ART DIRECTOR, AUSTRALIA

THE SUPER BURLY BRAWL

MATRIX: Was any group of sets more challenging than another?

JULES: The Super Burly Brawl, as it was called, which was fighting in the street [Matrix City Street] with torrential rain and everything had to be waterproofed and tanked. Then moving into the Matrix Crater and the sequence where they have the fight at the end of the third film was a bit mind-numbing. Everything had to move and fly out of the way so you could get stunt rigs in there.

Basically the Super Burly brawl has four elements: they’re on a street surrounded by other Smiths [Matrix City Street], they have a large tussle, then they fly up into the air, they get thrown through a building and have a fight inside the building [Matrix Building], and then they come out of the building, fly up into the air and drop into the street and smash the crater [Matrix Crater], which is the last set that we did in that shoot.

MATRIX: Did you follow the entire sequence through?

JULES: Yes, with the exception of the mid-air parts, which we didn’t have a lot to do with because they’re entirely bluescreen. The other three sets we went through and worked out how to tank them, how to do the rain and how to contain the rain, etc.

MATRIX: For the Matrix City Street, why was it decided to go practical with humans in Agent Smith masks operating mannequins?

JULES: There were one hundred Smith dummies, and then we had fifty humans in Smith masks in order to operate the dummies behind by turning their heads, which was fun and freaky to watch.

It was discussed for a long time as to whether it could be done with Visual Effects. There were a number of shots we felt could be contained on camera, so we went through a number of processes to actually prove whether it could or not, and whether or not you could get a dummy that looked close enough to Hugo Weaving to actually sell it as being Smith. Eventually it came out that we could. We produced enough Agent Smiths to fill at least one side of the street so that we were saving on every visual effects shot because you don’t have to put Smiths in the background; you can actually get that shot on camera.
The rain also went through a number of elements. The Special Effects Department went through the actual physicality of putting the rain in the set, and all we had to really do was make sure that the set could hold water and wasn’t going to spill out into the studio and go through all the lighting wires.

MATRIX: How was that achieved?

JULES: We basically built the set as a tank. The street itself was a flat box running along with a little lip at each end so that the water wouldn’t run off the end, and it had to be able to contain a certain amount of water, two inches or something like that. Then we laid a colored latex top to simulate asphalt so the water wouldn’t bounce as much, and so the people who were jumping around on top of it had a semi soft thing to land on.

MATRIX: Was latex used because it had traction as well?

JULES: It was; the latex has kind of a supple, sticky surface to get some edge in the fifty millimeters of water we had. The street had real gutters that had a valve system in order to sustain a certain level of water at all times. You could put a block in and the water would stay at that level and whatever was an overflow would tip out into the drains and back into the system.

MATRIX: How long was the Matrix Street set?

JULES: It was a little thinner than a street and ended up eighty feet or one hundred feet long [24 to 30 meters]. So almost every shot, whenever you’re looking down on it, is a huge visual effects extension on each end.

MATRIX: What were the challenges of laying a latex street?

JULES: We did a lot of testing to get the color right, which was the hardest thing, and in the end was not quite as successful as we would have liked. We laid it in stages - where you’d lay a portion of a grid, let that dry over a day-and-a-half, then come back the next day and fill in the bits in the middle. That meant we ended up with lines, but under the water we could get away with it because you can’t see a lot of what is happening under there. We basically topped it off by spraying road markings down the center and either side.

MATRIX: Do you recall how much time was spent shooting on that set?

JULES: Main Unit were in there for about seven days or something like that, which was a long time compared to some other sets we’re shooting. Second Unit was in there for days and days, even weeks.

MATRIX: How involved are you with a set once shooting starts?

JULES: It depends on how the schedule is working. I generally work through the schedule with the First AD [Assistant Director] or Second AD the best way to shoot it, and whether that works for them and their cast. I also go down to the set every morning just to make sure everything is going well and that they don’t have any problems, then hopefully leave it for the rest of the day until the next morning.

MATRIX: Did the latex road surface hold out until the end of shooting?

JULES: It did. The only problem we had with it was that it started to turn a little white with water and people walking all over it, so it had a few color fluctuations, which again you get away with because there was a large reflection all the way along on the water.

THE MATRIX CRATER

MATRIX: When I spoke to Damien [Drew, Assistant Art Director], he mentioned you had procured some mud samples; what were they for?

JULES: There is a scene in the Matrix Crater where they have busted down through a street, which was one of the sets that we looked after. The Special Effects Department had come up with a number of examples of mud because we wanted a real gray, almost monotone feel for the walls; we didn’t want bright red mud at the bottom of it. As it ended up, the mud was probably a little yellow or latte colored, but having those we could say that was the closest we could get in regards to safety, color, the EPA, and what you can actually use in regards to mud. That was the closest color we could get to the walls.

