The Darkest Minds (2018) - full transcript

All right. We're here
to blather about the movie.

This is Jen Nelson,
the director of The Darkest Minds.

And Dan Levine, producer.

And Dan Cohen,
executive producer.

- Wow. This is...
- That's the logo.

This is probably the first time
we've watched the movie

in a little while, right?

- I think we got to re-up our...
- Several months.

- Re-up our hard drives.
- I hear good things.

Well, this was really
about two years...

This was really about two years of us
trying to figure out



how to make this movie, right?

Yeah, to get the script right
and how to make it feel different

from the other sort of
YA dystopian movies out there.

Yeah, because when I first
met you guys, it was two years ago...

- Yeah.
- Almost to the day, pretty much.

- Yeah.
- Was it really?

- Yeah.
- You checked your diary?

- I think so. It's on my calendar.
- Nice.

And I read the script,
and we're chatting about this movie

as being something
you were very passionate about

- for a while, right?
- Yes. Oh, yeah. No, we... Dan and I...

I think we've been
working on this for what?

- Seven years?
- Yeah, six, seven years.

I want to say it was 2011
when we sold the book to Fox.



By the way, we've not been
talking about the cup shaking,

which was very hard to get.

- People might think that was an easy bit.
- I wanted that cup shaking so bad.

I know. We...
I think we got it right.

- Yeah.
- But there was...

Every war starts quietly.

It's a long journey getting there.

- Yes.
- Yeah, so...

It's always good to start a movie
with a kid dying in cafeteria class room.

It's always... one of those

sort of movie 101s
that they teach you at school.

Pretty much, but this moment
was in the book,

- and it's also...
- Yes.

In the script,
in the very early passes of the script.

It started off the whole
story with such a bang.

I feel like the...

What we had in the early scripts,
most of it's still in the movie.

The script while it
always got better and better,

the bones of it were always,
story-wise, very much the same.

Strange and unexplained incidents
involving surviving children...

- Definitely.
- Except for this scene, which you

always find that, when you finish
a movie, you have to go back

and reshoot all your newscast scenes
to better fit the movie.

I think everyone makes the mistake
of doing them while you're filming,

which makes sense, but somehow your story
shifts, and then it never tracks,

and you always do these quick
reshoots with the newscasters.

- Like this.
- Like this.

It's like a fancy little pickup shot
that we got on the Fox lot.

- Yep.
- Yes, we did.

We shot this all in Atlanta,

but this was something we did in LA
a few months back, just to, uh...

Get the information exactly right

- that he's talking about.
- Yeah, move the story along,

- set it up a little better.
- Yeah, I think that's...

the beginning of our movie, we always
had to figure out how to get the...

It's always a balance
of world-building, and yet getting at it

- in an emotional way.
- Right.

Getting across
all of our characters, like Clancy there.

And... what's also nice is
starting off with a little bit of sympathy

so that you kind of feel for the dad
dealing with the fact his son

- is going through all this stuff.
- Personalize it.

Yeah.

I think, throughout
every step of the process,

we're always trying to find
those little emotional beats

to put in there to humanize everyone

and keep this from becoming
so straight-out about the dystopia.

- It's more about people.
- I think that's why

we wanted to cast
Bradley as the president,

just because he felt grounded
and real, and...

Yeah. This was probably the first...

Do you remember
there was a big thunderstorm?

This was the first day of shooting.

Yeah, there was
a huge storm outside.

- We were worried about losing power.
- It was the very first day of shoot.

This was the scene where me and the DP,
Kramer, and H, the first AD,

were crammed in the kid's closet
around the corner,

- 'cause there was no room.
- Yeah. Felt very left out.

Yeah... Literally no room
in the closet. It was about two by two.

You don't have to worry about me.

I'll be fine.

Okay, bed time.

I love you.

So, this wasn't
in the book, and it's...

This is a late addition
in developing the script.

Right. It was a late addition.

It was something that we wanted
to make sure that you thought of...

You're with little Ruby
as she's thinking about her parents

and trying to give a tangible goal
for her to try to get home for...

Like, she's thinking about home,
so this is the object she looks at

- when she's thinking about home.
- Mm-hmm.

And there was no
physical object in the book.

How did that pop in your head?

- What's the back story there?
- Funnily enough, a friend of ours

who's a story artist,
actually, in live action,

Amy, gave my husband
a souvenir card from Japan

when she went traveling to Japan.

I remember seeing
early props of that.

It's always fun when
you're working on a story,

seeing how an idea evolves.

- Right.
- And as we did more passes

deep into prep,

seeing how it became more prevalent
in the script and more important

as you'll see later in the movie, too.

Right, and the fact that,
of course, later on in the movie,

the fact that it becomes this thing
that Ruby gives Liam

sort of to send him away with,

again, it's a visual way
of showing, "remember me."

I remember
with Mike Sable in props,

looking at the different versions,

- and trying to figure out...
- Yeah, there were some ugly ones.

- And then there's some cute ones.
- I was worried this one was

too small, but it actually
turned out to be just right.

- It fits well in a kid's hand.
- Fits well in the hand.

Yeah, 'cause you have
something too big,

and then you think the guards
are really stupid for missing it, but...

Everyone watching and wondering,
this is actually a real house.

We did not build this.

We took over someone's house

who was nice enough to rent it to us.

There was this awesome motorcycle in
the garage that we had to shoot around.

I think they had to move it out,
but it was just a crazy-huge cruiser bike

with an Evel Knievel color scheme.

- Nice.
- I wanted to keep it.

- How is that not in the movie?
- I don't know.

Well, I guess we should've
talked to the prop master.

Is it too late?

Oh, man.

Lidya was so good.

- Yeah. She was great, a real pro.
- Yeah, she...

All our kid actors were
so good in this movie.

We really lucked out.
Not only were they great actors

and performers and professionals,
but they're really nice to be around.

Yeah.

And Lidya was talking about how
she wants to be a veterinarian.

I thought, "She has it all planned out."

Hopefully, we didn't ruin that
by giving her a taste of acting.

The one thing to talk about would
be just past the scenes of the landscape

as they're leaving, as we really
didn't want this movie

to be your typical YA dystopian,

"Far in the future, buildings raised,
big war had been fought."

We really wanted it to feel
a minute in the future

and just, really, the absence of children.

What would the world look like
without kids in it?

- And part of it...
- And we wanted a big truck.

- Right.
- And we got that.

I sat in that. That was awesome.
I want to take that home.

Actually, there's a picture of you
and I in it, and I look really awful.

I really remember being like,
"Damn, I missed a good photo op."

It was a terrible angle for me.

Hey, it's a set. Everyone's sweaty
and ugly on set except for the actors.

But this set was really one
of the first ones we chose, wasn't it?

Because of the amazing color inside
these buildings, which was all practical.

And it's pretty creepy and uncanny

how these scenes
are mirroring what's going on

with, you know, the tragedies that are
going on in the world right now, with...

- It is a bit...
- kids being rounded up

- by the government.
- Again, this...

This was written a while ago, years ago.

The book was written
many years ago,

and the scripts were written
many years before,

but it is chilling when you see sort
of a dystopian future become real.

- Right.
- As your movie's coming out.

But those...

Something to note is, in that scene
where the kids are walking through

the barbed wire fencing
and the chain link little enclosures,

all the color in there was
one of the big things

that I got really excited about
when we walked into this location,

'cause there's this rose,
and this beautiful green

and it's the most beautiful prison
you could imagine.

- You get that contrast of...
- Yeah.

- Nature, and this...
- So it's not depressing.

There's always color,
and Kramer Morgenthau, the DP,

was very much intent on colors.

One of the first things we talked about
was trying to get color into the movie.

And so, even in a room like this,
which should be just sterile and white,

we put this mint green and little colors
everywhere so it doesn't feel drab.

Speaking of colors, we spent a lot
of time figuring out that color pyramid.

A lot of things got flipped and flopped,
who's most powerful.

Yeah. I think the fact that we
don't notice might be a good thing!

Yeah.

Poor... Poor Björn had to redo
that pyramid how many times?

Our visual effects
supervisor, yes. Many times.

"Who's more powerful? If an orange
is more powerful than a red, then..."

These guys were awesome.

- I wanted one of those outfits so bad.
- Yes, that was a big victory,

the wardrobe on the soldiers.

Yeah, 'cause it's... accurate,
but not accurate.

- Yes.
- It's not slavishly accurate.

It's a kind of slight feature.

Yeah. It's a real military uniform
with some slight tweaks

to make it feel more
Orwellian and scarier.

One of things that's important
is trying to get the look

of a near, possible future...

- Yeah.
- Rather than something far.

- Mm-hmm.
- And I'm a real geek as far

as military, tech and weaponry.

- Yes, you love that stuff.
- I do. I really do.

One of my favorite memories
in prep is you testing the flame thrower.

- I did.
- Yeah.

- You were good at it.
- That thing had a kick.

I enjoyed that a little too much, I think.

But that was fun. That was really fun,
and that thing is hot.

- Yeah, one would think.
- Yeah.

Maybe Elon Musk figured it out
with his that it's no longer hot, but...

These shots are really chilling, because
you're starting to see images in the news

that are so uncannily similar.

- Yeah, and they get...
- Someone sent me a picture,

and I thought, "Oh my God,
that's our movie."

And then I realized,
"Wait a minute. That's real."

And again, this was all
completely unintentional,

because a couple of years ago,
when we were thinking up this thing,

we were thinking,
"Oh, this is science fiction."

You don't have to worry
about science fiction so much.

- "Oh, it's so unlikely to happen."
- Right.

- And yet it did.
- And yet it does.

Hey! Let's go! Move!

This is our first shot
of Ruby as an adult.

- And...
- Oh, that's right. Yes.

- Yes, our very first shot.
- In our famed shoe factory.

Wanted to make sure that you see her

as a person suffering
through all this stuff.

And Wade.

- Yes, our beloved Captain.
- Wade, one of the sweetest,

most wonderful guys in the world.

- You'd never know in this scene.
- In person.

- In person.
- But on se...

He got into this character.
He was amazing.

He's bloody intimidating on screen,
but he's such a sweetheart.

