Narnia Fans » KNB EFX

A LOOK INTO THE CREATURES OF NARNIA
BY HOWARD BERGER
Makeup Effects and Creature Designer

Once in a lifetime, something so amazing happens and you are so grateful for it. But, to have it happen twice in a lifetime is unheard of. I am talking about the privilege of another journey into Narnia that the creative team at KNB EFX Group, Inc. gets to take for PRINCE CASPIAN.

The first film was a challenge, as we had never tackled a project so huge in scope and with so many creatures playing at once. It was important to bring all the Narnians to life and make it completely believable that they could believably live in this magical land. And here we are again, ready to meet up with the new Narnians that inhabit the land 1,500 years later.

The first step took partner Greg Nicotero and I back to the drawing board, as we wanted to mix things up a bit. We wanted to take another pass at what the Narnians would be like if they had become more wild in their appearance, seeing how they have been living in hiding within the forests all these centuries. What if they were all different age groups, sizes and races? We felt that the Narnians in the first film were all in their thirties, so we designed some study sculptures to demonstrate our concepts and approached director Andrew Adamson with the ideas. He liked our take and felt this could give Narnia an even more real existence.

In PRINCE CASPIAN, we have heavy set fauns, old age fauns, female dwarves, centaurs and their families. The minotaurs are now on the side of good. A new hag, a werewolf and the satyrs are back, but all newly redesigned to be more animal-like than the prior movie.

I think in every film there is one character you fall in love with. The first movie had Mr. Tumnus, played by the great James McAvoy. This time it is Peter Dinklage who plays Trumpkin the Dwarf. The character is so wonderfully written, and once you see Peter as Trumpkin, he becomes alive and real. We gave Trumpkin his look, but Peter gave him his heart, and the collaboration brings to life a new and interesting addition to this rich world.

A lot of the same crew from the first film have joined us, including my co-winner for the Best Makeup Oscar last year, Tami Lane (with key support from our third team member, Sarah Rubano). We are all excited and thrilled as there is an evolution that has occurred in Narnia and we are all privileged to be here to experience another wonderful adventure.

Read the rest at Narnia.com

Episode 4 of our podcast from NarniaFans.com for August 7, 2006. When you want to lose yourself in a great story, you can’t beat C.S. Lewis’ classic “Chronicles of Narnia.” When you want to find yourself in a great online community of Chronicles fans, you can’t beat narniafans.com and its forum The Dancing Lawn.
NarniaFansCast is the voice of this great community.

~If you are interested in transcribing or editing our shows, send an email to NFC@narniafans.com with your name, age and why you would like to be on staff. If you are applying to be an editor, please also include a sample of your work.

~John announces our new contest!

~A wrap-up of the news.

~Andy and Paul are joined by London for the News Discussion.

~Our thoughts on the KNB EFX Group, Disney’s budget, and Europe.

~A new six-part weekly serial called Heart of Ice is introduced.

~The trio is reunited as Roger joins Andy and Paul for the Movie and Book Discussion.

~How do the Pevensies need to change in the next film?

~What needs to be established in this movie in order to make the next 2 movies successful?

~In Horse and His Boy, A knight saves Shasta from dying when he was a baby. Why does Shasta not ask for the knight’s name, or story?

[Get it with iTunes]
[Here's a direct link to the file, just in case you don't have iTunes]

Our friend Howard Berger has informed us that he and his team are back on Prince Caspian. They’ve begun early preparation work for the film. Here’s part of the e-mail:

Very exciting things that will be better than the first, but still have the amazing heart and wonder we all created the first time. We have been designing some of the creatures for the film for the past 4 weeks and things are looking good. We have some new takes on some of our old friends that should make Narnia an even more amazing place to visit.

KNB EFX is also working on a large film that we’re very excited for: Transformers!

[Read our Exclusive Interview from March of this year]

The 32nd Annual Saturn Awards were presented at a gala affair in Universal City, California on May 2. The event attracted many of the top producers, directors and actors working in genre entertainment. The awards were spread out over several films showcasing the amazing success of genre films as a whole. “Batman Begins” and “King Kong” each received three Saturn Awards with “Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith”, “Sin City”, and “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” each received two Saturn Awards.

