Interview with 100 Feet VFX Supervisor Matthew Gratzner!

The supernatural thriller 100 Feet premieres Sunday on Sci-Fi Channel (9/8c), followed by an exclusive uncut DVD release through Hollywood Video on Tuesday. This flick has a really great concept: a woman is put under house arrest for killing her abusive husband in self-defense. Minor problem: while confined to the 100’ perimeter in her house, she discovers that the house is haunted by the ghost of her dead husband. D’oh!

100 Feet is the first project to be released under the production shingle of New Deal Studios, a company that has done stellar work on films such as the The Dark Knight, Terminator Salvation, Night At The Museum 2 and the upcoming Martin Scorsese film Shutter Island.

I had the luck of catching up with the busy Matthew Gratzner, co-founder of New Deal Studios, and Co-Producer/VFX Supervisor on 100 Feet. I got to chat with him about some of the techniques he employed to make the film, from digital manipulation to… contortionists! 

Read the exclusive interview after the break…

What was your role on 100 Feet?

I co-produced the film, was the visual effects supervisor, I worked on the edit and re-conceived and created sequences.

That’s a lot of hats. Tell me about the film.

In 100 Feet a woman, played by Famke Janssen, is put under house arrest for killing her abusive husband in self-defense. While confined to a 100’ perimeter in her house, she discovers that the house is haunted by the ghost of her dead husband.

Ouch. Talk about a psycho-ex. What drew you to the project?

The producer, Jonathan Sanger, is a good friend and brought the project to me because he knew we approached visual effects differently and could contribute creatively to the project.  I’ve always strived to let the VFX help tell the story, not replace it.  I also loved that the film was a supernatural thriller that was more in the tradition of classic horror films, and not just a bunch of teens in the woods waiting to be disemboweled.  If you took out all of the effects and scares, Famke’s performance could play as a straight drama.

Are you a sci-fi, horror, or fantasy geek? What are your favorite types of films?

Out of the three, I lean most to sci-fi.  I really enjoy films that show a future that is fantastical, but based in reality.  Gattaca I always felt was an underrated film, and was science fiction done well.  I also am completely enamored with films that show the “retro future”, like Metropolis or Blade Runner.  Films that with the technology of the day try and present a future.  But on the other end of the spectrum, I am also a fan of the Alien and Terminator films and the resurrection of the Batman franchise (though not really science fiction).  But…period action adventure is probably my favorite; Raiders of the Lost Ark , the Rocketeer anything that takes place in the 1930-40’s;  Also any period historical dramas;  The Aviator is probably one of my favorite films, and one of the few films had I not worked on it, I would have been very disappointed not to have been involved. 

Speaking of your work on The Aviator, tell me more about New Deal Studios?

New Deal Studios started in 1995 as “Hunter/Gratzner Industries, Inc.”, and was formed when I partnered with Ian Hunter and Shannon Gans.  We started as a miniature effects and art direction company with the goal of producing our own films.  We changed the name of the company to “New Deal Studios”, in 2001 when we became a production company.  We now are a full service visual effects company complete with digital effects, but because we started in the practical effects world we always have approached effects with the attitude of “can it be done for real?”

Why take that approach?

Far too many VFX these days rely too heavily on the computer and the creative problem solving seems too limited.  I love digital effects, and I love practical effects, but I try to use the right tool for the job, regardless of technique or technology.  We are one of the only companies left in the world that still employs in-camera foreground miniature effects.  In fact we just shot a scene featuring this technique for Martin Scorsese’s new film Shutter Island.  100 Feet is our foray into what we had created the company to do; we just wanted to build a strong foundation of effects and production first.  Our business model has become the 21st century film studio, where everything can be done in-house; including editorial and DI (color correction).

What is different about the work New Deal Studios has done on previous films, and the role they played on making this film?

On previous films we were subcontracted to create VFX, which while sometimes gave us the ability to design entire sequences that were key to the storytelling of the film, we were still vendors.  Whereas with 100 Feet it gave me the opportunity to not only design and create the VFX, but as a co-producer, I worked on the edit of the film as well as creating new sequences and shots.  I also had the opportunity to supervise the DI (color correction) of the film.