He really is.

And he would bring
his fiddle on set.

- Was that his?
- Yeah, no, Amandla had one.

I remember he had a guitar,
because I remember during the night shoots

I would try to catch a nap,
and I'd hear someone playing a guitar,

and it would be driving me crazy,
and I realized it was Wade.

Well, Wade was playing guitar...

- He was good.
- And he also had a fiddle,

and Amandla had a violin,
and in between takes,

- everybody was playing on stuff.
- I remember the campfire...

Yeah, when we were in the woods,
everyone playing along.

I didn't realize the fiddle
came from Wade,

- but it makes sense.
- Yeah.

When we're in that train house scene
later in the movie, he...

It was his last day, and he showed up
with a fiddle,

and he was just playing for everybody,

- as part of his...
- And he had wrapped weeks earlier.

- Yeah.
- Like, "Wade, you're here?"

Oh, man.

And again, this is supposed to be

this dystopian horrible, you know,
prison shoe factory,

but look how pretty it is
through the windows

- and the way the mist is coming through.
- I remember walking onto the set,

and Kramer did such a great job, our DP,

with lighting this,
and Russell, with the set design.

It was really wonder... Remember
it was so good that we thought,

- "Wow, we're only shooting one day here?"
- Yeah, "Can we do more?"

I remember you were trying to
figure out what else we could shoot there,

but it really is hard to...

It's one scene, so you really can't
go back there, but man...

We were going to have this white
noise sound test in the shoe factory,

- but it just...
- Oh, that's right.

You and I had a lot
of spirited debates about that,

whether it could work or not.

We ended up shooting it outside,
but I was thinking about it.

I even aborted the whole scene
as if it continued on

- in the shoe factory.
- Yeah. I blame myself.

If all those things were...

If we had more time,
maybe we should've done it both ways.

- Right.
- But we didn't.

Ruby, can you hear me?

Now, this is Mandy's first shot
in the movie.

You're gonna be fine, Ruby.

As the face of humanity and warmth
of the resistance organization.

Do you know where you are?

This was a fun set.

Again, this was all stuff
that was there at that location.

Not the hospital beds, but the metal
cage walls and all that stuff.

- Yeah, the chain-link fence walls.
- The ambiance was waiting for you.

- This was a real find, this location.
- Yeah. Such a beautiful place.

I almost wanted to move in there.
It was great. But it was such a cool...

- Really?
- No. Not really.

- Yeah. It was pretty...
- It was gnarly.

Just like, right out
of a dystopia movie.

- It was...
- It used to be an air base?

- Or it was a military base?
- I think it was the military surplus

because it was
right next to a train station.

Right. Lot of trains in Atlanta.

- A lot of trains.
- Yep.

And having to film between trains,
planes and automobiles was...

We actually lucked out.

I've worked on other films where you
have to yell cut because of trains.

Right. But the lights were moved in.

Russell put those lights up there so
that we could have some retro feel to it,

but those steel enclosures were either
moved from places elsewhere

in this building or found to look exactly
like what was already there.

We didn't talk about the...

How hard it was to get the prison outfits,
the coloring right,

what shade of green should it be,
because some were too lime green

and some were too dark,
and it took a lot of work.

Yeah, these are all scrubs
that you can buy online,

- because they're actual scrubs.
- That was a smart idea

that we should go with
what would really happen,

although now, I wonder
what really happened, but... Um... Uh...

Yes, off-the-rack.

- Off-the-rack, distressed.
- But dyed.

And so you can feel that use,

but pretty much that's what they use
in juvenile detention centers.

And try to, again, keep that grounded,
real feel to the movie.

What I love about this scene is
this is one of those scenes

that really came together in post,
that initially it wasn't a timed breakout,

- it was a much slower-paced scene.
- Yeah.

And our editor, Dean Zimmerman,

had the brilliant idea of,
"Make it feel like a prison break"

with alarms going off, and...

The fact he put that sound
of the alarm in the background

was the thing that really gave it.
A bit of a drive.

It changed everything. Re-cut it,
and it gave urgency to a scene...

that we didn't quite have
in the earlier cuts.

One of the big pluses of this whole
location was Russell really pushed

to get those lights on the buildings
back there, those diagonal light bars.

It makes the whole place
look so cool.

Hey, I got Dr. Rogers with me.

And Wade was such a trooper.
This is cold rain.

This is water that's
just flowing for hours,

- drenching him through his outfit.
- That guy never complained once.

- Yeah.
- He is a man's man.

And I'd go up to him and say,
"Wade, do you need a blanket?

Do you need to just dry off
for a second between setups?"

He's like, "Nope, I'm fine."
And he was literally shaking.

He did not look fine,
but he's like oh, Navy SEAL man.

I mean, he was gonna
man his way through it.

Stayed in character while we were
all huddled under a tent.

- Yeah, dealing with the mosquitos.
- Yeah, he was great in this scene.

He was really great.

Remember he wanted to do
a version where he had his gun out?

- Yeah.
- He wanted to go full commando...

- We actually shot it that way.
- Did we do a take with that?

- Yeah. We did a few takes.
- It didn't work.

We tried a couple, and it didn't work,
and then we...

Yeah, it was more menacing
for him not to have it.

Just the gesture of him
reaching for it was enough to...

Another thing we can talk about
was the eye glow which is something

you championed early on,
and I think a lot of us were like,

- "That's not going to work."
- We were skeptics.

"Maybe Jen will forget about that,
we won't do that, and..."

I would not forget about it.

- You didn't forget about it...
- I am a hardcore...

and thankfully you pressed
on it, and it really works.

I'm an eye freak.
I love weird effects on eyes.

I guess it's, like, that anime background.

Right.

And I just love weird stuff
happening with eyes.

By the way, this is, again,
more of a different take

- on a dystopian future...
- Yeah.

Where it's
the absence of things.

Not destruction,
but the absence of children, and...

Not a muted palette.

It's actually very green
and optimistic outside.

It's just a lack of children.

- And no zombies.
- No zombies.

- Look at those cows.
- Despite our asking for them.

A lot of this footage
of the interior of the car

was on the day when me and Kramer

were kind of, you know, pissed off
and full of piss and vinegar,

and we said,
"We're gonna get these shots!"

And he jumped in that little car,
that little physical car.

I jumped in the back, and he shot that
stuff hanging out the window!

That's right. I also love...
We're not there yet.

When he got on that golf cart
and just started shooting stuff

hanging off the back of it when we...

- Oh, yeah.
- We'll get there a bit later.

That was that golden hour stuff.

Like, to try to get it
that beautiful light wherever we could.

It certainly is beautiful stuff.
And then this whole ride through,

we had other footage of really dystopian
wrecked buildings

- and stuff like that.
- Yeah.

Some really beautiful shots,

but ultimately,
it made it seem too destroyed.

Right, because what this was...
The world didn't go away.

I mean, there are no children,
and the future is obviously in question,

but parents, older people were still alive
and so, maybe the economy crashed,

but buildings still stood,
and people still went about their lives.

I think we're running on the idea
that this is six years later,

and not 60, you know?

- Yeah.
- This is still a very near future.

The only people that were
very distressed were babysitters

because they were all out of work.

- Oh, man.
- Nannies took a hit.

I've got to say, though,
I love the beautiful destruction

of completely destroyed buildings
and stuff.

That'd be cool to do at some point.

- We'll do that in the sequel.
- Okay. Total destruction.

I love Patina. That's what it is. Patina.

Those like you are...

But I do remember early days
when you talked...

Remember, we almost shot this
movie in the fall-winter,

but it was very important for you to have
the foliage and the green and the life

to feel different.

I remember the meeting at Fox
where we were gonna rush into production,

and they said,
"How do you feel about...

waiting, like, six more months,"
something like that?

Yeah, which is a producer's
nightmare, because a lot could go wrong.

I saw you guys' faces.

Your faces looked pale
when they suggested pushing it...

- What happens is suddenly...
- I could see Dan tense up,

feeling, "That's six months of any problem
that could derail the movie."

Yeah, this movie vanishing,

Jen taking another movie,
the actors not being available.

But it was the right move
for the look of the movie.

Yeah, because we would have had
a very brown movie

with brown, leafless trees...

Yep.

And it just worked out

to get the beautiful foliage
and the color this way.

This is Mark O'Brien.

Our good friend and has been
in a few movies of 21 Laps,

- and he always comes through.
- Yeah.

Personally... He personally
picked that jacket for himself.

He was shown some options,
and he liked that one.

Did he take it home?

No, he probably didn't.
Although actually, I don't know.

I'm gonna call him.

Soap, some other things, a bathroom...

I think there was a boring time
while we were setting up

some stuff in this area,
and Amandla got bored

and took one of the set dressing
little mini pink bikes

and was riding around in the road!

Oh, yeah. That's right.

That's also... That creepy
gas station is where I got bit

by some strange bug.

Yeah, it was like some predator bug.
You had three bite marks like a triangle.

I know, and two different spots,
and they lasted for about three months.

We thought maybe you were gonna
get flesh-eating bacteria

and die on us or something.

I know. I was
pretty sure it was the end.

And that, by the way,
is not much different than

what this convenient mart looked like
in real life. It was a weird...

- It looked nicer than that.
- We didn't do much to distress it.

We happened upon some good,
ready locations, is what it sounds like.

Yeah, this was another find. Um...

- It's so awesome.
- Even though it was very far away,

part of you is like,
"This looks perfect for the movie."

The other part is, "God, I'm gonna be
stuck in traffic for a really long time."

Does it have to look this good?
Maybe we could do it closer."

This was far, but I think
what got me on this location

was the color of the refrigerator units.

That's usually what is
the key thing...

for a shoot.

That's where your eye went.

This is our first shot
with Miya, who was...

- Miya!
- The most awesome person ever.

Miya is such a sweetheart.

She is so, like, genuinely cute,
not like put-on cute.

Yeah.

So outgoing.

- She chats a lot.
- And I love... I got to say, her...

And yet, you wouldn't know that
with a character that never speaks.

- No. She never speaks.
- I love her...

And we owe it to you, Jen. I love
her costume, because that really was...