“Battlestar Galactica” won three Saturn Awards with “Lost” taking home two honors. The highlight of the evening was the presentation of the George Pal Memorial Award to legendary filmmaker Ray Harryhausen. This special honor was presented to Harryhausen by acclaimed director Jon Favreau. Shane Black was honored with The Filmmakers Showcase Award which was presented by actor Clifton Collins Jr.

Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures tied with four Saturn Awards apiece. Buena Vista, Dimension / Miramax, and 20th Century Fox were awarded each with two Saturn Awards.

The Academy was founded in 1972 to honor, recognize and promote genre entertainment. The organization is currently headed by Robert Holguin who serves as President.

Best Costume:
ISIS MUSSENDEN
(The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe)

Best Make-Up:
HOWARD BERGER, GREG NICOTERO, NIKKI GOOLEY
(The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe)

[View a Complete List of Winners]

MovieWeb has interviewed Howard Berger. This is a very good interview that I’m sure you’ll all enjoy. Take a look at the excerpt below, and click on the source link to read the whole thing.

On a film like The Chronicles of Narnia, do you come in with specific ideas for how you want the film to look? Do you read the script and then go, “Where do I begin?” Or, did you draw a lot from the C.S. Lewis book?

Howard Berger: Well, it’s a lot of everything to tell you the truth. What we did was, WETA Workshop in New Zealand, Richard Taylor’s company, had been hired almost a year and a half prior to our involvement. So they had done a lot of design work and conceptual artwork for Andrew Adamson, so when we came on that was already there, but we needed to still take that artwork and redesign it to kind of fit in the real world. It was a combination of illustrations from the original book and WETA’s original artwork.

The two big things for me were Andrew Adamson’s recollection of the characters in the book when he was a child and he read it. That was a really, really big influence and I wanted to recreate that world that was in his mind when he was small; and also my three children had a lot to do with it because they were such gigantic fans of the book. I did not want to disappoint them and I utilized their imagination and their purity as far as designing a lot of the characters as well.

How much of this movie were you on the set?

Howard Berger: I was on set every single day. We prepped in LA, here at KNB EFX for six months, then I took off to New Zealand and I was there for eight months. I was on set every single day. (Laughs)

Which character was your personal favorite to design makeup for?

Howard Berger: I had two that I really, really loved. The Narnia inhabitants are basically broken up into two groups. There’s the good guys being Aslan’s camp and the bad guys being the White Witch’s camp. I’d say on the good guy’s side, Mr. Tumnus was by far my favorite. I loved Mr. Tumnus. He was also the most difficult for me. He was the first character to film on the show and it was a lot of hard work. Once Andrew had hired James McAvoy, I felt a lot easier about it. I felt James was Mr. Tumnus.

As far as bad guys go, I loved General Otmin who was the White Witch’s Minotaur; big, giant, black Minotaur. I just think he’s so supercool and I remember sitting on set with him on the first day going, “I love this creature. It’s so awesome looking. It’s such a great combination of everything I love. He’s got a little bit of buffalo, he’s got a little bit of gorilla, he’s kind of apish and best of all he’s very Where the Wild Things Are.”

[Read the rest at MovieWeb]
[Check out OUR Exclusive Interview here]

Achievement in Make-Up
THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE
Howard Berger and Tami Lane

FILM SYNOPSIS
The four Pevensie children have been evacuated from wartime London to the country home of Professor Kirke, where they discover a magical wardrobe through which they can enter the land of Narnia. There, they must help Narnia’s rightful ruler, the majestic lion Aslan, defeat the evil White Witch who has seized control of his kingdom.

ACCEPTANCE SPEECH
Well, I’m just glad that Clooney doesn’t do make-up. So it worked out well. This is really an amazing life. It all started when I was a little boy and my mother read me “Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak and at that point I knew I wanted to go live with the monsters. Real quick I want to thank Disney, Mark Johnson, Walden Media, Cary Granat, Perry Moore, my partners in crime at K.N.B effects group, Robert Kurtzman and Gregory Nicotero. Everyone that was there with me through the journey a year and a half of this magnificent project. My Aslan, Andrew Adamson, my inspiration, Kelsey Travis and Jake, my best friend, Sandy. Rick Baker, Dick Smith, Stan Winston, Richard Taylor, Danny Striepeke, and I want to dedicate this to my parents Kenneth and Susan Berger, right now I know they’re looking down upon me and saying we’re proud of you that you’re living with the monsters and running through the forest with the wild things. Thank you.

