by Reg Seeton
After taking a seat in the director's chair to
helm Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, director
Jonathan Mostow stepping back behind the camera
for the futuristic Surrogates, starring Bruce
Willis and Radha Mitchell, based on the graphic
novel series of the same name. Interestingly,
Mostow took on Surrogates six years after directing
Terminator 3, a film that fires on similar futuristic
themes of man's hunger for technology and the
effects of a social evolution that sees man living
side by side with machines that threaten the survival
of humanity. In the case of Surrogates, which
hit DVD and Blu-ray shelves on January 26, humans
can purchase unflawed robotic versions of themselves
to act in the real world while being remotely
controlled from the safety and comfort of home.
When a college student is mysteriously killed
in Surrogates, the debate over the ethics of man
versus machine take hold as the film's overarching
symbolism.
Leading up to the Blu-ray release of Surrogates on January 26, we ironically seized upon technology to take part in a virtual roundtable with Surrogates director Jonathan Mostow who shared secrets of making the film, his view of rapidly advancing technology, and the effect technology has on human relationships in real life.
How did you direct your actors to have the 'surrogates' effect? What kind of suggestions would you give?
JONATHAN MOSTOW: When I made Terminator 3, I learned something about directing actors to behave like robots. And one of the key things I learned is that if an actor tries to play a robot, he or she risks playing it mechanically in a way that makes the performance uninteresting. So how I approached the issue in that film and in Surrogates was instead to focus on erasing human idiosyncrasies and asymmetries - in posture, facial expressions, gait, etc. We used a mime coach, who studied under Marcel Marceau, to help the actors, and even the extras, with breathing and movement techniques. The actors really enjoyed the challenge.
Do you think that the release of movies will continue to take place in theaters or, as the quality standards is constantly increasing at home with technology; movies might start to be released instantly on different medias or directly on the internet in the future?
MOSTOW:
As you probably know, this is a hot topic of
conversation in Hollywood right now. It seems
that we're heading toward the day that films
will be released in all platforms simultaneously,
albeit with a cost premium to see it at home.
But I hope that theater-going doesn't end. I
think that watching movies on the big screen
with an audience is still the best format and
also an important one for society. Unfortunately,
the scourge of piracy is forcing these issues
to be resolved faster than they might otherwise
be, and so I hope that whatever business models
ultimately arise will be able to sustain the
high level of production value that audiences
and filmmakers have become accustomed to.
Are there any sci-fi movies that were inspirational to the tone, look and feel you wanted to strike with Surrogates?
MOSTOW: For the look and feel of this movie, I found inspiration in some black and white films from the 60s, early works of John Frankenheimer plus the original Twilight Zone TV show. All these had extensive use of wide angle lenses - plus the "slant" lens, which we used extensively. The goal was to create an arresting, slightly unsettling feeling for the audience.
What's the most rewarding thing you've learned or taken from making this movie?
MOSTOW: Making this movie had made me much more conscious of how much time I spend on the computer. Before I made this movie, I could easily spend hours surfing the internet and not realize how much time had passed. Now, after ten minutes or so, I become aware that I'm making a choice by being "plugged in" that is costing me time away from my family and friends.
This world is tech-addicted; do you think it is a plague? Should we could we control this?
MOSTOW:
Interesting question, and I speak as someone
who is addicted to technology. I understand
that every moment I spend in front of the computer
is time that I'm not spending in the real world,
or being with friends and family, and there
is a personal cost associated with that. Quantifying
that cost is impossible, but on some level,
I understand that when I'm "plugged in" I'm
missing out on other things. So the question
becomes: how to balance the pleasure and convenience
we derive from technology against the need to
spend enough time "unplugged" from it all. I
don't know the answer.
As a civilization, I think we're all struggling to figure it out. We're still in the infancy of the technological revolution. Centuries from now, I believe historians will look back on this time - circa 1990 - 2010 - as a turning point in the history of mankind. Is it a "plague"? No. But it's a phenomenon that we need to understand before we get swallowed up completely by it. I don't want to sound like I'm over-hyping the importance of this movie, because after all, Surrogates is first and foremost intended to be a piece of entertainment, but I do think that movies can help play a role in helping society talk about these issues, even if sometimes only tangentially. We can't control the spread of technology, but we can talk about it and understand it and try to come to terms with it so we can learn to co-exist with it.
In Surrogates every character in the frame looks perfect: was it a big technical problem for you? How did you find a solution?
MOSTOW: I talk about that on the DVD commentary, it was a big challenge. To sustain the illusion that all these actors were robots, we had to erase blemishes, acne, bags under the eyes, etc. In a sense, the actors were the visual effects. As a result, there are more VFX shots than non-VFX shots in the movie.
Do you prefer "old-school", handcrafted SFX or CGI creations?