You know, that big hooded sweatshirt with
the yellow gloves and the military boots

was such an iconic look.

- Yeah, that was fun.
- I think she'll be a fan favorite,

I really do.

I really think she's so, so cool,

and in the book, it went a lot more into
what her back story was,

and I know she has a new book
that's all about her.

- So...
- Spoiler alert.

- Well...
- Yeah, no, I know. Um...

- Here come Harris and Skylan.
- The first time we see the guys.

The dream team's together
for the first time.

They're together
for the very first time in the van.

The full van kids scene.

Russell did a great job,
our production designer,

with the interior of the van.
We really wanted it to feel like

a home away from home.

- The kids live there.
- Yep.

It's where they learn, eat, sleep.

They would hang out in this van
in between takes

simply 'cause it was convenient and comfy,

- and they had all their stuff in there.
- You know, the van,

we shipped it out to LA, we have it.
We should take it to the premiere.

Yeah. We should
just park it out there. Why not.

They wanted to take it home.

I bet.

If we had left everyone alone,
I think all this stuff

would've disappeared.

'Cause everybody wanted
to take the van with them.

But super comfy,
and all the stuff in the back,

and drawings, and little corners
for everyone's little...

- It felt lived in.
- Specialization.

- No strays!
- Wait. I'll handle this.

And Amandla
had just learned how to drive

when she did this movie, didn't she?

Which works out well,

'cause she's not supposed to be
a good driver, and she pulled it off.

Yeah, remember we were gonna
get to the motel scene?

It was a little nerve-racking
to get her to stop in the right spot,

- because she was...
- It's also a huge van.

Yes. That, too.

- In a beat-up blue minivan.
- That's no way to talk about Betty.

- Skylan was so good in this too.
- Yeah.

I really loved what he did
with the character,

because Chubs was probably
one of the latest adjustments that we did.

- His character was the hardest to find.
- Yeah... There was a draft

where his character just
got that sense of humor,

and a real life and spark to him,
and a real personality,

and uh...

- Skylan just killed it.
- Yeah. He really nailed it.

Here comes a very fast gold car.

Very first shot of Lady Jane.

It's Lady Jane!

Gwendoline was cool.
It was interesting,

trying to find her look, 'cause...

Yeah, remember we had
almost a flannel,

- Seattle look for her for a while?
- Yeah, we went full hillbilly.

- And a hunter look.
- Yeah, hunter-hillbilly look.

Red vest.

- And then we went biker.
- It didn't suit her at all.

- No.
- The hunter-hillbilly look.

One of the nicest people
you'll ever meet.

- She sure is.
- With a great laugh.

I think the first time I met her,

first of all, I was amazed
I was meeting her.

I think we're all huge
Game of Thrones fans.

- Yeah.
- And yeah, she was so cool.

She was not in the movie much,
but great having her there.

But she drove in this car.
There's a guy on the roof of the car.

The pod drivers are up there driving.

The stunt guys are driving,
but the actor's in the car

in these shots,
they're not in some green-screen studio.

No.

For everyone watching, basically,
there was a little pod that sits on top

of these cars where you have a stunt man
driving the actual car

and then you erase it in post
with visual effects.

You just wipe it out so you don't see them
so it looks just like a regular car.

But the actor, though, is in the car
through the movements of this.

Yeah, they're getting
banged around.

They're feeling the impact
and the Gs and all this stuff.

I remember in the...

There was great outtakes with Mandy
and with Mark just having a blast.

The banter between them
in between takes was hilarious.

Yeah.

And here, Harris gets to lean out
the back of the car.

He is in full body harness here.

This car is booking. Like, on the road,
moving fast, for reals.

And he is heavily strapped in.

- Yes, which is a good thing.
- Yeah.

Safety first.

- But he had such fun doing this.
- Yeah.

We're going up and down the road,
him hanging out the back of this van!

Us yelling orders through the intercom.

I'm impressed that Chubs
can hold him as he leans out the...

- Arm strength.
- Yeah.

That is his super ability, his great grip.

- But Jack Gill, he is of course...
- Our stunt coordinator, great guy.

Our stunt extraordinaire
and Fast and Furious vet.

- Yeah, this was easy for him.
- Yeah, this was small beans I guess.

But still, he's so good,
and watching...

His brother was
on top one of the cars.

Yeah. I think he was
on top of Lady Jane's car.

Do you remember how many
meetings we had about the tree?

Oh my gosh.
We had so many meetings about that tree.

Practical tree, visual effects.

The thing that seems the simplest,

"throw a tree," is really hard,
because a tree is bloody heavy.

And trying to find a real tree was
ten times harder than finding a fake tree.

A lot of meetings

about the tree.

We did use a real tree,
but it was embellished.

Remember how cold it was this day?

It was warm in Atlanta,
but we went a couple hours north

and it was very cold that day.

This scene was actually done
fairly early on.

- But this was added later.
- This is a little tiny pickup shot.

This scene was a late addition,
this exact moment.

- That little moment was...
- But the rest of it,

everything outside the van is...

This was on the very first week
of shoot, like day three,

and on this beautiful country road
with cows meandering around.

And it was freezing.

- It was cold.
- It was odd.

Just when you think you escape
the trains, the cows show up.

What's interesting about Harris
is that we cast him off his audition,

and he had starred in a movie called
Beach Rats that had gone to a festival,

but we hadn't seen it yet.

And then we saw
the movie after casting him...

And then felt really smart,

- because he was so good in it.
- He's incredible in Beach Rats.

Oh, you could tell, even in this
very casual audition tape

that he did, very casual, like, you know,

this is a read that agents
send you, like, "This person exists."

He was amazing just in that casual read.

- Yeah. You knew he was special.
- He wasn't even trying.

You should come with us.

Jen was the unsung hero
of this scene.

Jen actually did take a bite
of a Twinkie and ate it

- just to see what a Twinkie tastes like.
- I did, and I'm still alive.

No. It was actually really good.
I really loved Twinkies when I was a kid,

but there was a lot of
Twinkies in this set.

- A lot.
- And pickles.

We went through boxes
and boxes of pickles.

Oh my gosh.
I completely forgot about that!

- Yeah.
- That was Kramer, right?

- Kramer and...
- And our script supervisor.

So, our script supervisor
and Kramer, the DP,

had this ongoing pickle feud where

they would sneak these gigantic,
awful, disgusting-looking dill pickles

- in a plastic...
- Well to be fair, they were

on craft services,
individually bagged and yes,

Steve Gehrke, our script supervisor
extraordinaire, and Kramer

had an ongoing battle
of who could stash pickles and...

And you'd find them
in the side pocket of your chair or like...

- Your backpack.
- In your backpack.

I remember that,
the last day of shooting,

Steve put it on Kramer's
windshield wipers.

He hollowed the pickles out
and put them over each windshield wiper.

It kept going.

Apparently, someone put a pickle
in Kramer's bag and he got to the airport.

That's right,
and they had to check it.

- He got to the airport and...
- It's like Spinal Tap.

Security...

Security found
this giant pickle!

It's fitting.

One of the great four shots
of the movie there.

Yeah.

Oh, man, that...

Also just wanted to say
that the slicing of the Twinkie...

I just love in this movie
when the powers are used casually

as kind of a gesture,
whether it's that,

- or unhooking the tire...
- Right, not a big effect, yeah.

Or during later, when he drags her
to dance. Just a really, you know...

- It's natural.
- Yeah, it's natural,

and it's not usually
how you see powers used

in these kind of films,
and it's a nice approach.

This is another scene
that we redid.

We did very minimal reshoots
on this movie.

I think just a couple of days.
And this was just one scene

that we did to add
a little bit more emotion

and a little bit
more of a trajectory to the relationship.

- A little bite. A little pushback.
- Yeah, a little... Yeah.

Not a lot, but just a little,
so you can see them...

Enough to show that that's not
an easy relationship where they...

Are seeing where they're
both coming from.

- Yeah.
- Yeah.

And how passionate he is
about the league.

Where she's thinking,
possibly, they may be good,

he's had a different experience.

That's a whole process of when
you're trying to make a relationship

- progress in a natural way...
- Yeah.

And you find these little areas
where you have to adjust it.

Like, originally, this scene
was just very, very soft.

He was gentle and nice,
and everyone was nice to each other.

- Too nice, yeah.
- Too nice.

Everyone was so nice that
there was nowhere for them to go.

Right,
and so the scenes that follow this

really benefit from the warmness

between them, because you feel like
they've come over something.

- Overcome something.
- Yeah.

They just sort of laid there,
as moments go.

It didn't have any momentum.
It didn't have any sense of progress.

- Mm-hmm.
- Something also,

starting with this scene,
and reshooting it, and then kind of

exploring the previous scene with them
outside with the Twinkie, was just getting

across the information about the league

and the back story about it

'cause there's a lot to get across
and you don't want to feel like...

an information dump
which is always a problem.

So really kind of methodically giving it
piece by piece which, in the end

- I think we did a really good job with.
- But more importantly,

we need to talk about
Wade and his intimidation factor

- in the scene, and...
- Wade is so, like... He goes there.

- He does.
- He's great. I'd be afraid to...

I remember we put in that foam wall.

What's behind our doctor actor
is a foam wall,

because we were worried
about him getting slammed into it.

It ended up being
perfectly fine, but still...

This was a great moment, just
adding this hint of what are the reds.

I love the fact that all the reds
we really focus on are little.

Yeah.

- There's nothing scarier than...
- I love dangerous little kids.

They're far more scary
than dangerous adults, right?

I love that one liner. We had
a lot of versions of it, but it was funny.

This is the scene where
we were trying to get Amandla

to stop this giant hulking
old van on the right spot.

- On a wet pavement.
- On a wet pavement.

But just to go back
to that previous scene too,

that was something that we brought
in late, and it really brought...

You know, that establishes
that there is a real threat chasing them

for the rest of the movie.

It also is a way of showing
a taste of what the reds...

- Again, it helps you remember...
- A little grounding, remembering

- where she came from, and...
- Where she wants to go.

Right, what she wants
to get back to.

Don't worry.

Nothing can take me away from you.

