THE ADVENTURES OF TINTINParamount Pictures

1、“as soon as i read my first of the books, tintin never strayed far from my thoughts and heart. i knew tintin and i were destined for some kind of collaboration . . . and a journey of discovery.” - steven spielberg, director from oscar winning director steven spielberg and oscar winning producer pete

2、r jackson, two of todays most visionary storytellers, comes a 3d motion picture event: an epic, globe-hopping quest that spans hidden mysteries, menacing criminals and ancient secrets - and brings to dazzling, life the classic escapades that have enthralled generation after generation with their one

3、-of-a-kind mix of action, humor and scintillating tale-spinning in the adventures of tintin. based on the internationally beloved and irrepressible characters created by herg, the story follows the unquenchably curious young reporter tintin (jamie bell) and his fiercely loyal dog snowy as they disco

4、ver a model ship carrying an explosive secret. drawn into a centuries-old mystery, tintin finds himself in the sightlines of ivan ivanovitch sakharine (daniel craig), a diabolical villain who believes tintin has stolen a priceless treasure tied to dastardly pirate named red rackham. but with the hel

5、p of his dog snowy, the salty, cantankerous captain haddock (andy serkis) and the bumbling detectives thompson and have sold more than 350 million copies . . . and counting. yet for all the far-flung places tintin has traveled - from peru to tibet to the moon the one place he has yet to venture is t

6、he modern movie screen. that changes with the adventures of tintin, which not only brings the series to worldwide movie audiences for the first time but does so in an inventive new way that pushes the creative envelope of 21st century storytelling while staying true to hergs inimitable and timeless

7、visual style. the source of the series sustained power has always been the ways its scruffy, lovable characters and its passport to exotic lands and courageous battles against wrongdoers have tied together people who experienced his adventures with a common bond. thats what happened with steven spie

8、lberg and peter jackson, who are brought together for the first time as collaborators by their passion for hergs tantalizing tales. each came across tintin at entirely different times and in divergent ways. yet their passion for the characters wide-open cinematic possibilities is the same. neither c

9、ould resist the excitement of trying to fuse the unbridled fun of hergs drawings with state-of-the-art movie technology and inspired, emotion-rich performances to create an original motion picture experience befitting of tintins vast legacy. “tintin is an eager reporter who chases fragments of clues

10、 that suddenly blow up into these amazing, globe-trotting adventures,” spielberg describes. “what makes him so intriguing is his relentless pursuit of the truth, although that always leads him down some treacherous paths. it often seems hes gotten himself into terrible trouble, but somehow, he finds

11、 a way out. from the first reading, i knew that tintin and i were destined for some kind of collaboration.” peter jackson grew up with tintin and had been influenced by his adventures. as a boy in new zealand, long before he began a filmmaking career that includes the most lauded fantasy trilogy in

12、movie history: the lord of the rings series, jackson devoured each tintin book he could get his hands on, even struggling through the french editions. “when youre young, you can easily imagine yourself going on these adventures that tintin gets himself into,” jackson notes. “they tap into that funda

13、mental sense of adventure we all have.” both men saw the cinematic potential of tintin embedded in its dna. “we were all struck by the fact that herg was telling stories through what were, in a sense, these beautiful storyboards that were simple, clear and forceful in their narrative power,” says sp

14、ielbergs long-time partner, kathleen kennedy, who would ultimately pair up with jackson to produce. spielberg first reached out to herg as early as 1983 and found the belgian artist deeply enthusiastic about placing his clever character in the filmmakers hands. but tragically, herg passed away befor

15、e the two could meet. later, his widow, fanny rodwell, fulfilled his wishes, granting the rights to spielberg. “herg picked steven as the only director he thought could do a film based on his work,” says executive producer stephane sperry, who has been involved with the tintin property for decades a

16、nd a fan for even longer. “and steven has always been respectful of that.” the filmmakers worked closely with nick and fanny rodwell, consulting with the two careful custodians of hergs legacy and experts on all things tintin. “the most important thing was to honor herg and get as close to his very

17、unique sense of palette and portraiture as possible. every single panel of his told a story in cinematic terms,” observes the director. “there was kinetic energy in every pose and action, and it was almost as if he was trying to squeeze 24 frames into a single frame, and succeeding. that was, i thin

18、k, the genius of herg. each of his stories had the essence of a movie and now we could be true to that.” spielberg was convinced right away that jackson was the ideal partner. “peter told me, if you were here right now, you would see over my shoulder the entire series of hergs books, and i would lov

19、e to be a part of this,” spielberg recalls. “and thus began our process of finding a way to capture that artistic style that so defines herg and tintin, and bring it to the screen.” jackson couldnt wait to tackle the task. “i was thrilled that steven invited me onboard,” he says. “steven really is q

