Both Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes have elevated the franchise to heights never before achieved in the world of special effects. A far cry from previous installments’ reliance on practical effects, these films utilized motion capture techniques and incredibly talented performers to display more realistic-looking apes in the science fiction franchise. The next installment, War for the Planet of the Apes, aims to continue that tradition, with the cast and crew explaining the processes that make it all possible in the featurette above.
Director Matt Reeves explains that the film “is about the intimate relationship between these characters. What’s so exciting is we are capturing the actual performance and tracking that into these photo reliefs.”
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The filmmaker makes it a point to commend Andy Serkis, who has been playing the lead ape, Caeser, for the last two films.
“Andy Serkis is an incredible actor. He has such an understanding of Caeser, from the inside,” Reeves revealed. “Between what Andy did and Weta did, the audience can become Caeser emotionally.”
The shooting process involves the actors wearing suits covered in sensors that can be tracked by special cameras, in addition to cameras tracking sensors on the performers’ faces, giving the special effects artists an animatic off of which to work.
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“You’re not just standing in for the role until the magic’s done later on, you’re not just representing the character, you are the character for real,” Serkis explains.
The performer continued, “The way that you can read genuine emotion has reached another level. It looks insanely realistic. It’s just such a brilliant technology and I embrace it and I actively want to push the boundaries so that this movie is the most thrilling on every single level.”
Of Serkis’ skills, co-producer Ryan Stafford notes that what the performer does “can’t be done by just somebody in a gray suit that’s just doing the body movements, it has to come from trained talent.”
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Special effects company Weta Workshop rose to prominence thanks to their contributions to Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films, in which Serkis also provided motion capture acting for Gollum. The company continues to push the boundaries of what special effects can accomplish.
Stafford detailed, “Weta can take this motion capture data and make that translate into a character that you can actually relate to,” while Reeves pointed out, “Weta is creating pure artistry for us. All of those details that make the illusion complete, Weta has pushed that further.”
War for the Planet of the Apes hits theaters July 14, 2017.