This is one of my favorite
scenes and also... I mean, I don't...

It's about to come up, and, um...

- The socks.
- It was a big scene in the book.

I mean, one great thing
about our screenwriter, Chad Hodge

is he had a very good relationship
with author Alexandra Bracken,

and occasionally, we'd say,
"Well, we got to get rid of this or..."

and he'd be like, "No, no, no,
that's a fan favorite."

Yeah, he had, like, a Wikipedia
knowledge of what the must-haves were.

Um... And the sock scene was key.
In fact, I gave those socks to Alexandra.

- She visited the set that day, and...
- Yeah. Alex has the socks.

She has the set socks.

Which she immediately then sold on eBay.

They're clean, new socks.

They haven't been worn.

And again, to go to this scene
when we were talking earlier

about having to kind of bring in
conflict between them,

that makes the scene now an olive branch,
whereas without it, it's not.

It's just another tender moment.

And another nice thing too
was Skylan's just...

You know, in a movie that can be
heavy and dramatic,

his moments of humor really work,

and always got a huge laugh
when we screened the movie,

and it just was a really nice balance,

so when the movie felt a little heavy,
we could just see that these are kids.

- Yeah.
- And what's so great

about Skylan too, I mean, I think often,
when you see a team dynamic,

there's the funny kid,
but he... You really just...

Chubs feels like a very real person.

Yeah, he's not a one-line,
like, you cast a comedian.

- He's a really talented actor.
- Been with these kids for a while.

Also, you notice back then
the guys had color-coded blankets?

That's a little Easter egg for people.

Jen, wanna talk about this scene?
This was always a favorite moment.

I remember when you storyboarded it.
It was so beautiful.

This scene was... Originally Amandla,
Ruby's character, was not in this.

It was pure flashback
in the original draft,

and it was just mainly focused on
the guys and what they were going through,

and I really felt that seeing
her visually in the scene

- gave sort of a dreamy quality to it.
- It was great.

What I love about this scene
is just the theme of our movie

about fighting back, about not accepting
being oppressed or beaten down,

that you can fight back,

you can use your powers, your abilities,
to fight back and win,

and that we do have to see people rise up
in real life, and...

Uh... And... And...

take on, you know, the establishment,
and I think this is a really timely movie.

This shot coming up kills me.

When we shot it, I literally was doing
a little happy dance

when Miya was looking back at camera
and stuff, because it's so sweet.

That shot, it always felt like
a very iconic trailer shot.

Yeah.

I was playing music
in my headpiece, you know, watching this.

What was the music? The score?

- No. Obviously, we didn't have it.
- No. We didn't have score back then.

It was just basically
this weird electronic...

- Was it Britney Spears?
- No, it wasn't.

No, it was definitely. No, it wasn't.

- It was atmospheric, weird European stuff.
- Nice.

Are you okay, Zu?

He shot that entire scene
over-cranked,

so in real life, you see everybody
running around looking completely normal,

but then to see it slow motion,

we'd watched it played
back on the little monitors.

I remember there was a big
conversation, because it was...

In the script,

it was a little flashback,
but when you boarded it out and budgeted,

- it was a big shoot.
- Yeah.

So, it's a lesson when you look
at a script and there's, like, three lines

and it's a flashback,
and you think, "Oh, that's easy,"

but sometimes, it's a full day shoot.

- Yeah.
- And you get a little beat.

I'm not a fancy dress kind of girl.

Another great Miya moment.

Remember we didn't have
enough letters to peel off?

So, we couldn't really show him
scraping off letters,

- because there was one...
- Kept having to put them back on.

A little mishap.
They did not bring enough letters.

No, no. It's, uh...

Ooh! Ooh...

It's been a while since I've seen...

I just dropped something.

Or anyone in a dress.

I feel like I should ask you to prom
or something.

This was a nice little bit
of banter and actually is a nice set up...

for the ending, when she and he are alone.

I won't give the spoiler yet.

I'll assume people listening
to this have seen the movie.

Kramer is so snaky as a visualist

that he would compose these shots to have
that sunburst on the van behind the kids.

Remember he...
And what was great about Kramer

is he would always beg for just one shot
where he could do something interesting...

- He would say...
- Something special on his own,

and it was always worth it.

- He got some really beautiful shots...
- He did.

That were just all him
just saying, "Let me try something."

He would just lean in and say,
"I got a surprise for you".

- Yeah.
- And then he'd do something,

and I'd be like, "Oh, man that's crazy!"

Yeah, he's definitely someone
we'd love to work with again.

Definitely.

Notice that we're
not really peeling letters off,

because we didn't have enough.

- Don't ruin the scene!
- Big studio movie!

Big studio movie,

but we didn't have enough letters.

We had, like, what,
three or four sets of letters?

No, we had like ten sets of letters,

- but we had, like, ten shots.
- Yeah.

And this was a scene that got changed.

It's exactly how it was, but in post,
it took on a different meaning

because it was just
a couple of parents leaving, and...

I don't know if it was you or Dean had
the idea to make it more of a threat...

- It was Dean. Yeah.
- That they were skip tracers.

And it allows for a little bit
of a sense of the world.

One thing that was interesting
about this hotel

- is it was an occupied hotel at the time.
- Oh, I remember. That was... Yeah.

And there were people
looking out the window.

We'd have to tell them,
"Could you not look out the window?

- "Because you're in the shot."
- Yeah.

I remember that day we got for craft
services, they brought Italian ices,

which I think is probably the most
important story we could tell for this.

Italian ices were very nice.

Yeah, they were delicious
because it was hot.

Those are my drawings. I'm so proud.

I'm so proud.

You made it Jen.
You got your drawing in the movie.

I made it. I made my big break.
I've got drawings in the movie.

- But...
- And this was another great...

What we loved about the script is that
the friendship between the four of them

is really what this movie is about. Um...

And this was a real abandoned mall
in Atlanta, that little...

Dan, can I mention what else
was just recent? Okay.

We'll erase that bit. But...

This actually had
a much bigger set up.

We had to cut a lot of it out.

We had Chuck, the Czechoslovakian
wolf dog in this scene.

- He's still in it.
- I think he's still in it.

Yeah, no, he...

But there was more of him than...
He was an awesome dog.

- No one told Chuck he was cut.
- Wait, did we just talk over it?

Yeah, he was in it a little bit.
He was a beautiful wolf dog.

And this was another just great moment.

Kids being kids and forgetting
all the dangers in the world.

Things they're on the run from and running
to that they can have a moment together.

And the pink bicycle that Ruby is...

And this was all improvised a lot.

All the playing around. They told them
to have fun, and they were able to do it.

That pink bike that she rides right
there is the one that we actually had

- on the side of the road.
- At the gas station?

So, she had a chance to practice.

Yeah, and I said,
"Make sure we have it in the mall".

So we brought it in. It was great.

Watership Down book.

And look at the bokeh
on the back of that shot.

We shot this entire film in anamorphic,
which was actually very challenging,

'cause of all
the special effects involved.

The distortion is complicated
for a lot of VFX.

But it gives this warm, sort of
amazingly filmic look to the movie.

And a little nostalgic.

And it gives that sort of beautiful
bokeh on the back of those shots.

Now, this shot was done
with old-school wiring.

Yanking them up and down.

They were such troopers during this,
because we were yanking them up and down,

up and down, floor to ceiling, all day.

- It doesn't feel good.
- It does not feel good.

Although we constantly checked
with them to make sure they were okay.

And they were really...
They're good troopers.

They're indestructible
18-year-olds or 19-year-olds.

And I think later,
Harris said how, like...

he was sore from being held up in the air.

- Those harnesses don't feel great.
- They do not feel great.

And this is
our human bowling pin scene.

We had all this cool
camera rig set up in this.

We had this sort of aerial cam going on,
on a track.

We had... I think, one of the...

Am I crazy? Even though we were
inside, this was a night shoot?

I feel like I just remember...
Oh, we were there late.

It was a day shoot.
It's a night shoot...

Well, it's supposed to be set at night,
but we shot it during the day,

because we're dealing
with the constraints of shooting kids.

- Oh, right.
- At certain times of the day.

- A lot of the cast was younger.
- These were all our...

The other kids were
all local casting, right?

A lot of them were,
but a lot of them weren't.

I mean, we actually lucked out with
who was available when and where.

- And you can sleep here, tonight.
- What?

But only tonight.

I remember we had
to do a very quick

wardrobe adjustment on their stuff

- like seconds before shooting.
- Seconds.

I remember they came to set
with things that didn't look quite right,

- and we had to race to fix it.
- It literally was in the hallway.

Yeah, it was literally
in the hallway.

And it's hard to comment
on an actors' clothing,

'cause you don't want them
to take it personally.

That's not their issue.
It's just a matter of on the day,

it doesn't look right on set,
you got to change stuff.

Again, the color.

It's an abandoned mall.

It's at night.
It could have been really shabby.

But everywhere we could try
and find color, we'd put it in there.

The fact that the little camp
fire light around them

puts on this red-orange glow...

Do you think that we've survived...

Dystopia never look so pretty.

Look, we're not just
a bunch of dead weight.

And we didn't have a lot of time
in the mall,

because we were also
setting up a lot of the stunt scenes

- for the second unit at the same time.
- Right.

We had to book through
a lot of the shots of this.

And so, one of the things
that Kramer came up with was...

And it was odd, 'cause...

I remember shooting,
we were in the bottom level of this mall,

abandoned mall, so you could never
really tell if it was night or day,

- you just felt just...
- Yeah, but you had to book anyway.

You only had a certain amount of time.

And Kramer was coming up with
this track system

so that we could get
a lot of rotating shots,

a lot of coverage
of all these people talking.

It was a nightmare in the cutting room,

because you had to cut through
all these moving rotating shots.

But it allowed us to get
through the day quicker.

We go to sleep.

I was a big fan of that hoodie.
That was a big wardrobe success for us.

That was the first...
The red hoodie was the first.

This was the second.

I love this moment, by the way.

Having seen what happens when she...
has contact. The restraint.

Wanting to touch him,
but being afraid of it.

A lot of it's about that
visual hang time, right?

What are you doing?

