In the spring of 1999, one film
changed all of the rules for special
effect and created a cultural phenomenon.
The writers used a blend of
various influences, ranging from
anime to science fiction novels, to
create a cinematic epic. Its makers so
visionary, so demanding, that they
required the special effects director
to reinvent effects cinematography.
The methods he created, in all there
forms, are now synonymous with the
film: The Matrix.
This summer marks the four year
anniversary of the original release and
the start of what Newsweek has
dubbed the "Year of 'The Matrix'." In
a bold step away from the Hollywood
status quo, Warner Brothers will be
releasing both sequels, "Reloaded"
and "Revolutions" within six months
of each other.
Reloaded will hit theaters on May
15. It picks up a brief while after the
first film. Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity
all return to continue their battle
with the machines. But the machines
have discovered the location of
Zion, the last human city, and are
tunneling toward it at a feverish
pace. An army of Squidies barreling
toward the human refuge, and the
only hope is to capture the
Keymaker, a man in the Matrix who
has the ability to get inside the machines
network.
Protecting the Keymaker are two
sinister looking twin albinos clad in
white with dreadlocked hair.
Morpheus and Trinity capture the
Keymaker and attempt to get him
to a hard line phone, the only thing
in their way are several miles of highway
with rush hour traffic. "You
always said never get on the freeway.
You said it was suicide," Trinity
says to Morpheus as they approach
the an ramp, a harbinger to
the 20-minute climax that will stun
audiences, raise the bar for action
movies, and rewrite the book on
special effects.
While Trinity and Morpheus
rush to get the Keymaker onboard
the "Nebuchadnezzar," Neo is
forced to fight his old nemesis,
Agent Smith. Smith returns, now in
viral form, with the ability to replicate
with any software wired to the
Matrix. Meaning Neo must deal
with an army of Agent Smiths, each
as powerful as the first. The scene is
a special effects masterpiece that will
have audiences in awe.
From the opening scene, The Matrix
strove to break the rules of special
effects. An industry dominated by long
standing companies like Industrial
Light and Magic, was being schooled
by a new start up: ESC lead by John
Gaeta. He created a blend of photo and
computer effects to create the trademark
"bullet time." But the big question
was, "What is he going to do next?"
Every movie has a scene that defines
it as film. In "The Matrix" it was the
lobby. The scene combined wire work,
"bullet time," explosions, and more firepower
than had ever been seen in such
a short scene. For "Reloaded" that scene
has been dubbed the Burly Brawl, Neo
begins a battle with Agent Smith, who
can replicate with any software wired to
the Matrix. The result: Neo fighting
hundreds of Agent Smiths at the same
time.
In an ordinary film, a scene is shot
at multiple camera angles and then
handed to the special effects wizard.
But the brothers wanted something different.
They wanted to blend the border
between what you know is possible
and what you believe to be impossible.
Gaeta did just that. Rather than begin
with the scene on film and build out, he
and his special effects crew started in
the computer.
They recorded every minute detail
of the scene onto digital media. The set
was reconstructed digitally. Every texture,
blade of grass, speck of dust was
transferred to the mainframe. In the
end, the computer created a scene indistinguishable
from the filmed copy of
the set.
While backgrounds and walls are
easy to copy digitally, the human face
is different. Our minds have been programmed
not to be tricked by simple
illusions. Computer renderings often
have a plastic look about them,
lacking both the proper textures and
shading. Your mind simply screams
out, "This isn't real."
Gaeta and his team again defied
convention by creating their own process
called "universal capture."
Rather than have the computer synthesize
the actors, he gave the computer
every detail of their physical
makeup. Keanu Reeves and Hugo
Weaving spend hours in front of 5
high definition cameras, each with a
data output of a gigabyte a second,
recording every facial expression
needed for the scene.
Every wrinkle, freckle, and hair was
recorded by the cameras. Casts of their
heads were send to Arius 3D, where the
worlds most powerful scanners, precision
to 25 microns, created digital 3D
replicas of their heads. Even their clothing
got special attention. Swatches of
cloth were sent to Surface Optics to be
scanned with the same equipment used
to test the absorption of the paint on the
stealth bomber.
With all of the details saved away,
the ESC team went to work. The
project was completed in complete
secrecy. In an effort to keep the scene
from leaking to the public, the working
script was titled "The Burley
Man," an allusion to a Coen Brothers
film "Barton Fink". Filed away in a
mothballed naval barracks in
Alameda, Calif., Gaeta did the imp
o s s i b l e .
He created a scene that existed
entirely in the computer. Unlike most
computer-rendered scenes, which
only allow for the intended camera
angle, the ESC team created a method
of rendering that allows infinite camera
angles. If it is decided that another
angle is better while cutting together
the final film, the new path is entered
into the computer and the scene is rerendered,
as opposed to the old way
of having animators redo the entire
scene.
The final product is a completely
digitally rendered scene. A scene that
is so realistic that your mind casts no
doubt on its authenticity, yet camera
goes through angles that whip around
the action at over 2,000 miles per hour,
a sheer speed that would physically
rip apart any real camera.
Camera tricks and computer
graphics are not the only thing powering
"Reloaded." As Morpheus and
Trinity race with the Keymaker to a
hard line, they must use the freeway.
The Wachowski brothers wanted a
highway that would make the audience
feel the suspense and believe that
the duo was facing impending doom.
Sadly, for the Wachowski brothers,
no civil planner ever creates highways
that exude destruction and mayhem.
The solution: build your own
freeway. Outside the ESC studio there
now sits a two mile loop of highway.
Complete with traffic signs, onramps,
and lots of skid marks. The cost: a
mere $300,000 per quarter mile, for a
total of $2.4 million.
"The Matrix" trilogy stands as a
technological achievement. Much like
the "Star Wars" trilogy before it, the
creators re-invented the rules for cinema
and adapted current effects technology
and created there own. In the
original film, there were 412 FX shots,
in the two sequels, there are over
2,500. It will stand for decades as a
masterpiece and will certainly take its
place in history.
"The Matrix" went far beyond rewriting
the rules for science fiction. It
helped in recreating the entertainment
industry. The DVD release was
the first to sell a million copies. While
lacking in most other contemporary
DVDs, "The Matrix" special features
went to an extent that had never been
seen, and has yet to be duplicated. It
is also the largest Warner Brothers
release ever.
From the moment they began the
script, the Wachowski brothers
sought to blend the worlds of cinema,
anime, comics and novels. It is with
that same desire the Wachowski
brothers created the sequels and the
web of various media forms, all tied
together, that lead to the conclusion
of the Matrix Trilogy.
Much of the original inspiration for
the trilogy came from anime. As such
the Wachowski brothers created an
animated companion for the sequels.
The "Animatrix," a series of nine anime
short films, leads viewers as a prequel to
original film. The shorts, which will be
released on DVD on June 3, are the
result of over a year of collaboration
between the Wachowski brothers and
the various animators who created
"Cowboy Bebop" and "Final Fantasy:
The Spirits Within."
This summer proves to be full of
big blockbusters. All of them will have
to keep pace with "Reloaded." It will
come out early and set a high bar, not
only for box office gross but in cinematic
storytelling. Come next Super
Bowl we will certainly see the cinematic
special effects used to sell us
popcorn shrimp, a testament to the
power of the trilogy.