MOSTOW:
I think if you scratch beneath the surface of
most filmmakers - myself included - you will
find a 12 year old kid who views movie-making
akin to playing with a giant electric train
set. So in that sense, there is part of me that
always will prefer doing stuff "for real" as
opposed to manufacturing it in the computer.
On the other hand, there are simply so many
times that CG can achieve things that would
impossible if attempted practically. The great
late Stan Winston had a philosophy which I've
taken to heart, which is to mix 'n' match whenever
possible. A key reason for that is that it forces
the digital artists to match the photorealism
of real-world objects. One thing I try to avoid
in my films are effects that have a CG "look"
to them. The challenge is never let the audience
get distracted by thinking that they're watching
something made in a computer.
How close did you try to keep the film to the graphic novel?
MOSTOW: We talk about that in one of the bonus features on the Blu-ray. The novel was interesting in that it was highly regarded, but not well-known outside a small community of graphic novel enthusiasts. So that meant that we weren't necessarily beholden to elements in the graphic novel in the way that one might be if adapting a world-renowned piece of literature. Even the author of Surrogates acknowledged that changes were necessary to adapt his novel to the needs of a feature film. Hopefully, we struck the right balance. Certainly, I believe we preserved the central idea, which was to pose some interesting questions to the audience about how we can retain our humanity in this increasingly technological world.
Are you afraid that the future we see in the movie could be real someday soon?
MOSTOW: Well, in a sense, we're already at that point. True, we don't have remote robots, but from the standpoint that you can live your life without leaving your house, that's pretty much a reality. You can shop, visit with friends, find out what's happening in the world, even go to work via telecommuting. I'm not afraid, per se, certainly, that way of living has its advantages and conveniences. But there is a downside, which is that technology risks isolating us from each other, and that is very much the theme of this movie. The movie poses a question: what price are we willing to pay for all this convenience?
You've worked with some of the most famous action stars to ever grace the silver screen - Arnold, Bruce, Kurt. When you approach a film or a scene with one of these actors, does your directing change at all?
MOSTOW:
I've been very lucky to work with some great
movie stars of our time. What I find is true
about all of them is that they understand that
in a movie, the story is what matters most.
In other words, their job is to service the
story of the film. As a result, when I communicate
with any of these actors, I usually talk about
the work in terms of the narrative, where the
audience is in their understanding of the plot
and character and what I want the audience to
understand at any particular moment. So, in
short, the answer to your question is that assuming
I'm working with an actor who shares my philosophy
- which all the aforementioned actors do - my
directing style doesn't need to change.
I imagine that before writing and creating the world of Surrogates you studied the topic. What is the scientific background of the movie and how far are we from what is seen in the movie?
MOSTOW: I did a fair amount of research for the movie, but really, what I discovered is that the best research was simply being a member of society in 2009. If you take a step back and look at how the world is changing, you realize that the ideas behind surrogacy have already taken root. We're doing more and more from home. So really, the only ingredient that's missing is full-blown robotic facsimiles of humans. Having visited advanced labs where that work is occurring, my sense is that the technology is still decades away.
As far as I know in the movie there was some digital rejuvenation of Bruce Willis for his role as a robot. How did you do it and what do you foresee for this technique? Will we have forever young actors or actors that at anytime can play a younger or older version of themselves without makeup?
MOSTOW: For Bruce, we approached his surrogate look with a combination of traditional and digital techniques. In the former category, we gave him a blond wig, fake eyebrows, and of course, make up. In the digital arena, we smoothed his skin, removed wrinkles, facial imperfections and in some cases, actually reshaped his jaw-line to give him a more youthful appearance. Could this be done for other actors? Sure. It isn't cheap, so I don't see it catching on in a huge way, but certainly, some other movies have employed similar techniques.
Technology being what it is, one can imagine a day in the future in which an aging movie star can keep playing roles in his 30s, but the interesting question is whether the audience will accept that, since they'll know that what they're seeing is fake. In the case of Surrogates, we discovered with test audiences that if we went too far with Bruce's look, it was too distracting, so in certain cases, we had to pull back a bit.
One
of your film's themes is the fears of technology.
What are some of your own fears about technology
and the future?
MOSTOW: Some people have labeled this film as anti-technology. But I don't see it that way. In fact, I love technology. I love using computers and gadgets. I love strolling through Best Buy and the Apple Store to see what's new. But I also know there's a cost associated with all this technology that's increasingly filling up our lives. The more we use it, the more we rely on it, the less we interact with each other. Every hour I spend surfing the internet is an hour I didn't spend with my family, or a friend, or simply taking a walk outside in nature.
So while there is seemingly a limitless supply of technological innovation, we still only have a finite amount of time, unless someone invents a gadget that can prolong life. But until that happens, we have choices to make. And the choice this movie holds up for examination is the question of what we lose by living life virtually and interacting via machine, as opposed to living in the flesh, face to face. I hope that's a conversation that will arise for people who watch Surrogates.
