with the heads that split open because I think they look phenomenal. The executioner I think is the best creature Capcom has ever designed. He is fantastic. He is my hero. I love him.