And no one's ever gonna
be able to unsee that,

but that little campfire makes a little
happy face in the background of that shot.

Is that right?

Yeah, when he holds up the notebook
and there's a little happy face.

Wow, I didn't even know that.
Now I got to watch it again.

Everyone in editorial was like,

"I can't unsee it now.
It's there forever."

This is a scene that we really didn't
have that much time to get through.

- And so it was all Steadicam.
- Who did all those drawings?

- Was it the prop department?
- Yeah, the prop department.

I was really impressed with all...
A lot of work, to fill it up with code.

Oh, yeah.

I hope it all makes sense if people
freeze-frame and look at it.

- It's not like...
- No, we double-checked.

Oh, it does.
It all adds up. I checked.

What I also like
about Chubs a lot, too,

is even though he is the comedic relief,
he's also the skeptic.

He's the one who's
the least trusting of Ruby

when they first meet her, and, um...

You know, when they get to the camp
in the end, he's the same way there,

and I think it's a really interesting
kind of character that way.

- I always loved this.
- And Skylan played it really well.

Yeah. I love that he's smart.

But he also has that,
as an actor, such a range.

And you can see that sensitivity
come through in moments like this.

My dad's a police detective, so...

Yeah, this scene
was fast and furious.

But it turned out very simply.

Sometimes, when you're pushed to the limit

and you have to get things done
really fast, it comes out the best,

because you don't noodle stuff.

I also love scenes where the main
source of illumination is a flashlight.

- Yeah.
- Yep.

Police talk to each other on frequencies
only they can listen to, like UHF, VHF.

I love the fact
his eyes are glowing.

Yeah.

Yeah, that was a tough one
to figure out, because he has...

His powers are the least external,

So we had to decide, "Okay,
when is he thinking super-intelligently",

versus just thinking?"

How do you visualize his mind
racing and his superpower happening?

It's pretty great.

And I just love the fact it looks
like an animal in the night.

Five, four, zero.

Okay, got it.

This took some fancy footwork,
trying to get the shot right.

I'm also thinking we probably did
too few cranks on that recharger,

'cause I don't think it would work
after two or three.

It's not accurate!

If we could redo it, I would
have him crank it for 20, 30 minutes.

Reshoots!

Or it's just a great radio.

That voice is
Dean Zimmerman's daughter.

- Is that right?
- Yeah.

Charles!

That's one of those things, like,

"Who are we gonna get to do that?
Oh, let's just..."

Super cute.

But that moment when they smile
at each other, I just love that.

So, we're gonna
take the next exit, and...

So much of this movie
was happening in that van.

And you wouldn't know it,
but that's all screen. They're in the van.

Yeah, most of the
van scenes were on-stage.

Other than the big chase sequences,
which were real.

Trying to get it to look natural,
but at the same time, practical.

The under bridge... We went through
so many bridges trying to find a bridge.

I remember.

And we went to a bridge
that probably was more cool as a bridge,

but it looked so dystopianly,
desperately sad.

And this bridge was actually
really pretty in a nice neighborhood,

and we had to go and mess
it up really badly.

Yeah.

Neighbors were probably wondering
why we were schlepping all this stuff.

We had a big rain storm.
I don't know if it was this scene, or...

- It was.
- Yeah, where...

I wanted one more shot, and I was,
like, desperate for that one more shot,

and then there was
this complete flood of just...

Luckily, everyone was able
to jam under the bridge.

So, you had an entire cast and crew of
a movie under the bridge, waiting it out.

It was very, very fortuitous,
'cause we shot this at the same time

we shot the Lady Jane scene as well.

Right.

'Cause again, as people
who make movies would know,

but people who maybe
don't make movies don't know,

we have to shoot
all these things out of order.

Yeah, I remember
when I first started doing this,

that was something I just
never thought of. "Oh, that's right."

You don't film a movie
in the order that it's written.

"You have to group shots together."

That's something that we don't
have to worry about in animation,

'cause the set is in a computer somewhere.
We just open up the file.

But, yeah, going physically
to a location is quite a lot of work.

Like this. This was our
opening scene when she was younger.

This was Amandla's
first day of shoot.

And a tough scene too.

Yeah, it was... Oh, yeah,
this is the hardest emotional scene,

where you have to bawl
and see your parents for the first time.

And it was the first day
she was physically on set.

But she said it was very helpful for her,

'cause it allowed her to know
kind of the stakes

of what she was going home for emotionally
to be able to carry that with her.

Whenever she's thinking about her parents,
she was thinking about

what was going on in this scene.

They lost their daughter.

And we thought of planning this
as full-on real-time, but it just...

It didn't come off right.

No, I feel... She's on a journey.

We couldn't put the brakes
on the movie for that long.

But it feels like we got
the emotion out of that.

- Seeing it more from her point of view.
- What's great about it too is

- it's her realizing that Liam was right.
- Right.

- There is no going home.
- Yeah.

And then this was one
of those great finds.

This was one of my favorite scenes,
this shot.

- A DP's dream.
- Yep.

- I love the flag in the background.
- This is such a beautiful location.

It was completely natural.
All we did was bring those two little...

The flag and the two little
old goalposts in the background.

And we just stuck it in
the middle of this field.

Such beautiful color.

This to me is some of my favorite
stuff from Harris in the movie here.

- Just very delicate.
- Yeah.

It was one of those dangerous things
in post.

We recut this 50 thousand times,
this scene,

subtly taking a frame here
or a frame there out.

And every time we changed it, it died.

It got worse, and so we'd
have to put it back.

Mm.

Because of the subtlety,
as you're talking about.

There's a purity to it.
You can't sacrifice that.

We're very lucky, you never can
know this early that your actors

are gonna have chemistry,
but they were so great together.

Yeah, they're friends.
They're just really good friends.

That sort of warmth,
the fondness, really comes through.

I think it was Harris' dancing
on set that really won Amandla over early.

Yeah, the first day they met,
literally the first day they met,

they'd never set eyes
on each other before,

and they walked into the room
and they're just running a scene together

to see what they would be like together,
and at one point Harris,

in between doing things or reading lines,
they started dancing.

- Mm-hmm.
- Like, ballroom dancing together.

And it was so sort of goofy and so sweet,

- and instantly, everybody in the room...
- Bonding, yeah.

We felt like we were watching
some rare occurrence

among wild animals
in the wilderness.

Like, "Oh, my gosh, I can't believe
we caught that moment."

- "It's so beautiful and rare."
- This is a great moment.

Sort of a near-kiss.
She wants connection,

but she's afraid of what happens
when she has it.

That's' why all those scenes
were in color.

We had to cut down on
how pretty that shot was

'cause it was so pretty that it
was almost fairy tale pretty,

so we had to de-prettify it
just a hair in color.

Yeah.

Till then, Zu saved some Twinkies for you.

We didn't get a good product deal
with Twinkies, did we?

Did we get any
free Twinkies out of this.

- I don't remember having it.
- I don't think we did.

I think the last day, Björn Mayer,
the VFX sup, was working,

we said, "The last day you're working,
you're gonna have to eat a Twinkie"

for the very first time,"
'cause he's German.

- He said he would eat one?
- He didn't eat one.

- But we wanted to. I did.
- You did.

They're good.

Can hear frequencies that adults can't.

There is some good in getting old...

This was an awesome moment.

We had a lot of last-minute work
on the sort of noise gun attachment.

Again, going for
the real, but also...

Yeah, the earlier versions
looked a little too much like a toy.

And the visual effect of the ripple
in the air,

again, going for a real effect, versus...

'Cause statically,
it doesn't look as cool.

Considering I'm the one with the gun,
I think I'm gonna pass.

This is an actual working bridge

that had a ton of cars
trafficking over it all the time.

And it was such a challenge not to get
either traffic or people honking,

- because traffic was stopped.
- Right. We were causing traffic.

This was a visual that,
when I first heard Gwendoline

was gonna do the movie,

I was so excited about this setup,
because Amandla is...

That shot right there.
Amandla is a very petite person.

- Yeah.
- She's very petite,

and Gwendoline is very, very tall.

- And the image of her...
- She's at least a foot taller.

Yeah, and the image of her kneeling
and Ruby being in charge of that dynamic

was just really exciting.

I always love this beat.
It's so chilling.

Yep.

'Cause I remember at,
whether during script stage,

they're like, "Wait,
so she just walks until she dies?"

- Yep.
- We're like, "Yeah!"

- Like, "Wow, that's pretty rough!"
- She keeps going, yeah.

I thought that just...

That shows how serious
she is about it.

Yeah, it leaves it open
for the sequel

for Lady Jane to just walk into frame
looking very hungry.

Oh, man.

You know, this is
the moment when...

her friends see
how powerful she really is.

- Or realize she's an orange.
- Yeah.

Until then, she was
telling them she was a green.

- This is also another great scene.
- This is great.

This location is actually literally
across a little service road

- from the scene in the meadow.
- In the field, yeah.

And it's the other view.
It's a beautiful location. Um...

And our camera puller...
Before I even talk about that,

I've cut that part out.

But this scene was when, in between takes,
the kids were all sitting around

and just sort of playing
instruments in between takes.

I remember they sent us a song.
They cut, like, a little CD of it.

- Yeah, they did. It's really great.
- It's floating around in my car.

I was like,
"Wow, that's really great."

They're so talented as musicians,
on top of everything else.

That light,
I remember, I actually...

It's amazing.

Fracturing through the trees,
was so beautiful.

This was where they were
playing music around the campfire.

It was so great. We just let them go
and keep going,

and I think John Starke came over
and just sort of nudged over,

he said, "So, what's going on?"

Because as the UPM,
he was making sure things moved along,

but we just loved
watching them play for a while.

It's good bonding moments
when you can get that off-camera,

where your actors really like each other.

Yeah.

But this location was the one where...

I think one of the signs
that I realized that

things were gonna be okay on set
and people didn't hate me

was this location was filled with spiders
and all sorts of critters underfoot.

Is this when they laid
a mat down for you?

They laid a little furni pad
under my chair for me.

Everyone liked you, Jen.
You never needed to worry.

- But that was a sign of...
- I was like, "Aw, that's so sweet!"