20、uite similar to the tintin character,” jackson comments. “hes young at heart. hes very curious. he has a great love of adventure, and his sense of humor pretty much matches what herg brought to tintin. its a perfect match.” in addition to serving as producer for the first film, spielberg asked jacks

21、on if he would direct the second film in the series. jackson agreed, and with the blessing and cooperation of fanny and nick rodwell, and the estate of herg, the adventure began. fanny, who is now the president of the herg studios in brussels, explains, “it was a special honor for us to be associate

22、d with these exceptional, creative filmmakers who had our full confidence to bring tintin to his biggest adventures on the biggest screens. herg himself once said, i consider my stories as movies. how prophetic!” in close consultation with the herg estate, the filmmakers enlisted screenwriters steve

23、n moffat and the team of edgar wright lt. delacourt (tony curran); and the only american character in the film, barnaby, a detective trying to warn tintin of the danger hes getting himself into, played by comic actor joe starr. one common thread seemed to run throughout the international cast: a she

24、er love for the books and a passion to be part of the film. “we all have something in our childhood that touches us,” sums up cary elwes, who takes on the role of an attacking pilot. “for me, it was tintin.” imaginary characters, true performances: on the performance capture stage it took two intens

25、ive years of research, development, design, pre-production, screenwriting and casting, but at last the time came for the actors, filmmakers and over 200 crew to converge at the performance capture soundstages of playa vista, ca-based giant studios - and enter the world of herg. here is where the maj

26、or alchemy would take place, as the soulful, emotional performances of jamie bell, andy serkis, daniel craig and the entire cast were recorded in the moment, and transmogrified into faithful renderings of hergs ink-and-watercolor stories. once on the stage, spielberg was constantly innovating, match

27、ing the performance capture technology to his storytelling instincts, and encouraging his team to think up novel solutions to the most vexing visual problems. he and jackson ended up driving a mini-revolution in the field with a revolutionary system dubbed the virtual camera - that would allow the d

28、irector a more traditional relationship with the actors and in-the-moment command of the film, all while “seeing” an animated 3d world. “i didnt want to divest myself of those instinctive moments that occur on traditional sets, so we came up with a new way to make it more seamless,” says spielberg.

29、entirely unlike a traditional soundstage set, the performance capture process unfolds on whats called a volumea clean, white-and-grey stage featuring up to 100 cameras mounted in a grid on the ceiling, able to capture 360-degree coverage and render that data into three-dimensional space. on the volu

30、me, all the actors (and also the wire-framed props and set dressings) wear reflective dots that are picked up by the camera in less than a 60th of a second, and interpreted into a 3d virtual moving picture. in addition, another eight hd video cameras captured the raw performances as they unfolded. t

31、his was later used as reference for the animators to make sure every grimace, smile, shiver and nuance of emotion, from fear to friendship, came through as the actors performances were morphed into digital creations. operating the virtual camera using a device slightly larger than a video game contr

32、oller with a monitor attached, spielberg was able to walk through the volume, watch the actors avatars interacting within the films universe on the virtual cameras monitor, and compose the shots he wanted in real time. the actors, too, could see themselves in the movies world on monitors positioned

33、throughout the studio, allowing them instant feedback. “the ability to see the playback in real time was so important to both director and actors,” says joe letteri. “we worked with giant studios very closely to develop that, and that collaboration was very successful because theyve understood every

34、thing has to be as realistic as possible in the moment.” while the virtual camera could only offer the lower-res picture quality of a video game, it was more than enough to ignite spielbergs creativity and the new technique clicked immediately for him, allowing the director to paint with light and i

35、mage in a way he never had before. in addition, an earlier weta breakthrough the process known as “image-based facial performance capture,” used to forge the compelling emotional realism of the gollum in the lord of the rings and to create the otherworldly pandorans in james camerons avatar was comm

36、andeered by spielberg to add to the rich characterizations of the adventures of tintin. when using this system, the actors wear a football-type helmet rigged with a tiny camera aimed directly at their faces allowing a digital recording of the slightest, expressive movements of their eyes, lips and f

37、acial muscles. for spielberg this put the emphasis exactly where he wanted it: on the power of emotionally true performances. “every single human being represented in tintin is an actor giving a full performance - an emotional performance, a villainous performance and that all shines through the dig

38、ital makeup,” the director comments. “we watched hergs characters be reborn as living beings, expressing feelings and displaying souls, and the effect was startling.” the actor with the most performance capture experience of anyone in the world, andy serkis, became the group leader, helping the othe

39、r actors acclimate. for all his experience with the medium, serkis was inspired by the transformation he saw in spielberg and jackson as they worked together. “it was amazing to see them both really bouncing off each other creatively,” he says. “theyre both so passionate about filmmaking, and it som

