00:00Rolling.
00:01Rolling.
00:02Here we go.
00:03Ready and action.
00:06Arm!
00:07Ah!
00:08Ah!
00:09Ah!
00:10Ah!
00:11Ah!
00:12Ah!
00:13Ah!
00:14There's an entire universe that exists here
00:16that I think is fresh and new.
00:18It does feel like you're entirely immersed in this world.
00:22It comes from this extraordinary graphic novel,
00:24The Electric State.
00:25For me, the book is like a keyhole into a world,
00:28and so it's really exciting to see them coming in
00:30and bust the doors wide open.
00:33This film is one of the most ambitious visual effects movies
00:36I've ever worked on in terms of the number of CG characters
00:39that we have to develop, design, animate, and give voice to.
00:42Unbelievable.
00:44The design of these robots are retrofuturistic.
00:47Most of them are heavily inspired from the book.
00:50Kid Cosmo is in the original book,
00:52and the visual effects department did a test very early on.
00:56They put a mo-cap suit on a little girl
00:58and had her just move around naturally.
01:00Because that's what Cosmo is.
01:02It's Kid Cosmo.
01:03It is Christopher in this new shell,
01:05and I wanted Cosmo's movements to feel like a kid,
01:08and being a kid's pretty fun.
01:10They have a full-size Kid Cosmo on set for our reference,
01:15and it's just so cool-looking.
01:17You're my special friend.
01:19We have been working with the top motion capture actors
01:23and experts in the world
01:25to imbue these characters with heart and emotion.
01:28Part of how we do that is, when we're on set,
01:30we're working with a troop of motion capture performers
01:32in the scenes with us that is led by the amazing Terry Notary.
01:36They all have their own unique personalities, their attributes,
01:39and so I wanted to create a little band of misfits.
01:42We did come here for five weeks before we even started shooting.
01:46And he took us through our paces, discovering a robotic world.
01:49We would rehearse the scenes, and we would help each other.
01:53And through that, we started to carve out some of these characters.
01:56We are building this world together as a unit, and it's really special.
02:00They breathe so much life into these robots
02:03that you're going to fall in love with them.
02:05When I read the script, I thought,
02:07oh, this is going to be primarily a voiceover role.
02:09My voice will come out of this machine.
02:11They said, well, the mo-cap actor will do this,
02:13and the mo-cap actor will do that.
02:15And I said, well, could I do the motion capture?
02:18And they went, you want to do it?
02:21My immediate thought was, did I just bite off more than I can chew?
02:24It was a great deal of fun,
02:26and it allowed me to be organically in the scenes with Millie,
02:29not just as a voice.
02:31For a human, you make a pretty great robot.
02:34They just loved all of our robot actors.
02:37They just did a wonderful job in bringing this to life for us.
02:41Devon was Cosmo for me.
02:43You kind of have to do one take with her and one take without her,
02:46and as soon as they take her away, I'm like, no.
02:50I don't like it either.
02:52The top VFX companies are all working with us on Electric State,
02:57using the most cutting-edge technology
02:59to bring these characters to life in a way that you've never seen before.
03:02Charge!
03:05That's very impressive.
03:07These movement specialists, they wear a suit called an XM suit.
03:11This is a newer technology.
03:13It's a motion capture system based on accelerometers.
03:16It's recording acceleration and integrating velocity to position.
03:20We decided to do that because we really wanted to gain the information
03:23of what Jerry Nedrin and his team were actually creating.
03:26It's also great because the directors can direct someone.
03:29You can frame appropriately.
03:31Action!
03:32Later on, we go back to the Vicon stage,
03:34which is the optical-based motion capture,
03:36and recapture performance.
03:38We then go through and remap some of the characters.
03:41We tweak their actions.
03:43They are in there for days and weeks at a time.
03:46The awesome thing about being here is we get to see the actual robot,
03:50and then we get to see us moving so we can tell what really reads.
03:54So this is kind of where we get to make our magic happen.
03:57It's a win-win for everyone because on set,
04:00we get the takes that we need for Chris and Millie,
04:03and then we can come back in the volume here
04:05and really fine-tune our performances.
04:07It's a raw mixture. That's what glues it all together.
04:11Perm? Hit it.
04:13Alan Silvestri's scoring this movie.
04:15He is actually one of the greatest composers of all time.
04:18I actually like this song.
04:19And I think that music helps the film's visual effects
04:22feel grounded and familiar.
04:24It reminds me of music and the culture from that era,
04:28and I think that goes into the visual effects.
04:30Alan's recording an orchestral score for the film.
04:32It'll be in the vein of some of the great scores that he's done in the past,
04:35like Back to the Future.
04:37To see my book so truthfully translated, it's surreal.
04:41It's like, how is this even possible?
04:43The animation is truly state-of-the-art.
04:46There's a great adventure in it,
04:48but it's also very emotional and very, very funny.
04:50I think it's extraordinary. I've never seen anything quite like it.
04:53It's so fun. Like, it was unbelievable.
04:56What the hell is that?
04:58Look out!
05:03Perm, get us out of here!
05:07Get us out of here!
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