We caught up with the director of Hugo yesterday, where Martin Scorsese talked about his use of 3D, the history of cinema, and working with young actors...
Hugo, the new family-friendly tale from Martin Scorsese, has more than one unexpected twist. Firstly, it’s essentially a children’s movie directed by the king of guns and gangsters, but it’s also in 3D. While the medium has grown in popularity with filmmakers over the years, and lost favour with audiences along the way, Scorsese’s involvement has indicated a change in the way we approach it, much like James Cameron’s Avatar did in 2009.
Revered auteurs aren’t supposed to use shameless gimmicks to enhance their movies, so when they do, we tend to sit up and take notice. Catching up with the director at the Hugo press conference, Scorsese shed some light on his decision to film the adventure with a third dimension, and talked about working with young actors:
“It is something I’d like to take into my future films. I happen to be a great admirer of it, from when I first saw those view-masters or stereoscopic images, and I was taken into another space. As a child, it tapped into that childlike imagination, and it’s the thing I look for whenever I make a film. That thrill of the imagination has to be there every day, and seeing those first 3D images gave me that feeling.
“If it’s used appropriately for the story, why not? It’s the same as colour, sound or widescreen. For a long period of time, colour was very special and everyone complained about it until they got it right in 1935. This is what we were aspiring to; colour, through the demand of an audience who didn’t grow up on black and white, just became natural.”
On working with young actors Asa Butterfield and Chloe Moretz, he said: “I think that it’s important to make younger people aware of what came before, in every aspect. It’s exciting, if I’m working with young people, mentoring them, I get a lot out of it. I get a kind of
regeneration, to see that excitement. It’s part of being alive.”
According to star Sir Ben Kingsley, filming in 3D actually places the actors under more scrutiny “than any close-up [he’s] ever experienced,” with no nuance or gesture of the performance wasted or unseen. Though the actors seemed to find filming with the method both challenging and stressful, it’s clear that the medium might be finding a justified argument against most viewers' and critics' dedication to shooting it down.
“As much as possible, the idea was that the 3D world I was trying to create was travelling back into something that was so ephemeral, the feeling of magic when I saw those first,” Scorsese added. “That was the way we struggled shot by shot, but I also wanted the old-fashioned ‘3D moments’ of a hand reaching out with just enough time to cut away, seeing how much we could play with it.”
Look out for our review of Hugo later this week.
Revered auteurs aren’t supposed to use shameless gimmicks to enhance their movies, so when they do, we tend to sit up and take notice. Catching up with the director at the Hugo press conference, Scorsese shed some light on his decision to film the adventure with a third dimension, and talked about working with young actors:
“It is something I’d like to take into my future films. I happen to be a great admirer of it, from when I first saw those view-masters or stereoscopic images, and I was taken into another space. As a child, it tapped into that childlike imagination, and it’s the thing I look for whenever I make a film. That thrill of the imagination has to be there every day, and seeing those first 3D images gave me that feeling.
“If it’s used appropriately for the story, why not? It’s the same as colour, sound or widescreen. For a long period of time, colour was very special and everyone complained about it until they got it right in 1935. This is what we were aspiring to; colour, through the demand of an audience who didn’t grow up on black and white, just became natural.”
regeneration, to see that excitement. It’s part of being alive.”
According to star Sir Ben Kingsley, filming in 3D actually places the actors under more scrutiny “than any close-up [he’s] ever experienced,” with no nuance or gesture of the performance wasted or unseen. Though the actors seemed to find filming with the method both challenging and stressful, it’s clear that the medium might be finding a justified argument against most viewers' and critics' dedication to shooting it down.
“As much as possible, the idea was that the 3D world I was trying to create was travelling back into something that was so ephemeral, the feeling of magic when I saw those first,” Scorsese added. “That was the way we struggled shot by shot, but I also wanted the old-fashioned ‘3D moments’ of a hand reaching out with just enough time to cut away, seeing how much we could play with it.”
Look out for our review of Hugo later this week.
