Touring the Season 2 SyFy Set of Sanctuary by Reg Seeton
Earlier
this month TheDeadbolt was invited to the annual
SyFy Digital Press Tour in Vancouver where we
got the SyFy skinny on the sets of Stargate
Universe, Caprica, and Sanctuary, with a preview
of Alice, the upcoming SyFy reimagining of the
classic Alice in Wonderland. With the new Battlestar
Galactica prequel, Caprica, nearly three months
away from air and Sanctuary now in Season 2 swing
on SyFy, we're jumping ahead to give Sanctuary
fans the lowdown on what we saw on the set and
what we heard from the Sanctuary Visual Effects
Supervisor, cast and crew as they gave journalists
a preview of the new season.
Interestingly, unlike Stargate Universe and Caprica, there wasn't much to see in the way of practical Sanctuary set pieces. Instead the Sanctuary portion of the tour consisted mainly of panel interviews with actors Amanda Tapping (Dr. Helen Magnus), Robin Dunne (Will Zimmerman), Christopher Heyerdahl (John Druitt) and Ryan Robbins (Henry Foss). plus Sanctuary creator/writer Damian Kindler, and Director/Executive Producer Martin Wood. However, it all made visual Sanctuary sense once we headed into heavy green screen territory. As we were told by Martin Wood, there are two sets on Sanctuary, green screen and practical, with the former the main focus of our tour.
The
Sanctuary segment began with an introduction
to the expanded special effects from Visual
Effects Supervisor, Lee Wilson, the man behind
the visual effects of such projects as the 1986
remake of The Fly, Masters of Horror and the
recent hit SyFy mini-series, Tin Man. One of
the most revered and respect men on set, Wilson
gave us insight into the process of second season
visual effects on Sanctuary, which was far more
openly creative, experimental and bold than
the first season. The fact that we didn't walk
through a slew of Sanctuary sets during the
day was due to the fact that Lee Wilson and
his Anthem Visual Effects team were tasked with
creating and recreating the global Sanctuary
locations via green screen, interior and exterior,
with the help of ahead of the curve camera technology
called Red One. It soon became evident just
how far ahead of the curve Sanctuary is in terms
of visual effects since the majority of the
series is shot on green screen.
Although some on set may have been skeptical about the wide open approach to second season visual effects, when the lights went down for our Season 2 Sanctuary preview, the clip montage we watched certainly made it hard to argue that the visuals of Sanctuary aren't of feature film caliber. In fact, although the crew traveled to Japan to promote the series and shot a specific scene for Season 2, it was extremely challenging to distinguish whether the sequences were real or CG, especially a street shot, which I'm still not sure of despite knowing the crew were on location.
While
some may take issue with this, I found the larger
than life exterior CG of the Sanctuary world
to be very similar to outdoor backdrops of the
Star Wars prequels, with a slew of ships and
creatures littering the skies and cityscapes.
Lee Wilson and Anthem were able to run wild
with visual effects in Season 2 of Sanctuary
and it certainly shows in impressive form. From
the London Sanctuary to the Tokyo Sanctuary
to the Mumbai Sanctuary, the second season world
of Sanctuary is astoundingly stunning. As our
preview came to a close, we were privy to a surprising
season ending dance sequence similar to that
of Slumdog Millionaire, which, although there
were some reservations about including it, worked
effectively in injecting some season ending
fun into Sanctuary that fans will see after
13 episodes. The big talk of the Sanctuary preview
was the Bollywood dance sequence and a giant
spider, so keep an eye out at the end of the
season.
But the theme of open creativity continued throughout our time on the Sanctuary set, as Amanda Tapping, creator Damian Kindler, and director Martin Wood took the lead explaining how the cast and crew weren't confined or bound when looking to find what worked for the series in its second season. When asked how the actors approach a series with so much green screen, Amanda Tapping shed light on the simplicity without reference points. "Once you get over the green headache, which is a real thing, because you step onto this [and] the floor is green, the walls are green and its brightly lit, it becomes very intimate in a lot of ways because you literally can't chew the scenery, you have nothing to [sink your teeth into]. It becomes almost minimalistic theater. It becomes very simple."