And Steve, the script supervisor's
so happy,

'cause he sat right next to me,
so he got the mat too.

- Let's go!
- Yeah. We're not far now.

Hey, Zu!

We're packing up.

Gotta go.

Yeah, this location was so pretty.

Try and run away again.

Again, so green.

And this was nice to have,
a moment of some comedy,

some lightheartedness.

And Kramer really worked
to get the mist perfect.

- Yeah.
- In between pranking people

with pickles, he worked
very hard on the mist.

Yes, he did.

Blaze of glory.

And this van.

Since this is the last time
we're gonna be seeing it,

it was just nice just to see it

in the sort of
idyllic beautiful resting place.

- It's a character in the movie.
- Yeah.

We spent a lot of time trying
to figure out what song to play here.

This is one of the better
song cues of the movie, I think, too.

- This is a great one.
- Yeah.

I think, Dan, this is
what you listen to

when you're doing Pilates, right?

Yep. That's where we got it from.

The old Pilates mix.

And this was great.
I remember just...

We kind of randomly picked up shots,
and this was where Kramer, our DP,

was hanging off the back of a golf cart.

- Trying to get a golden hour...
- Yeah, as the sun was going down.

- Yeah.
- And then we also had

some drone shots going here,
and I think a drone crashed at one point.

- Well, it landed hard but was fine.
- Yeah.

It's always fun when you're
trying to beat sunset capture stuff.

That's all practical.

- End up with moments like that.
- Some flares.

- Yeah.
- All that's real, practical.

And this is
in Stone Mountain in Atlanta.

Real train tracks.
We didn't pay for those.

No, we built those from scratch.

Well, we built the EDO from scratch.

And then we had a lot
of conversations about,

"How do we make this EDO look...

recognizable, but not too obvious?"

And there was a conversation
about how many rocks should go in the E.

You came over to me
looking really worried,

and I know that when you come over
looking really worried you said,

"Jen, the E."

So, we were moving
the rocks around on the E.

It was so perfect, that it made
it seem like, "How could you miss"

this clue to the secret camp?
Everyone would be there."

Oh, dear.

- Hey, we're not armed.
- Save it, asshole.

Hold on.

This scene actually was about
100 and something degrees.

- Yes.
- A very, very hot day.

It was crazy hot.

Feel bad from the soldiers
in multiple layers.

And out on that bleaching rock too.

- Yep.
- Yep.

But this is an old rock quarry,

and that was actually
the way the rock looks.

- Mm-hmm.
- It had an interesting

sort of stark look to it

that was different from
the actual main body of the kids' camp.

I told you, man, you...

This was probably
our biggest set, right?

Yes, the camp.

Um... The most constructed,
the most scale, the most extras.

Every day, we had 300 kids running around.
Right? 300, I think.

Yeah, the kids were great.
They were so enthusiastic,

were happy to do the same things
over and over and over.

And there are places in this camp...

Russell's funny,
our production designer's funny.

He likes to get all outdoorsy
and build stuff.

And a lot of the places in this camp
are places you can actually hang out,

and in between, you'd find set members,
cast members or crew members

hanging out in some of these places.
They're actually comfortable.

Yeah, the treehouse.
This is the great Paddy Gibson.

First time we're seeing Paddy
in person rather than a flashback.

Exactly.

I knew you weren't reformed.

And this office of his,
on top of a water tower,

again, every single set in this place
you could just hang out in.

- Yeah.
- This was all... This was inside.

This was on a stage, just the interior
of this... Of his little lair.

Everything you see outside
is obviously out on a real location.

You're kinda legendary.

Yeah, this one...

And he does a great
American accent, I think...

Paddy really is
an incredible actor.

- Yeah.
- Great in The OA.

Yeah, he was
the best thing in The OA.

Just saw a new movie he was in
called In a Relationship that he was...

He stole that movie. He's wonderful.

He's also very interesting
and subtle in what he does.

Yeah, agreed.

Yeah, he took a good approach
to this character.

He played it real, as opposed
to mustache-twirling.

In The OA, he plays a bully
that you feel bad for, you know.

- Dan, want to talk about the song?
- How did we find this song, Dan?

Pilates Mix?

Also on the Pilates mix.

Uh... I mean, obviously, this is...
We are six years in the future,

so you want this to be
a relatively recent song,

but you know, I was on the set
with Jen, I think,

- days before this shot.
- Yeah.

And this was an ongoing
conversation, and I was...

I've always just loved this album
In Colour by Jamie xx

who's the DJ of The xx.

And this song in particular
that I feel really speaks to the moment.

I remember you picked it.
Every cue on this movie changed,

but this song we always fought to keep,
because it just felt perfection,

and we didn't... We always told
everyone, "No, this song stays."

Yeah, you literally leaned over
with your phone and you said,

"How's this?", and you played it.

And I said, "That's great!
We're gonna use it!"

Here it is by the way.
I mean, this is just magic.

I remember when we read it in the script
for the first time, whenever that was,

being like, "Awesome."
But then seeing it happen...

I mean, her look obviously sells it too,

but it's just that natural use
of the powers where it's done out of love.

- It's a loving gesture.
- Right.

It's funny, when we shot
that scene practically with a wire,

with him lassoing her
out to the dance floor, I...

In the back of my head, I did not...
I wasn't sure it was gonna work.

I thought, "Is this too silly?"

But it's actually really romantic
and sweet.

And it works great.
But at the time, I was a little nervous.

Yeah, 'cause it's thrown away.

If it was a big thing, it would be silly,
but it's the fact it's thrown away.

It's just a little practical
gesture of, "Go on."

And people do all sorts of silly things
on a dance floor in real life.

No, and also on this movie,
I remember that when you're doing

these movies, you're working
with a lot of extras,

and some of them are not as good
dancers as you hoped,

and you have to sort of gently
push them to the background

and pull up the people
who can dance, and...

I was actually really worried about
the dance scene,

because I can't dance worth anything.
I'm really bad.

I'm remedial.

And so, I was really worried about...
And I don't go to dances.

- I think I stayed home for prom.
- Have to get you out of the house.

I remember what happened was
we got a bunch of professional dancers,

but also there were background actors
that we were gonna use,

and it was almost like
a very quick dance-off

where people just started dancing,
and we slowly pulled...

It was like picking
the baseball team in summer camp.

It was very funny.

- Yeah. It ended up being...
- They look great in that scene.

This is a scene where there was
an iconic moment from the book

that we ended up cutting
'cause it didn't work.

Is this the...
Did we initially have the rose here?

We had the rose scene when
they first arrived in the room.

- And we actually shot it.
- Oh, then he puts it into her...

We shot the whole
rose giving scene.

We spent a lot of time
on that shot.

We did.

And getting the look of it right
and getting the perfect rose for it.

And everything.

And it ended up being a major telegraph
of, oh, he's a bad guy.

Because it's creepy.

- It is a creepy thing for him to do.
- Yeah, it didn't occur to me

when we had it
that that might be taken that way.

But we kept it in as long as we could
'cause I do remember our writer Chad

telling us how iconic that moment was.
This was great too.

My father didn't care,
he sanctioned it.

Uh, I remember,
even though it's just

little quick cuts of it,
that Paddy was so great.

His anguish and betrayal
of his father and...

Yeah, his last day on set.

And he got a bouquet of orange flowers...

I have a great a photo of
him holding his bouquet.

I got to give it to him at some point.

What's great too
is you see him briefly

in the opening in this same scene,

but now you're getting his version of it.
You know?

If he knows we can't be fixed...

They'll never stop trying to fix us.

Why?

Because he's afraid of us.

But he's so intense here
which is really great.

But you feel
the hurt in his voice.

- Yeah.
- Yup.

And so it makes him
really likeable and relatable.

'Cause Paddy's such a great actor.

He can make someone that could have come
off as being, sort of, straight evil.

No, it wasn't a ton to work with
in the script.

And not the fault of
the script just the role.

And he made the most of it.

And I won't hurt anyone?

Amandla's so great with
what she could do with her eyes and...

Teach me.

"Teach me." I love that.

Everyone has a place
in the world.

A responsibility, a purpose.

We really lucked out with rain too
'cause this whole set,

at one point it became a mud pit.

We were not there later,
but we didn't luck out with rain

because we got rained out.

That thing turned into a swamp in
later night scenes which we'll get to.

I got to learn how
to wear galoshes properly.

- They were mud.
- We had some torrential downpours.

I'm amazed we actually finished.

Focus.

This scene, the fact it's montaged
is actually really helpful.

Originally, it wasn't.
We shot it all as separate scenes.

And the hope was to eventually montage it,

but it never quite got there.

You and Dean did a lot
of magic tricks in the movie,

but this might have been one of the more
impressive ones. What you did here.

This is basically post magic.

Because Dean came up with how to
cut this in a way that really felt great.

Yeah.

And it, we even used
little outtakes and stuff.

Little things in there that
made things a little bit happier,

brighter, seeing their relationship
progress over the course of it.

But also kept the momentum going.

Because when we had it not a montage,
it really drove down the energy.

No, this was a...
I remember in the early days,

it was a real challenge this scene.
It wasn't working.

And felt a lot of different things
competing, a little clunky.

But this really pushed
it all along nicely.

Yeah.

You need to be stronger.

And those bottles.

That sort of enclosure
around the plants back there.

That's a Russell special.

This is, I think,
is gonna be the most informational

and educational moment
in the film for everyone.

Anyone, anyone interested
in peppers is gonna learn a lot right now.

I learned about peppers.
I didn't know about that.

A lot of people didn't. I'm trying
to remember when I knew that was the case.

Probably when I first read the script.
I mean, the book or...

You're right.

I love the look on his face,
that's great.

We need all the Vitamin C we can get.

But this is towards
the end of the shoot.

We had, um... This is probably
the last couple of weeks of shoot.

It started getting really hot and humid
out in Atlanta.

Oh, yeah.

- Atlanta in the summer is not easy.
- Yeah.

Although we luckily wrapped
in June before it got really intense.

But it was definitely... humid.

What happened?

I've never told anyone.

I think there was a photograph
of the two of them

sitting and figuring this thing out.