SPECIAL ONLINE THANKS
Howard Berger and Tami Lane

Wow, what a wonderful life and it all started when my mother read me WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE and I knew then I wanted to be that little boy Max. I want to thank Disney, Walden Media, Mark Johnson, Perry Moore, Cary Granat, Douglas Gresham and my Aslan Andrew Adamson. My amazing children, Kelsey, Travis and Jake, I finally got to make a film they could see, my best friend Sandi Berger, Dick Smith, Stan Winston and Dan Striepeke, my partners in crime Greg Nicotero and Robert Kurtzman, everyone at KNB EFX GROUP, INC who followed me through Narnia for a year and a half, you know who you are, Charlize Theron for loving my nose, and I want to dedicate this award to my parents Kenneth and Susan Berger, who if they were here today would be so proud that their little Max who is still playing in the forest with the Wild Things. Thank you and good night.

THANK YOU
Heidi, Heather & Holly; Stacie; Uncle Bill; Jeannie and Sonny; Bob Carrelli; Akihito Ikeda; Connors; Nick Marra; Scott Stoddard; Delchambre; James Leonard; Christopher Cera; Rob Freitas; Alex Diaz; Steve Hartman; Matt Killen; Mike Manzel; Steve Munson; Gary Pawlowski; Frank Ryberg; Shannon Shea; Mike Deak; Scott Patton; Jaremy Aiello; Mitch DeVane; Garrett Immel; Eric Gruenderman; Michael McCarty; Dave Grasso; Chad Atkinson; Fred Cervantes; Anthony Diaz; Grady Holder; Carey Jones; Gil Liberto; James McLaughlin; Erica Olsen; Dave Perteet; Caleb Schneider; Kara Krasnoff; Lindsay Vivian; Adrian Atwood; Katherine Brown; Tanya Bermingham; Annamarie; Linda Hal Couper; Rebeccah; Sean Foot; Kristelle Gardiner; Sarah Graham; Paul Katte; Ray Massa; Shannon McKean; Haley Oliver; Jess Reedy; Sarah Rubano; Maryanne Rushton; Russell Seifert; Consuelo Duran; John Fedele; Terri Flucker; Bruce Mitchell; Ben Rittenhouse; John Calpin; Derek Krout; Patricia Urias; Marion Held-Bixby; Mark Boley; Annelises Boise; Connie Criswell; Tyson Fountaine; Paul Molnar; Karin Hanson; Khan Tran; Jake McKinnon; Kamar Bitar; Jenny Wallace; Nikki Gooley; Isis Mussenden; Tom Williams; Beth DePatie; Roger Ford; Dean Wright; Randy Starr; Maggie Todd; Connie Cadwell; David Fedele; Karen Mason; Molly McGee; Katherine Sully; Margeau Bull; Steve Katz; Arnold Goldman; Ginger Anglin; Louis Kiss; Marina Barsalo; Jack Bricker; Justin Ditter; Phannin Jurvlaivui; Ron Pipes II; Rapeeporn Rodehompu; Jeff Edwards; John Criswelll; Veronica Torres; KC Holdenfield; Naime; Tracey Reeby; Kimberly Adams; Alina Phelan; Tim Coddington; Ian Gracie; Bill Westenhofer; Erica Burton; Julia Orr; Abby Vickery; Elka Wardega; Bliss Macgillicuddy; Paige Banenoch; Dalia Fernandez; Roxie Hodenfield; Pip Lund; Beth Hathaway; Mark Ballou; Liz Blackwell; Dawn Dininger; Fred Fraleigh; Patrick Mullan; Clare Mulroy; Jeff Himmel; David Wogh; Robert Derry; Sonny Tilders; Harrison Lorenzana; Jeff Okabayashi; Randy Ball; Jessica Needham; Phil Steuer; Mark Simone; Rich Chapla; Don McAlpine; Jim Berney; Brigham Taylor