MATRIX: Who is the EPA?

JULES: The Environmental Protection Agency. There are only a certain amount of things you can use these days, for instance, you can’t use a certain type of smoke because it will affect people’s lungs, especially in a studio set. And with mud you can’t just pump it straight out into drains, especially the amounts we were going through.

MATRIX: Why were you going through huge amounts of mud?

JULES: We had torrential rain coming down onto a muddy set, which was then piped out. The set also had to be cleaned every day, we were in there for over a week, and then Second Unit came in and cleaned up a few shots as well. In order to make the mud safe so it didn’t have bugs in it or sit there and stagnate, we actually had to get rid of it all and start again each day. The mud was easy to match once we got the color down pat. It was just a formula basically - this much Bentonite to this much water. The Special Effects Department looked after all the mud, so I’m not one hundred percent sure what they used, but there was something called Bentonite, which is a very slippery kind of substance, it’s like very fine earth that they use in oilrigs.

MATRIX: How are the safety parameters defined?

JULES: Generally common sense is a good one to start with, but there is a book that lays down what you can and can’t do in regards to heights above floors, where you need a handrail etc. Those things are generally logical, but there are also a number of things that are set in stone that you have to do.

MATRIX: Fighting in mud is not something a booklet could anticipate; how were the safety parameters set for that?

JULES: Just common sense. Because the Special Effects Department looked after the mud, they made the call on the safety issues that they feel had to be adhered to by the rest of the crew and cast. They couldn’t pump the mud straight into the drains because it would harm the environment, so they had holding tanks and got rid of it a separate way.

MATRIX: What was the Matrix Crater made from?

JULES: We selected a number of rocks that would actually give the feel of a splintered and broken crater and pulled molds off of those. The rocks were actually some sandstone outcroppings that we found around the Fox Studios Backlot - we pulled molds off those and then blew foam into them. We got a number of elements that we wanted, then pieced and foamed them together and carved them. And there you have shattered shards of rock running up this crater face. We also went to a quarry quite a way out of town and had a look at what happens when rock and earth splinters, and kind took a lot of photographic reference of that. We went through a number of things for photographic reference on what it would look like when you smash down through a street.

MATRIX: Did you ultimately define what would happen?

JULES: We were just guessing, really. You get an idea of where pipes would be, so we dressed in broken pipes in the areas they would be beneath the asphalt - things like that. We put in electrical wires and where the main storm water came out, which would be a lot lower under the street than your average electrical wires. Set Dressing made some broken pipes from polystyrene because we wanted to snap them off and make them look dead, so it was easier to use something that’s easier to break, and then they were painted to look real. They also dressed some broken dangling wires around the set sticking out through the wall.

THE MATRIX BUILDING

MATRIX: How did the spider web crack in the Matrix Building progress?

JULES: We worked out initially where that would actually happen and then carried on to what the crack should look like and what the Brothers wanted in the effect, which came almost straight from the storyboards. The main problem with that set was physically getting the camera in to get the shots - half the set would come out for one shot, and then have to go back in for another shot.

To an extent the pulling apart of the set was in the plans, but for as much pre-planning as you can get, you still quite often find yourself wondering how to achieve something. We had planned that set enough to make things unclip: the roof came off and the walls could come away. It still takes a bit of time, and when you’ve got a film crew sitting there watching you do it, it can be rather uncomfortable.

MATRIX: Is that where models become so important?

JULES: Definitely, because you can actually physically put a camera in there and see how you’re going to shoot it, and therefore work out what is actually in the way to get that camera angle.

MATRIX: Doesn’t the Pre-visualization Department do that as well?

JULES: It depends on the shots. Pre-viz is usually for large visual effects sequences. There was a film called Panic Room where pre-viz was used to work out how the sets should work in regards to walls moving out of the way of camera as the camera moved etc. It’s a good tool, and it’s becoming more and more useful tool in regards to how you’re actually going to physically shoot something.

MATRIX: How do you feel technology is going to go in regards to film; are Model Makers and Set Designers going to be required anymore with pre-viz arriving on the scene?

JULES: Yes, a physical thing in front of you is a lot easier for everyone to sit around and point at than something in the computer. I think both of them have different merits and the same use as well. The 3D animations look fantastic, but I also love making models and being able to actually lift the roof off and see inside it and how you’re actually going to do it. It means we can actually work from the model - we can float areas of the model that are going to float. The model can then go to the Grips Department and they know that the wall comes out because it says “float” on the back of it, so they then know that they can get a camera in there etc.

MATRIX: Thanks a lot Jules.


CLICK HERE TO READ JULES' FULL INTERVIEW

Interview by REDPILL
June 2002