40、etimes seemed like this was the first film theyd ever madethey had that kind of energy. they were coming up with ideas at such a quick rate, it was dizzying.” the time-consuming process was also new to many of the actors. each morning prior to shooting, the actors would go through two “range of moti

41、on” scans, one for the face and one for the body. once these scans were completed, the cameras could identify the actors in the volume and translate their actions into a moving skeleton, so they could then be layered over with character “makeup” in post-production. for jamie bell, the volume felt mo

42、re like a minimalist theater than a movie set, but that aspect, he says, actually enhanced the work. “its an interesting way to work, because the movie set is in your head,” bell explains. “we were focused on giving these characters life and making them breathe. then, in this 3d animated world theyv

43、e created, we could see all of our heart and soul and anger coming through. it was remarkable.” bell had to act in scenes with a wire frame snowy, a stuffed snowy for “stunts,” and an articulated snowy on wheels - all operated by property master brad elliott who also brought with him years of experi

44、ence in puppetry at jim hensons company that he turned into a performance. “it made sense for the actors to have something to interact with,” elliot explains, “and because snowy is such a big part of this movie, it was a real privilege for me to do snowy.” throughout, spielberg cultivated an atmosph

45、ere where anything could happen on the performance capture stage. the entire cast was often all be in the volume, performing stunts, acting on custom-made gimbals to represent planes, cars or ships, and, with spielberg and jacksons encouragement, improvising. from virtual to reality: finalizing the

46、full film experience in post production once the thrilling work with the actors in the volume was completed, the animation team at weta began the 18-month process of refining, sculpting and detailing each of the films 1,240 shots, before putting them through the final rendering process. it was here

47、that filmmakers began playing with visual themes, cinematic moods and tricky lighting effects in each individual scene, finalizing the look of the film. using the stylized world created by herg as a template, the artists an animators set-out to bring to life the world of tintin. “everything herg cre

48、ated has a unique look and color,” recalls joe letteri. “his original works already had an animated feel as if his drawings were just waiting to come to life.” for animation supervisors jamie beard and paul story, it was the beginning of fully realizing an animated world of hergs characters. “the pe

49、rformance capture process is just the first step for us,” explains beard. because jamie bell, andy serkis and all the other actors do not resemble their characters in a literal sense, the animation teams lead by beard and story began the process of applying the performance captured on stage to the d

50、igital character models built by the weta team. “what we have to do is look at the actors performance and ask, how does that performance fit into our character design, “ says beard. “we basically start with a rough skeleton over a low-res geometry form of what that character is and from there we bas

51、ically go in a refine the body motion,” adds story. “in a traditional animated film, you would have the actors cast for the voice performance and ultimately how they deliver the lines in the recording booth informs your choices of animation,” explains letteri. the animation process for tintin relied

52、 heavily on performance capture for the characters final render. “having actors in the mix just gives us a quality of life that is hard to achieve any other way,” continues letteri. “an actors performance underlying all the animation really gives you continuity throughout the film. in traditional an

53、imation, that is called keeping the character on model. here, we have the actors who are the ones essentially keeping the character on model. thats why we like to work with the best actors possible when were creating a process like this as it gives us the freedom to expand on those performances and

54、to add a heightened sense of realism, drama, comedy or any other ideas that come up along the way.” throughout the post-production process, many aspects of the characters were also refined, always using additional video reference footage shot in the volume to assure every moment of digital performan

55、ce reflected the actors emotional choices. finally, the adventures of tintin was rendered a second time to accommodate the digital 3-d process. “because tintin was fully rendered in a computer, it made the three-dimensional aspect of the film relatively easy to do,” jackson remarks. “but its very st

56、riking with this film in particular. just the thought of seeing tintin on the big screen in 3-d makes me feel like a kid again.” working in tandem with the team at weta was longtime spielberg collaborator and academy award winning editor michael kahn. spielberg and kahn have been known as being amon

57、g the last filmmakers in hollywood to still edit on film - a medium they both still love in a tactile way. though kahn has edited other films digitally, the adventures of tintin marks the first time he and spielberg edited on an avid. once kahn completed his cut of the film, spielberg showed it to j

58、ackson, and then, earlier in the post-production process than usual, the cut was delivered to legendary maestro john williams, who has scored all but one of spielbergs films. for the director, williams music became the final, crucial element of the adventures of tintin, the last deeply human touch t

59、hat helped to combine all the human performances with the digital creations to create a singular experience of adventure and friendship. “john is the bonding agent that unifies all the disparate, eclectic elements of a movie, and with this score, he captures the energy and spirit of tintin as only h

60、e can,” spielberg concludes. the legacy of herg in 1929, a 21 year-old belgian illustrator created a new comic strip featuring a bold cub reporter and his white fox terrier traveling in the soviet union. the comic, known as tintin, was an immediate hit with readers - but the fledgling artist known a