Special Thanks to
James McAvoy; Richard and Tania Taylor; Gino Acevedo; The Gang at WETA Workshop; William, Anna, Skandar & Georgie; Tilda Swinton; All the Fauns, Satyrs, Minotaurs, Goblins, Boggles, Dwarves, Giants, Cyclops, Ogres, Hags, Centaurs, & Minoboars

[Press Room Interview]

This was in Austin, Texas at the Alamo Drafthouse for the second day of Fantastic Fest, at a presentation on special effects in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

From Cinematical:

Berger showed us slides of centaurs, minotaurs, male and female goblins, two types of ogres, giants, lots of dwarves, and a gorilla (which he actually played for a couple of days). The costumes were amazingly detailed. It would take weeks to thread the hair into a minotaur costume. For the creatures who had speaking roles in the film, they made animatronic heads, which sounds cheesy but looked quite natural. Apparently there were plans to overlay CG effects on these heads, but the effects KNB EFX created were good enough to render that unnecessary.

“This was my Where The Wild Things Are,” Berger said. “I got to be Max and go into the forest with the creatures every day.”

He also showed drawings and photos of specific characters, noting that they’d worked particularly hard on Mr. Tumnus the faun because he is the first Narnia character you see in the film. Apparently the original designs for the character, done long before the role was cast, were based on the actor looking ilke Ewan McGregor. I always envisioned Mr. Tumnus as looking a little older than he does in the film, but he still has the right sort of look.

The 10-minute preview contained some stunning scenes. I’m not sure why the WWII fighter plane sequence seemed necessary, but perhaps I’ll understand that better when I see the finished film. Narnia in wintertime looks gorgeous; the production design is just right. I think the preview we saw was similar to (if not the same as) the one reported here on Cinematical a few days ago, although that post mentions a couple of scenes I don’t remember seeing yesterday.

I saw enough of the preview to know that I’d like to see the movie. The script could be a mess, the acting could be all wrong, but the visuals are right on target.

From AintItCoolNews.com:

First off, I had the worst seat in the place for this. Literally IN FRONT of the FRONT ROW at a terrible angle – but even from that vantage point – I was officially won over to this project all the way.

Liam Neeson’s voice coming out of Aslan is just perfection. But even more cool is the damn Beaver! The Beaver is awesome. Till I saw the Beaver do his “Chatterbox” bit, I hadn’t seen any footage even close to this cool… that’s not entirely true… the opening of this began with the bombing of London and that stuff was jaw-dropping. In fact all of the most finished work was exemplary.

The best news? The kids work… or at least seem to. That was my biggest worry. They look like they belong in this story, and that’s the highest compliment you could give them. The cinematography looks quite lovely. My only worry is with the end battle – and it isn’t that I think it won’t be action packed, it’s just – that stuff was so rough and unfinished that I think I could feel the productions own nervousness over getting all the shots in. I couldn’t help but think while looking at it, 2 months left. That’s gotta be brutal. But ya know what? The battle looks like it will be dynamic as hell, and the Gryphon RULES!

When the footage was over, the audience began cheering – and my sweetie, who absolutely is gaga for Narnia had to go to the bathroom to touch-up mascara. I know everyone that I talked to about the footage that had a great seat loved it. FatherGeek was blown away. I believe Quint said he was blown away. Me? I went from skeptical, to believing that this film could be well on the right road to victory. And that’s a very good thing for 10 minutes to convince one of. Thank God those kids work. Big Sigh!

From October 6-9, the Fantastic Fest will present behind-the-scenes peeks at the making of Richard Linklater’s A SCANNER DARKLY and Andrew Adamson’s THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDOBE. You do not want to miss out on this unique and extraordinary weekend of fantastic film!

