2 Worlds in 3 Dimensions
Pete Kozachik, ASC details his approach to the 3-D digital stop-motion feature Coraline, whose heroine discovers a sinister world behind the walls of her new home.
American Cinematographer (The American Society of Cinematographers)
Exciting events tend to happen as soon as conditions are right, and Henry Selick’s stop-motion feature Coraline, based on Neil Gaiman’s supernatural novella, rides in on a host of new innovations, including advanced machine-vision cameras and the emergence of practical 3-D. Most instrumental was the birth of Laika Entertainment, Phil Knight’s startup animation company in Oregon, fresh and eager to try something new.
I made it a priority to line up talented and experienced cameramen early. Leading their three-man units were cinematographers John Ashlee, Paul Gentry, Mark Stewart, Peter Sorg, Chris Peterson, Brian Van’t Hul, Peter Williams and Frank Passingham. Most of the camera assistants and electricians had shooting experience of their own, making the camera department pretty well bulletproof. With more than 55 setups working at the same time, we needed guys that were quick, organized and versatile.
From the beginning, we knew the two worlds Coraline inhabits — the drab “Real World” and the fantastic “Other World” — would be distorted mirror images of each other, as different in tone as Kansas and Oz. Camera and art departments would create the differences, keeping the emphasis on Coraline’s feelings. Among the closest film references for the supernatural Other World were the exaggerated color schemes in Amélie, which we used when the Other Mother is enticing Coraline to stay with her. The Shining and The Orphanage provided good reference for interiors when things go awry.
Image banks such as flickr.com were a good source for reference pics, and including those shots in my lighting and camera notes helped jump-start crews on new sequences. Artist Tadahiro Uesugi supplied a valuable influence for the show; his work has a graphic simplicity, like fashion art from the Fifties, with minimal modeling but an awareness of light. It helped in spirit to guide us away from excess gingerbread, which is typical in both art and lighting for stop-motion animation. Our film has plenty of interesting things to look at, but we did our best to make every bit of eye candy contribute to the main story. Uesugi’s handheld stylus gives lines a slightly wavy edge, which the art department used to weave more life into architecture.
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