Advancing The Art Of Computer Animation:

Acclaimed Cinematographer Roger Deakins And

Visual Effects Pioneer Dennis Muren Consult On "Wall-E"

"One of the things that Andrew wanted to do with 'WALL-E' was to create a different look than we're used to seeing in animated films," recalls producer Morris. "Very often animated films feel like they're recorded in some kind of computer space. We wanted this film to feel like cinematographers with real cameras had gone to these places and filmed what we were seeing. We wanted it to have artifacts of photography and to seem real and much more gritty than animated films tend to be. During my many years working at ILM, I had met several people that I thought could be helpful with that."

Morris invited two of the top filmmakers in their respective fields to visit Pixar and to serve as consultants on the film. Cinematographer Roger Deakins ("No Country for Old Men," "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Outlaw Robert Ford," "Fargo," "O Brother Where Art Thou?"), a seven-time Oscar® nominee best known for his frequent work with the acclaimed Coen Brothers lent his expertise on lighting and camera issues. Renowned visual effects wizard and six-time Oscar winner Dennis Muren ("Star Wars," "Indiana Jones," "Terminator 2," "Jurassic Park," "The Abyss," "Twister") offered his expertise on visual effects and creating the right atmospheric imagery.

"There's a bit of imperfection in the look of the final film that adds to its believability."

~ Jim Morris, Producer

"Both Roger and Dennis spent periods of time on the film bringing their perspectives to it and giving us a lot of ideas about how things would look and feel," says Morris. "We actually brought in some vintage 1970s Panavision cameras, similar to the ones used to shoot the original 'Star Wars,' and shot some imagery to get a sense of the kind of artifacts those lenses created. We observed technical things like chromatic aberration, barrel distortion and other imperfections, and took what we learned and applied it to our computer graphics photography. Dennis and Roger were pivotal in helping us get those looks. For example, their advice on cinematography, lighting, and composition helped us create the austere, glaring and harsh Earth landscape in the first act."

Morris' background in live-action and visual effects filmmaking also helped the filmmakers achieve their desire to have the movie feel like it was filmed and not recorded. "I explained to the technical team that in the real world, when you're shooting, the lens is usually about three feet in front of the film plane and you're getting perspective shift when you pan and tilt. They took this information and came back with imagery that looked fifty percent more like a photographed image. The result feels like there was a cameraman present, as opposed to being in some sort of virtual space where everything is pristine. There's a bit of imperfection in the look of the final film that adds to its believability.

As director of photography for camera, Jeremy Lasky helped take the film to an even higher level. "We advanced our camera and lighting technology to give the film a feel like there was a camera and lens shooting the action. We used a widescreen aspect ratio and a very shallow depth of field to give a real richness to the cinematography. You'll notice backgrounds out of focus, and more textured layers of focus in some shots to create almost watercolor compositions. We also used a lot of handheld and steady-cam shots, especially in space, to make the audience feel that could really happen, and that this is a real robot moving through a real world. You feel like you're witnessing this scene really unfold. One of the great innovations for us on this film, and a first for Pixar, was that we were able to previsualize the key lights prior to shooting so that we would have a much better idea of what the final film frame would look like. In the past, we had no lighting information at all at this stage of the production."

Danielle Feinberg was the director of photography for lighting. Acclaimed cinematographer Roger Deakins ("No Country for Old Men," "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford") and Oscar®-winning visual effects legend Dennis Muren served as consultants.

"When I saw the finished film, I had one of those moments where I thought, 'I've never seen a movie quite like this before!,'" concludes Morris. "I felt like I was seeing it through fresh eyes."

Movie search