Now – what about this CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE presentation? Well, let me tell you what! This is going to be further awesomeness! We’ve managed to arrange with the help of Disney for several of WETA & KNB’s Life Size Characters, Costumes & Props to be brought down. Ya know that amazing Minotaur? Yeah, that sort of thing! Now the big “B” of KNB – Howard Berger, himself, will be there for a slideshow panel and Q&A with me and all of you that can make it. Including a tour of the exhibit – which ain’t some rinky dink deal – I’ve seen pics of this thing and it’s a Museum worthy presentation! Then there’s a rumor of some never before seen look at some of NARNIA that I’m told will knock us for a loop. I, literally, CAN NOT WAIT! But the real jewel will be getting to do a Q&A with Howard Berger – and in addition to chatting about NARNIA – but I’ll (natch) be seeing what we can find out about Tarantino & Rodriguez’s GRINDHOUSE – as well as dip back into the past and chat about the wee Howard Berger that worked on Romero’s DAY OF THE DEAD and NIGHT OF THE CREEPS (wonder if he’ll work on the sequel!) as well as his work working with the coolest [people] on the planet! Should be awesome!

Fantastic Fest

Howard Berger from the KNB EFX Group, Inc., responsible for prosthetics and animatronics in the making of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and he has a unique view on the creation of the film. He also shared several incredible pictures of the animatronic Aslan. Major Spoiler Images!! Here are some highlights, for the rest, visit the source link:

NW: The book mentions many different types of evil creatures in the Witch’s army. Are there any more creatures that the public has yet to see or have they simply been cut from the film?

Howard Berger: We created 23 individual species for the film. We have Minotaur, Minoboars, Cyclops, Ogres, Satyrs, Fauns, Boggles, Male Goblins, Female Goblins, Giants, Red Dwarves, Black Dwarves, Hags, Male and Female Centaurs, Gorillas, Bears, wolves, beavers and of course Aslan.

NW: How did you differentiate the Narnian creatures from the Lord of the Rings creatures and did you find this a difficult process using many of the same people with similar styles? What response would you make to people who suggest this film is just a copy of Lord of the Rings?

Howard Berger: Narnia is a whole different world then Middle Earth. Andrew Adamson’s vision is very different then Peter Jackson’s. KNB’s work is very different from WETA’s, so of course it would all be very different. That’s like saying will KING KONG be like RINGS as it is all the same people involved. They are all very different films on every level.

NW: What design was used for the Dryads in the movie? The book describes them as people, but people who look tree-ish. Where did you take your inspiration for the movie design?

Howard Berger: Actually, in the 11th hour the Dryads became CGI effects that effects supervisor Dean Wright and his team are handling. I think there was not a clear idea yet while we were filming what they might be, so it was decided that they be actors in flowing wardrobe filmed, but then replaced digitally later on in post.

NW: How did you get to work on this movie? For those interested in your career path what is the best advice you can give them?

Howard Berger: I have to thank my best friend Richard Taylor. He really pushed me and KNB on Andrew, who soon fell in love with us as I feel we delivered like gang busters, plus I really got to spread my wings and be more then just the makeup effects guy, but a major part of the film making experience. Andrew really allowed us to do what we felt was best under his supervision. I have to say it was the greatest film experience I have ever had as it was pure happiness and joy every day and I was allowed to immerse myself into the world of CS Lewis 100%, which I don’t get to do on other films. As for following a career path, well that is easy: just follow your heart and dreams. That may sound corny, but it is true as that is what I did and look at me now! My father always said that if you want something bad enough it will happen, and so far all my dreams, hopes and desires have come true. I feel very lucky everyday I wake up and go to work at KNB with my business partner Greg Nicotero as I get to have fun all day and get paid for it.

NW: Have you begun work on the next movie?

Howard Berger: No not yet, but I have re-read the book and have been thinking a lot about it. I feel we will need to handle the dwarves a lot differently as they are very large acting parts. On LWW we had 7 little people from Thailand and India who were great and also Kiran Shah who plays Ginarrbrik the Fat Dwarf, but I feel we may want to think about scaling down full size actors for these parts and go from there. I am just guessing and it will be up to Andrew ultimately, but that is what I feel right now. I also know exactly what I want to do differently on all the other creatures as I learned so much from the first film.

ComingSoon.net has spoken with the people behind the effects in Narnia, the crack team of Richard Taylor and Dean Wright of Weta FX (“The Lord of the Rings” trilogy) working with make-up effects specialist Howard Berger of KNB EFX. Essentially, the three men supervised a huge crew of people to combine make-up and practical on-set effects with groundbreaking computer-generated digital effects.