And I'm literally sitting between them
on the sofa staring.

I felt like I was in some
sort of therapy session.

Yeah.

But Liam looking through the window
and seeing the two of them together...

It's okay.

That's really, it's so sad.

He's very sad in this scene.

Yeah.

They're connecting in a way
he can't connect with her.

Yet.

And there's nothing
he can do about it.

There's no way he can share
what these two can share.

And that's the way the villain can
insinuate himself into Ruby's life

because he can offer something Liam can't.

Yeah, here's our sort of fading
smoke effect which took a long time

to figure out how it should look,
and we're thrilled with how it turned out.

It was a long development process.

Remember it was
like computerized, like Matrixy.

- Yeah.
- Early days.

It just didn't have the emotion to it.

Björn was trying to find a look
that was natural and emotional.

Right.

And I think
what he finally settled on was

the effect of ink in water dissipating.

Just a little kid.
I had no clue what I was doing.

I love effects like that.

The kind that you look at and go,
I haven't seen that before done like that.

Mm-hmm.

I think early on we were also trying to
do something so groundbreaking

and never seen before that it got too
complicated and really we needed something

elegant and simple and sad.

It's that stereotypical thing,
you walk in and say,

"I want something
that's never been seen before."

I want something completely new.

Then you look at 20 things
and you're like I don't like any of this.

Let's just go back
to the first thing we had

that seems to work pretty well.

Let's go back to the simple thing.
Ink in water.

It's actually one of the things
I'm obsessed with too. Because...

- Ink in water?
- Ink in water.

But living water color paintings and stuff

is something that I was interested
in doing before.

And to see it happen here visually
on a live action shot is pretty amazing.

Intense.

I love the fact there's details
in here that really we didn't have to do.

But Russell put in there.

This tent was originally just a tent.

Like a military surplus tent
in the script.

And the fact that it became this
sort of bohemian place

you'd really want to hang out in.

Remember, we hired Russell off of,
or Rusty as he prefers to be called,

- off of Captain Fantastic.
- Captain Fantastic.

Which had that real lived in feel.

Real lived in, yeah.

It was a perfect correlation
to what we needed in our film.

I remember we said,
Jen, go check out...

It wasn't even... I think it was just,
you got to see Captain Fantastic.

It's a great movie.
It has the feel of our movie.

You went and saw it right away
and the hire that came out of it was,

Russell as the production designer.
It's wonderful.

Yeah, we're really lucky to get him.

It's a very unusual look.

It's sort of like happy decrepit.

I do need to point out
that's in a real lake.

That's a real lake.

You can look at that and go
that's a green screen,

but they we were literally at...
Still at Stone Mountain.

We did have to build the dock.

- But it was made out of real wood.
- It was made out of real wood.

I think this was the day
where I really, you know...

This was the first time
I've dealt with a live action shoot.

And occasionally moments of reality
hit you and go,

wow, this is really happening.

We were here on this little island
and it started pouring rain.

And we were huddled under this tent
sort of waiting for the rain to go away.

And I was watching
all the rain land around us,

looking at the dock, having people
rush over trying to dry the dock

between rain showers so that
we could have a consistent shot.

And those mundane things were so exciting
because I hadn't dealt with that before.

Right.

My parents.

What is Clancy up to?
This can't be good.

This was
an interesting little late addition

because we always knew he was

doing this, but to show
what he was doing on the computer.

No, I remember I was worried
it was telegraphing too much.

But I think Dean had some
great instincts for it,

how to just up the tension and jeopardy
and not be afraid of it.

- Embrace it.
- Yeah.

Something bad is about to happen.

Because when do you show
that the villain is the villain?

When do you really, really give it away?

And if you didn't know it
before this next section,

this next section
doesn't have any tension.

'Cause you just have him going to her mind
and you don't really know whether

it means anything or not.

He's not stupid.
He's, like, the smartest person...

I mean, he is a green.

Huh?

All right.

Just talking at the screen.

But first... you teach me.

What do you want me to teach you?

I wanna know how...

Remember? A lot of conversation
about collar up, collar down for Clancy.

Collar up, evil.

- Collar down, good.
- Good.

What mood is he in?
What's his collar doing?

If we can figure out how you did it...

I wonder if this movie
will bring back the up collar.

I don't know.

One thing that's really neat about seeing
some of the descent into showing

- what the villain is.
- Mm-hmm.

'Cause that descent had
to be believable

and we kept figuring where
we'd start that descent

to make that slide seem believable.

And before when we didn't have the
reveal that he was the bad guy here,

this area right here was just this gentle,

soft walk down memory lane that
seemed exactly like the other scenes.

This was like a sweet little moment.
Instead...

But now it's got
a little bit of tension.

It's a little sinister.

And I remember on the very
first day of shoot we shot Clancy,

Paddy in this room with Lidya
on the very first day.

And everybody was saying
this looks really creepy.

- And I'm like, yes, it does.
- It was creepy.

Yeah... Watching a little girl.

Don't worry anymore,
mommy and daddy.

Nothing can take me away from you.

'Cause he is invading her space.

Yeah, and I love what Kramer
did here with distortion and...

- He found this crazy Petzval lens.
- Oh, right.

And, uh, it was all
practical visual effect, in-camera effect.

And what we ended up doing was
we'd have to swap out lenses

like 8,000 times

in order to get a regular shot
and Petzval shot.

And Björn had this, he basically mapped it
and said we'll replicate

the same effect in visual effects.

So some of the shots are Petzval
and some of them are practical.

Or VFX.

And you wouldn't really know which
ones they are 'cause they look identical.

I'll just erase this part
and we can start over.

Now this was a tough scene to do.

Trying to get the balance right.

Yeah, and I wanted to make sure
that we treated it tastefully and that.

Amandla was never uncomfortable
during this scene.

'Cause there was a lot
of conversation

throughout the script phase
and up to shooting about this scene.

'Cause it's a rape scene.
Or near rape scene.

It... It was pretty graphic.

But it was such a critical part
of the book that there was no way there.

I know there was some conversation,
can you get rid of it?

And I think we tried to figure out
how to get rid of it.

But you can't get rid of it
because it's integral to the book.

Of course.
Which is why we kept it.

I think the big note that I had
when we first talked about the movie

was how do we deal with it.

- And the two things, if we...,
- It's pretty intense

in the book too.
And in the original script.

Much more intense than
what we shot I think.

But I think you found the
perfect balance cause it's...

It's a balance
of showing what happens

and having her actually confront it

and make the guy pay.

Through here.

Come on. This way is not guarded.

This scene was actually one
in the very original draft,

did not have Clancy showing up here.

It was more of a scene
between him and Captain.

- And, uh...
- Right. I remember.

And this was a tough scene to get this
together in terms of production design.

Yeah, this one I boarded myself.

Remember? Because it was
so important to me to get right.

Do you remember Wade was banging
his head against the wall to get the feel

of what it would be like to
be thrown against the wall.

He was a real method actor.

He was very method about it.

And I said, "You don't have
to do that, Wade."

Yeah.

It's not our idea.

But he was really
throwing himself into it.

But I love the sort of simplicity

of the light bar here
and then being confronted

by all these soldiers.

Remember, we had to figure out
why are they going inside to get away?

And we... I think we pulled it off,
but I remember it was a little tricky

to establish this set.

This is also not what
it was like in the book.

This is very different

from the original draft of the script
and the book.

Because in the book, you didn't have
this confrontation here.

- You had it in the middle of the battle.
- No.

- And he never...
- Oh, right.

- Punched Liam repeatedly.
- Yeah, I remember that.

This was all an addition,
and the reason why I boarded it

was because...
Not for the setup of the compositions,

but I wanted to get this moment where
he is confronting the other suitor.

So that literally he's punching Liam
because he has so much more power.

- Like, look how much power I have.
- Right.

And it's a way to build Ruby

to the place
where she's gonna be strong enough

to change into this other person.

This powerful person that's gonna sort
of become the protector of the group.

It sucks, Ruby.

We could have been leading
an army together.

And it's so creepy the fact
that he's punching him.

He can't fight back.
It's so underhanded.

And again, I somehow,

'cause of Paddy's acting,
I feel bad for him.

He's got such pain in his delivery.

I remember on set thinking
he's playing it with such hurt.

- Yeah.
- That you feel for him.

In his very screwed up way.

And obviously,
it's impossible to root for him

after an attempted assault on Ruby.

- But, uh...
- If you can empathize

with a villain and you feel bad
for him whatever

it is that's tortured him in this place.
Then that's a good performance.

I also didn't want
to have cartoon violence.

I mean, a guy's getting kicked
and I wanted to make sure it looked real.

And that he's gonna be dealing with it
for the rest of the movie.

I love that little Zu is so dangerous.

Yeah,
it was a constant refrain of mine

which I'm sure you were tired of hearing

was more light, more lighting,
more danger.

- More lightening.
- More power.

And our Ospreys.

This was about two weeks
of night shoots.

In the rain.

In a muddy bog of a rain
which you hopefully can't tell some days.

Right next to a bog.

So it literally was a bog
and had mosquitos all over the place.

Um, and I think...

And if we haven't
mentioned before, Jen does not like bugs.

I don't like bugs.

But this was all night time so we went to
straight night shoots for two weeks.

- It was brutal.
- It was brutal.

I think we lost a couple days

because of the rain
or we had to wrap early.

And this was great.
I remember watching the rehearsal on this

with the revealing of the reds and...

I love that the red is the sweetest,
most beautiful little girl.

And it's worth noting
that all the reds with the hoods off

are the kids of stunt men.

- And they're stunt kids.
- Yeah.

We had to make sure
that everybody was safe.

They can actually do...
Uh, there goes Mike.

There was practical flames
in addition to non-practical flames.

And we wanted to make sure
everybody was very safe through all this.

Yeah, we definitely were...

I think the idea was to go with
practical flames,

um, but when we saw a cut of the film,
we needed to enhance some

because it just didn't have that
otherworldly supernatural power to it.

Yeah.

- Extra terrifying there.
- But, yeah, safety first.

Safety first.

Kramer was, uh, trying to get
a lot of the visual effects,

the practical effects of the flames.