As for the overall changes between Season 1 and Season 2 of Sanctuary, creator Damian Kindler explained how relationships go much deeper beyond the CG and green screen. "We have some very, very heartfelt, very, very human moments in this season," said Kindler, "where we're just not afraid to show our characters as vulnerable and needing to connect with each other after a big monster fight, or all sorts of running and jumping. But we do need to land in a place of humanity, because I think that without that the show doesn't have that perfect base to stand on. It won't resonate properly. It creates balance."
It's
a balance between human characters and CG creatures
that director Martin Wood revealed works even
more effectively for Sanctuary given the advances
in CG technology and the show's work with Anthem
Visual Effects. "Some of the characters you
see this year in Season 2 are 3D computer animated
characters. This year what we decided to do
was [say], 'We know what we can do with the
backgrounds. We know what we can do with the
world. Let's experiment with some 3D creatures
... We did create a number of other characters
this year. But Anthem, in knowing how it is
to make a 3D creature work and look good and
look like they're engaged with the human beings,
punching them and Karate chopping them, it's
outstanding what's coming out of the computers
at Anthem right now. So you have a new character
every week in terms of the new creatures that
are coming out."
As for Season 2 story points of how Sanctuary evolves, including the fate of
The Cabal, character relationships between Dr.
Helen Magnus and her Sanctuary psychiatrist
Will Zimmerman along with Henry Foss and Sanctuary
villain, John Druitt, and more on the creative
freedom in the second season, plug yourself
into our time at the SyFy Digital Press Tour
2009 and the Sanctuary panel Q&A with Amanda
Tapping, Robin Dunne, Christopher Heyerdahl
and Ryan Robbins plus Sanctuary creator/writer
Damian Kindler, and Director/Executive Producer
Martin Wood.
Earlier
this month TheDeadbolt was invited to the annual
SyFy Digital Press Tour in Vancouver where we
got the SyFy skinny on the sets of 
The
Sanctuary segment began with an introduction
to the expanded special effects from Visual
Effects Supervisor, Lee Wilson, the man behind
the visual effects of such projects as the 1986
remake of The Fly, Masters of Horror and the
recent hit SyFy mini-series, Tin Man. One of
the most revered and respect men on set, Wilson
gave us insight into the process of second season
visual effects on Sanctuary, which was far more
openly creative, experimental and bold than
the first season. The fact that we didn't walk
through a slew of Sanctuary sets during the
day was due to the fact that Lee Wilson and
his Anthem Visual Effects team were tasked with
creating and recreating the global Sanctuary
locations via green screen, interior and exterior,
with the help of ahead of the curve camera technology
called Red One. It soon became evident just
how far ahead of the curve Sanctuary is in terms
of visual effects since the majority of the
series is shot on green screen.
While
some may take issue with this, I found the larger
than life exterior CG of the Sanctuary world
to be very similar to outdoor backdrops of the
Star Wars prequels, with a slew of ships and
creatures littering the skies and cityscapes.
Lee Wilson and Anthem were able to run wild
with visual effects in Season 2 of Sanctuary
and it certainly shows in impressive form. From
the London Sanctuary to the Tokyo Sanctuary
to the Mumbai Sanctuary, the second season world
of Sanctuary is astoundingly stunning. As our
preview came to a close, we were privy to a surprising
season ending dance sequence similar to that
of Slumdog Millionaire, which, although there
were some reservations about including it, worked
effectively in injecting some season ending
fun into Sanctuary that fans will see after
13 episodes. The big talk of the Sanctuary preview
was the Bollywood dance sequence and a giant
spider, so keep an eye out at the end of the
season.
It's
a balance between human characters and CG creatures
that director Martin Wood revealed works even
more effectively for Sanctuary given the advances
in CG technology and the show's work with Anthem
Visual Effects. "Some of the characters you
see this year in Season 2 are 3D computer animated
characters. This year what we decided to do
was [say], 'We know what we can do with the
backgrounds. We know what we can do with the
world. Let's experiment with some 3D creatures
... We did create a number of other characters
this year. But Anthem, in knowing how it is
to make a 3D creature work and look good and
look like they're engaged with the human beings,
punching them and Karate chopping them, it's
outstanding what's coming out of the computers
at Anthem right now. So you have a new character
every week in terms of the new creatures that
are coming out."