No compensation was received for this post. I attended a set visit which facilitated the writing of this post.
There is something uniquely magical about a stop-motion film, particularly if you’ve gleaned a bit of insight into the time, effort, and creativity that are poured into this piece of cinematic art by the filmmakers. Solely dedicated to breathing innovation into this genre of film, Portland-based stop-motion animation studio LAIKA is set to release their third film this September. During a set visit earlier this year, I had an opportunity to speak with the filmmakers and get an intimate, first-hand look at the making of The Boxtrolls.
Inspired by Alan Snow’s novel, Here Be Monsters!, The Boxtrolls tells the story of an orphaned boy named Eggs (voiced by Isaac Hempstead-Wright) who is lovingly raised by a community of quirky, mischievous, underground cave-dwelling, trash-collecting trolls. Beneath the streets of the posh, Victorian-era town called Cheesebridge. When the town’s villain Archibald Snatcher (voiced by Ben Kingsley) devises a plot to get rid of the Boxtrolls, Eggs ventures above ground where he meets and teams up with Winnie (voiced by Elle Fanning) to plot how they will save Eggs’ family.
When we first arrived on-set, I was fascinated with the beauty and elaborate detail of the handmade sets, props, and character models. Everything used in the film is handmade and requires that level of detail since stop-motion animation is such a specialized genre of filmmaking. The main surfaces of the sets are built of wood which allows holes to be drilled into them so the characters can stand and be moved around seamlessly. One of the most intriguing, behind-the-scenes insights was learning that most of the materials used are often very disconnected from their true-to-life counterpart. From small pieces of paper to represent leaves and flowers to synthetic costumes designed to mimic fabrics like denim, velour, and wool, every set and wardrobe piece is precisely fashioned to evoke a true-to-life experience. According to Focus Features CEO James Schamus, the artisans that work at LAIKA “transform everyday materials into living creatures infused with dimension, humor, and soul.” As the filmmakers continue to shoot the film, they must carve into the sets and very often they become just a fragment of what they once were. While most of the sets get destroyed after the film is complete, some parts will go on to exhibition tours in museums across the country.
Creating the illusion of movement in a film is a meticulous process, and every shot of the film includes some kind of motion. To give you some perspective on the amount of time it takes to create a film like The Boxtrolls, one scene is approximately 1000 frames (~ 40 seconds in length) and can take one month to shoot. Every scene in the film has been shot twice with the initial serving as a rehearsal to determine the basic choreography of the shot as well as the emotional components of the acting.
The entire film is storyboarded and the voices are all recorded before a single frame is shot. As the filmmakers begin shooting, they will rework the boards as the characters and their worlds inform each other. They will also use the actor’s voices to sync with the characters facial movements.
In a film like The Boxtrolls, animators go through a casting process similar to what an actor would experience. Some animators are good at action, others at subtle emotion, and each will own chunks or sequences of a film that they can then master and perfect. This allows for a better performance from those shots and allows the animator to really wrap their mind around a specific scene.
According to Visit President and CEO of LAIKA Travis Knight, the process of adapting a book into a film is tricky. The studio happened upon Alan Snow’s book 10 years ago and Knight recalls feeling like Here Be Monsters! was “evocative of those childhood stories [he] grew up with…things like Road Dahl and J.K. Rowling.” The book had a “weird, fantastical vibe with a quirky sensibility.” At over 500 pages, the book was filled with a multitude of characters and environments, and “finding a way to distill the essence of [the book] down to a 90 minute film was tricky.” Knight recalls going through several different versions to get to the emotional core of the story. The result was that the filmmakers happened upon the central focus of this family…the main characters who is raised underground by monsters who become his surrogate family. LAIKA decided to approach the film through that prism and create a cinematic work that explores what family means in this circumstance and what constitutes a family.
Films like Coraline, Paranorman and The Boxtrolls are a rarity in an age where superhero action and feel-good animated films dominate the box office. Knight felt like there was a void…that “these coming of age stories were not being told.” If you think about it, most animated films are told from the perspective of young adults. LAIKA’s approach has been to take the universal experiences of kids growing up and look for the stories within those experiences. The Boxtrolls is a “perfect and artful blend of darkness and light, intensity and warmth [and] explores what makes a family and binds us all together.” Knight and the team at LAIKA hope that families will walk away from films like The Boxtrolls and initiate their own discussions about the issues touched upon in the film.
The Boxtrolls debuts in theaters September 26th, 2014.
Images: LAIKA
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