6 facts about the movie "Warcraft", which we learned from the director

It is hard to believe that only a few years ago, Duncan Jones rejoiced at Comic-Con about the fact that he would shoot a film on one of his favorite games. Now he is finishing filming "Warcraft", it remains to do about 50 scenes with visual effects.

If you think this is a lot, at the beginning of working with Industrial Light and Magic, 1,000 scenes had to be made. “It was a very ambitious project,” says Jones. “I think we got something unique.”
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I hope. After all, he not only adapts the game World of Warcraft for the screen, which has a huge army of fans - he also needs to make a movie that will appeal to non-gamers. As practice shows, it is not so easy (Prince of Persia, Doom, Postal, Bloodrayne, Wing Commander).

“We are fine with the film itself, but you still have to somehow drag the clients to the cinema,” says Jones. “And find a way to convince those who haven't played Warcraft.” We tried to find out from the director how things were going, a year before the movie was released on screens.

Although the film is full of visual effects, Jones tried to keep enough realism

Warcraft - the story of the first meeting of people and orcs. The first game on this topic was Blizzard’s 1994 game, Warcraft: Orcs & Humans. This leads to the use of motion capture technology and other visual features that are supposed to liven up the characters and the fictional world of Azeroth. But the film is not made entirely on the computer. “Motion capture has gained a pronounced specialization, but still remains an instrument for filmmakers,” says Jones. - We tried to make a lot of real scenery to build a picture on their basis. Sometimes the actors played in the scenery with the help of motion capture, sometimes outdoors, sometimes against the background of a green screen. ”

The Orcs of Warcraft were a bit inspired by the Hulk.

The director had to watch the actors play, not whether they work efficiently with motion capture. For this, he had a visual effects supervisor, Bill Westenhofer, the owner of two Oscars. And besides him - Jeff White and Jason Smith, employees of ILM, who followed the technical side of the capture of movements. White worked on the movie The Avengers with the character Hulk. “He was very good at conveying the character, and the orcs look like they have common roots with the Hulk,” says Jones. And this is not the only reason why White is suitable for this position. “When we found out that Jeff is an avid Warcraft player, it became clear that he should like working on the film. It was a foregone conclusion. ”

ILM, working on a film, is trying to prove something

Since we are talking about fantasy and orcs, the question arises - why didn’t the film deal, another studio ... Jones didn’t name Weta, but he noticed that ILM would like to do something other than superheroes, space opera or monsters. “ILM really pounced on this job,” says Jones. “There is another company, the one whose name cannot be called, which copes very well with such work, and ILM wanted to prove that they still remain the best in the world of visual effects.”

Concept art for a movie made Blizzard

Players, having spent hundreds of hours playing, will immediately notice any discrepancies. “We worked closely with Blizzard on character development,” says Jones. “We tried to stay true to their concept.” To do this, ILM photographed and scanned the actors who played the orcs, and combined the materials with concept art. “There is a process of transferring concept art to 3D models, but we had wonderful teams.”

Sometimes actors have to ride mechanical horses and pretend that they are wolves

As in any movie with motion capture and a green screen, you often have to pretend. For example, Clancy Brown, playing Blackhand, rode "something resembling a wooden rocking horse." “When we forced Clancy Brown to give an emotional speech, sitting on a rocking horse ...” - laughs Jones. “There are times when the things you do objectively look very stupid."

Possible sequel to Warcraft

"Available". But Jones, saying that he wants to work on his own project after Warcraft, has no objection to the sequel. "If I’m lucky to work with the same people, I would love to."