At Comic-Con International, ComingSoon.net had a chance to speak with all three men about their work on the film directed by Andrew Adamson of Shrek fame.

CS: In terms of the scale and the amount of practical effects work, how did it compare with Lord of the Rings?
Dean Wright: I wasn’t on the film for the initial shooting; I came onto the trilogy for “The Two Towers” and “Return of the King.” On “Rings” we had Gollum, which was really the one character that had to act alongside the actors, and you had to believe him. In “Narnia,” we’ve got Aslan who’s the key character for the film, and he basically drives the whole story. And the lion has to be entirely CG, except for some scenes where Howard created an animatronic character for us for a very pivotal moment in the film when he gets man-handled by some creatures. The first creature that the kids meet is Mr. Tumnus and he’s half human and half CG, and then they run into other characters called The Beavers, and they’re all CG. There are tons of scenes where they have to interact and talk and bring the story to life.

Richard Taylor: As a single movie it was still considerably smaller in sheer bulk, but the focus on the work was much more acute. Like the level of prosthetics that Howard had to do on Mr. Tumnus was very complex work, compared to say an Orc that has an elaborate prosthetic piece, but it’s a creature so you’re able to hide some of the sins in the design. The purity of the human form in front of the camera almost makes it unbelievably difficult.

Howard Berger: Very difficult. Tami Lane, who was my second on the film, worked with Richard on “Lord of the Rings.” When we were in the heat of it, she just looked at me and said, “Rings was like shooting a commercial compared to this.” This was so labor-intense, and we ended up having 42 make-up people on our crew that traveled with us from September to December wherever we shot. There’s a large variety of creatures and species–23 different species on set. We had monsters all day long. We ended up standing there everyday doing all these make-ups, all these suits, all these creatures. We pulled every trick out of the bag. We had prosthetic stuff, heavy or light prosthetics, full suits, mechanical heads, background heads, puppets, etc. We used everything to just make it all work. Also, it’s nice talking about the digital thing. If the audience sees that there’s an actor in makeup yet he has dog-jointed legs, it might throw them off, thinking “That’s not a full digital character, so how are they going about that?” I think that’s where that plays best, instead of having a full CG creature running around. I think it’s much more believable to have that human aspect.

Taylor: One of the things that we’ve been a little bit disappointed with is that the press has asked us “What can you do to top Lord of the Rings?” With our work, especially with the armor and the weapons, it was monumentally more difficult than working on the weapons for “Lord of the Rings,” because of the challenge we set for ourselves. We set about making much more complex armor, and the quality of the swords. We could have done it with much greater simplicity on ourselves but we didn’t want to do that, we wanted to up our game and we hope that you’ll see that in the film. For this film, to get it done in time, we actually had to commercially create a process, and we formed a business partnership in China to get it all done. To get through the massive amount of swords in such a short length of time, we actually had to invent a machine that could make the swords.

CS: What about some of the bigger challenges of the CG work and what was done to help improve those techniques?
Wright: Where we are growing on the technology developed during the Rings trilogy, is one of the climactic moments of the film where we have a battle sequence. Peter leads Aslan’s troops to fight against the White Witch’s bad guys, which are filled with all these mythological creatures. The technology developed for the battle sequences for the Rings was using a software program called Massive. One of the main companies that is providing the effects for the film, Rhythm and Hues, contacted the developer of that software project and invited them down. The challenges in this film are immense in that you’ve got not only thousands of creatures that have to attack each other and look believable, but the variety is much greater scope than we had to deal with on the “Rings.” On this, there’s 20-30 different creatures that could be battling in a scene at any one time, and each of them have their own unique attributes in terms of how they walk, move, bite. It would create an enormous challenge to the developers to allow us to create these battle sequences and make them be believable. You don’t want it to just look like a mess out there. That’s why some of the stuff can be too calm if you’re not careful. You have to have the tools to run these computer simulations and have it look as good as you want it to be.

For the rest, visit ComingSoon.net
Thanks to John Richter for pointing us to the story!