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X-Men has always been political. Mutants could be a metaphor for any persecuted minority. Gavin Hood is a political filmmaker, exploring the South African crime world of his homeland in Tsotsi and American policy in the war on terror in Rendition. Now he directs X-Men Origins: Wolverine, where Hugh Jackman fights a helicopter and jumps naked off a waterfall.
Crave Online: I have an aversion to CGI. When you do these effects, do you have to relent that CGI is going to look like CGI but it’s the only way to do some of these stunts?
Gavin Hood: No, I take your point. I think that CGI as you say is a sort of blessing and a curse. On the one hand it opens up these massive possibilities for seeing and going into worlds and doing things we could never do before. I think that the CGI guys and certainly those 3D artists are getting better and better and better at what they do. There’s a shot in the movie that I’m very proud of and I think for most people, it doesn’t appear to be CGI but of course it is, is the moment when Hugh jumps off the waterfall and disappears on a 2000 foot waterfall. I could not have thrown a stuntman off a 2000 foot waterfall, but it’s such a magnificent shot and a way to get him to escape which wasn’t in the original script. He ran away into the woods, because who would’ve thought of this waterfall? I only thought of it when I saw it. I was on scout and I was looking at wonderful Alkali Lake and I looked over to the right and here was this waterfall. I just said, “Guys, this is how we’re going to get Hugh out of the station. It’s just too beautiful.”
Crave Online: I’ll give you that your diamond skin was better than Twilight.
Gavin Hood: I haven’t seen that effect in Twilight because I’ve been so immersed in the film. That’s the sort of thing that I cannot take credit for. That’s the sort of thing I give credit to my visual effects guys for. I had a fantastic team of people doing that kind of thing. You’re right, that shot went through many iterations. I mean, it would come back to us and myself and the studio execs would look at it with the visual effects supervisor, “Guys, it’s still not good enough.” So those artists who worked on that particular shot and many others kept doing everything they could to make them better.
Crave Online: I’m just glad the action weren’t all shaky camera.
Gavin Hood: This I’d be very happy if you said. I’m really serious. Thank you for saying that. I’ll tell you why. I’m so relieved to hear you say that because I agree with you, man. There’s nothing wrong with being able to see what’s going on. You’re absolutely right and I had a similar thing in Tsotsi. Of course there was the fantastic City of God that I thought was a brilliant film and was done with handheld cameras. When I first began shooting Tsotsi and I was shooting more classic compositions and using a 2.40 widescreen epic thing for what is supposed to be a small gangster story. There were a couple of investors who approached my producers and says, “Does Gavin know what he’s doing? Doesn’t he know that this kind of movie has to be shot with a handheld camera?” Paul came to me and I said, “Paul, that’s precisely why I’m not doing it. That’s what people expect. I’m going to do what they don’t expect.”
Crave Online: Hopefully this trend will pass and they’ll use the style that’s right for each movie.
Gavin Hood: Yeah, I think that’s the point. You’re right. There isn’t “A” style. There’s what feels right for this particular piece of work. I happen to love the big widescreen epic shot. I just love that format.