With that much responsibility, I imagine you spent a lot of time on set. Where was the film shot?

The film was mainly shot in Hungary with a few exteriors in New York.  The Hungarian crews were great, especially the construction department.  Every interior scene in the four story brownstone as well as the backyard was a set constructed in Hungary.  The old world craftsmanship was outstanding; I had never seen a set built almost solely with hammers and nails with very little power tools.

I understand you made some remarkable changes to the last sequence under some pretty tough circumstances.

The climax of the film required some bigger effects and more interaction between Famke and the Ghost, so we re-edited this sequence extensively, but while Michael Pare, who played the Ghost, was available for re-shoots, Famke was not.   So for the climax and coda of the picture I used a photo double and scoured the film for takes of Famke that were not in the final cut, then digitally manipulated her performance and composited them back into new scenes. 

Whoa! That sounds like quite a challenge.

Funny enough this wasn’t the biggest challenge of the picture, which was the Ghost effects work.  The writer/director, Eric Red, really wanted the film to have the feel of a Japanese horror film that featured the Ghost, played by Michael Pare’ in very simple make-up, in-camera, in every shot.  The challenge was, unlike a Japanese horror film like Ju-on, the Ghost in 100 Feet is seen for long periods of time, and in broad daylight.  In some of the longer shots It felt like a guy in make-up, so I came up with a sort of “Ghost in Limbo” effect that appeared like a black Hell-fire diffusion surrounding him as if he was in some limbo-nether world.  I wanted the Ghost to appear like those photos of ghosts where it is almost a latent image where you can’t tell if you are really seeing a ghost.  As the film progresses you see more and more of the Ghost.  We didn’t want to do any transparency effects, because it has been done to death.  Every shot seen in the picture that features the Ghost, except for some re-shoots, has Michael Pare’ acting in the scene with Famke, including when he’s floating on the ceiling (he was harnessed and hung on wires).  All the Ghost effects were tracked in and hand rotoscoped.  Our digital supervisor, Bob Chapin did a fantastic job with his crew, and really made the whole process work for a very small budget.

It sounds like you had a lot fun. Any favorite stories?

My favorite story from the picture is probably the most photographically morbid.  There is an extremely violent sequence involving the death of a character whose arms are dislocated and broken behind his back.  The director shot a prosthetic in-camera for this in Hungary, but it wasn’t convincing enough.  So rather than digitally manipulating or animating from scratch this effect, I opted to do it in-camera…for real.  Through our digital supervisor Bob Chapin’s stunt contacts, we found a contortionist by the name of Daniel Smith aka “Rubber Boy”, who just happen to live in Santa Monica, and just happen to be a perfect body double for the shirtless actor in the scene.  We puppeteered Daniel’s hands via wires to appear that an invisible ghost was wrenching them upward as he dislocated each shoulder for the shot.  Even though Daniel repeatedly could do this action painlessly, many of the crew couldn’t watch; it looked excruciating!  Once we had the contortionist element, we then rotoscoped, tracked and composited the principle actor’s head onto Daniel’s body, then composited the whole assembly back into a clean plate of the scene.  So when you watch the film, those distending, dislocating shoulder blades and upper arms are doing that for real, no VFX or enhancement of any kind.

That is insane! Talk about ‘doing it in camera’! When you do opt for VFX, what do you use?

All compositing was done in Shake, although we use Nuke quite a bit now, and any animation was done in Maya.  As stated earlier I try and mix up the techniques as much as possible.  We did everything from creating and animating digital flying dish-ware and jewelry to shooting live action elements featuring extremely high-speed photography of violent pyrotechnics.  I like having the ability to shoot live action components and manipulate them digitally.

I imagine, like every film, you learned a lot for future productions.

The experience as co-producer on this picture was invaluable for any of our future productions.  New Deal Studios has a slate of films that range from drama to sci-fi to family and I want to thank Jonathan Sanger, the producer of “100 Feet” for giving me this opportunity which our other productions will greatly benefit.

Thanks, Matthew. It sounds like you and New Deal did some extraordinary work and there’s plenty more to come!

Find out more about New Deal Studios at their website.