00:00It is a very unique story about the relationship between a young man, an old woman, and an octopus.
00:07There's something so magical about octopuses.
00:10Octopi?
00:16Marcellus, the octopus, is the narrator of the story.
00:20He's delightfully kind of quirky and sort of offbeat.
00:24Of all the humans, I suppose I mind the cleaning lady the least.
00:28Some readers of my book call me Marcellus' mom.
00:32I wrote the novel Remarkably Bright Creatures, and now we are here on the set.
00:37A movie is never going to be exactly the same as a book, but for me, the most important thing
00:43that this team has done a phenomenal job with is the characters.
00:46The first step was trying to get Sally Field to be Tova. It just felt so perfect.
00:52I'm still in one piece.
00:53She is holding on to a lot of grief, and she cuts herself off from everything else in the world
00:59except this octopus that she tells everything.
01:03I think he was just worried about me ending up in that house alone.
01:07He gives Tova focus. There's something in his liberation that is part of hers.
01:15Tova very much is my grandmother, and watching Sally and her portrayal, I'm going to cry right now.
01:22Tova and Cameron have an interesting development together, which is fun to play.
01:27Even more fun when you get to play it with somebody like Sally Field, who is just a total American
01:32legend.
01:33I've learned so much from working with her.
01:36There was a lot that drew me to Cameron. He's kind of figuring certain things out that most people figure
01:42out when they're teenagers.
01:43Somewhere his dilemma resonates with this old woman who also feels lost.
01:50I honestly don't know what the hell I'm doing.
01:53I know the feeling.
01:55With Tova and Cameron and Marcellus all kind of stuck in their various modes of grief and loneliness and fear,
02:02vulnerability is the key for all of them to grow and move forward.
02:07Though she lives in a larger tank than me, the cleaning lady also wishes to break free.
02:11I found Marcellus to be the most cooperative actor I've ever worked with.
02:15I can make him anything I want him to be.
02:17Marcellus is an interesting device within the story.
02:20He allows Tova and Cameron to think of something outside of themselves.
02:25What the hell?
02:26I love vocal work. I really enjoy it.
02:28The world is your oyster.
02:30So there's lots of, you know, lots of playfulness involved in that.
02:33It's very rare in a visual effects world, at least, that you get to do a character that's intertwined with
02:38the drama of the film.
02:39That's a special moment to be able to bring that alive.
02:42Marcellus in the film is going to be almost entirely digital.
02:45We're basing his performance off of a real octopus named Agnetha at the Vancouver Aquarium.
02:50This gave our animators a direct comparison.
02:53We were always trying to match Agnetha's movements and quirks as closely as possible.
02:57With the actors, we have a series of different puppets that we've created, which will be replaced,
03:02but it gives everyone a sense of the character on set and us a great lighting reference.
03:07When we decided to look for our town, which is called Sala Bay, we found that the town of Deep
03:13Cove in Vancouver was a really good fit.
03:15The aquarium has been quite the journey.
03:18Our exterior aquarium is the Yacht Club, and we've married that with the Vancouver Aquarium for some of our larger
03:25tank scenes.
03:27And then where we needed a little bit more flexibility around shooting times or the layout, we built that portion.
03:36Libby Newman, art director, brought a great vision.
03:39She just brings so much energy and thoughtfulness to every scene.
03:43She's feeling everything, which is, like, really helpful as an actor to kind of feed off of that.
03:48Cut.
03:48I hope it resonates.
03:50If nothing else, I just hope they have fun.
03:52It's a very universal story.
03:53Wherever an audience member is in their life, there's something for them to feel heard.
03:58Or they might just not eat octopus anymore.
04:02It's never too late to make a change, to get unstuck.
04:06Anything can be a beginning.
04:13Love a
04:14Love a
04:16Diseopers
04:16Love a
04:17Love a
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