Any DP is gonna want that.

Yeah.

I re... And you, Jen, I remember
the idea that it had that little bit of

a concussive air ripple with
the heat blast was

a real, smart little tweak.

I don't know if people
will notice it but...

'Cause it's not...
It's not unrealistic. It's real flames.

But with a tweak which is kind
of the tone of the whole movie.

Remember way back when,

way, way in the very beginning
when basically there's me

and my husband and Molly sitting,

trying to figure out
what to do with the movie

- in a little tiny office.
- In Hollywood, right?

Yeah. This scene,
we were boarding on the wall.

And I showed you the scene where
everybody's kneeling in front of Clancy.

That was a very early little visual play.

Yeah, I remember on set that day,
it was a conversation.

How many kids
or do we have too many kids doing it?

Or not enough kids?
But I think you got it just right.

I just love the fact he has
that much power over these kids.

It's a quick visual read
of they're in trouble.

This is a great beat.

It shows her powerful.

Shows her facing this guy,
which I love.

And glowing eyes!

This was in the original pitch

- to marketing.
- Right.

I remember the look between them.

Even in your storyboards, Jen.

Just the back and forth, this was great.

Because again, it shows strength.

It shows power to have
these big burly guys just taken over.

They're almost the chess pieces
in this game between them.

Yeah.

One thing I'm happy about
'cause in other films is sometimes you

cast the extras for soldiers

and they come to set
and they're very small,

thin, and don't have
that physical presence.

And I remember us saying
to the extras casting,

get us football players.

Former military people
who look intimidating.

Yeah.

I just wanted to make sure they knew
how to handle themselves.

Right and that's another thing
you sometimes find.

Is that they actually don't know how
to handle a gun.

And so it doesn't look real.

And I always catch that
in movies or TV shows.

In the background.

But we had them perfectly trained.

I love this beat because
it just shows what she's capable of doing.

The moment where she finally
grows into herself completely.

And realizes she's powerful
and she can fight back.

I love that shot of her
with her eyes looking up at the Osprey.

I kinda like how I am.

That's a great line.

And I think it's empowering
for women to hear that,

to have a character say,
I'm not gonna... You can't change me.

I think everybody goes
through relationships like that.

And I think we should point out
that's a real Osprey

we crashed multiple times.

Multiple times.
We had to have five spares.

The Osprey budget of this movie
was just incredible.

It was amazing.
It just missed her head.

We totally lucked out on that one.

Um. No, that was
pretty brilliant CG work on the Ospreys.

And it's tough when
you're watching cuts in the early days.

- It's so skeletal and not done...
- You have no idea

- what you're getting.
- And you just hope that one day

uh, it'll look great.
And Björn did an amazing job.

This beat right here
really came out nicely too of Clancy.

Clancy, I mean of Chubs saving her
and getting burnt in the process.

Chubs is the hero.

The understated hero of them all.

You know, this shows
how committed the actors were.

On the day they showed up and
their clothes weren't quite dirty enough.

And both of them just jumped down,
rolled around in the dirt for a while

to get themselves properly
messed up for this shot.

There's your smiley face again.

Yeah,

subliminal little smiley faces everywhere.

This is, um...
This is a nice moment for Chubs.

We're really debating
just how damaged his face was.

Yes, we had to worry about...
Obviously, he had to look gravely injured,

but we also had to worry about rating
and um, gross out factor.

The great thing about the make up
in this movie and Donald...

Donald's amazing.
I have not mentioned that yet.

Donald Mowat is the best.

One of the best, most legendary
make-up guys in the business

and the reason why he's so great is
you don't notice what he does.

He's such a pro. He's one of...

He's so naturalistic in how he makes
people look without making them look like

they're wearing anything.

And he did all of this work
on the burns and everything,

it looks very subtle. Tasteful.

Remember there were a lot

of last minute conversations
about that button.

I remember the early version
was not ideal.

- We had to...
- But we got it right.

We had to shimmy around
that button quite a bit.

Chubs?

Even in the daytime you see
the burns and they still look natural.

- Mm-hmm.
- Not horror movie.

I knew you were okay.

I think this was the day where
just watching this performance,

it was a very simple scene,
the two of them.

In fact, the ending of the movie was
the first thing that we knew that we had

in that, unless you have a good ending
you don't have a movie

and I hate the idea
of people barreling into production

when they don't have the ending.

I mean, how do you know
what anything's going to?

And this is sort of the flight into
the big emotional...

sort of finale of the relationship.

And this day, I remember
we were watching the two of them.

Such a simple scene.

But there's so much going on between them
just emotionally, facially.

I remember I missed it because
when we were doing the crew call,

it's when I found out my daughter
was going to be born.

That's right, you had
to rush off set that day.

I did and so I missed
the actual shooting of this moment.

But, yeah,
I remember it was a splits that day.

And I got to set and I was like,
oh, I got to leave.

- I think you had a good excuse.
- Yeah.

- It was a pretty good excuse.
- Yeah.

You can't pull that one too often, though.

I'm not leaving you.

But again, the performances
of these guys are just so amazing.

These actors are so good.

Yeah, we really...

Sometimes you don't always get it right,
but I feel like the cast we got

for this movie we got it really right,

and they're really the next generation
of great actors.

There was a lot of effort put into
finding the right group.

- Oh, yeah.
- Oh, yeah.

The chemistry of this group
was a big thing for us in the beginning.

- And they're really good kids too.
- Yeah.

If you're going to be spending
this much time with people in the woods,

you better like them.

- You don't always get that luxury.
- That's rule one in filmmaking.

Yeah.

I was always curious, Jen,
why'd you go with the one-armed aiming?

Because it's awesome.

I like this shot a lot
of just the feet and the foreground.

- It was a beautiful action.
- It's actually because

it's a trunk shot.

Those are actually my feet, Dan.
I don't know if you know that.

I was back from the hospital.

Dan's a multi-hyphenate producer
and leg model.

So, the safe house.

Yeah, we could have gone
with a full-on crazy,

you know, James Bond lair kind of thing.

No, I think
the grounded approach is...

- Full grounded.
- So much better.

Chubs, he's in the hospital.

He's in pretty bad shape.
So if he has any chance...

Someone's real house with cute dogs
that they had to put away for the day.

It was a very nice house.

A very nice house.

And it was air conditioned
which was helpful.

That's a plus in Atlanta.

Again, this was a scene
that was a bit different.

And it sort of leads to one
of my favorite movies...

moments of this movie
is how she gets rid of Rob.

Oh, yeah. That always got
a good laugh which was nice.

I love a movie when you...

that's as intense as this one
when you can earn those laughs

and that was a nice beat
that's about to come up.

And that wasn't in
the original draft and uh...

No.

It just seemed like, especially
with so much intensity happening,

you need that moment of lightness before
we go into this next big emotional beat.

Yeah.

And again, it gives you satisfaction
to see her do this.

- It's so good.
- Well, yeah, it turned into a...

fantasy for a teen to be able
to make an adult shut up.

Everybody wants
to have the power to do that, right?

You're an asshole.

I'm an asshole.

I love that.

I love the look
that Mandy gives her here.

- Yeah.
- Don't do that to me, please.

And Rob committed to it, you know?

Mark was just in it for that moment.

- He's a trooper.
- Yeah.

Please don't call me an asshole.

At this point, she's so powerful,
she's able to do so much,

but she's still dealing with,

she's living in a system
that's still bigger than her,

which is difficult.

I love the fact she gets smarter,

I love the fact that she actually starts
taking control of the situation...

That's a big theme, control.

Yeah, control and being comfortable
with what she's capable of

for the right reasons.

I remember this moment here
where he steps back...

Yeah, it got a big laugh

- in the previews...
- It got a big laugh on set.

Yeah.

It's subtle. It's the little things,
it's the little things.

And, Jen, this was always a scene,
really this movie got greenlit

because you did an animatic of this moment
and it moved people so much

and it's one of the moments in the movie
that didn't change much. That it...

We always had an ending, it's where
usually you have to figure out

your ending, we shoot your ending,
this always works.

Want to talk about that a bit?

Yeah, it was the thing that really
made me sign onto the movie was this beat,

because if you don't have
an emotional core to the movie,

you don't have a movie
and this always was in the book.

This moment where she erases him
was so heart wrenching

and, uh, I actually went back

to the book to try and get the story
to be closer to what the book was.

Mm-hmm.

The words that he says,
the story that he gives is just so...

it's heartbreaking
what he's talking about,

their future lives together.

You wrote this.

Well, I went back to the book
and sort of basically found...

- Help piece it together.
- Help piece it together.

But I did craft it very carefully.

Because this had to be
the moment where you cry.

This is the grown, hairy man crying,
bawling into his popcorn kind of thing...

I would hear Dan through
our office wall, sobbing.

Multiple times, but each time.

But getting this moment

and people felt it on that day
when we were shooting it,

the camera people watching them film it...

I think it was your
simple animatic to shooting it,

to watching it in previews,
it always worked.

And even a simple animatic,
I set it to music,

and I showed it, that this is
what the movie could be like,

- and you could feel that even then.
- Mm-hmm.

And what was really amazing

was watching our actors
performing this beat

in real life, it was a chilly moment.
Chillies.

Running off to some fancy university.

My mom can't bear to see her baby leave.
So...

And those are real tears.

Oh, yes, they are.

We actually had to clean up a few.

Yeah, Amandla had
an amazing ability to tear on command...

when she needed to.

One of them is not real,

but I dare anyone to try
and figure out which one.

The blue one.

Again, so much of the work
in this movie was done for stuff

that you don't notice.

A sort of enhanced reality
rather than anything too overt.

Earbuds in, music blaring.

- It's such an emotional beat.
- It's great.

The reason Dan's not talking right now
is he's actually crying.

Pass the tissues. There, there.

Just plug in me. I'm back on after
an emotional couple of moments.

This score is beautiful.

Yeah.

What happens next?

Again, the performances are so good.

This line.

I tell you that I love you.

- That's a pretty good one.
- That right there.

Close your eyes.

So beautiful.

I'm gonna finish the story.

We had a lot of debate on whether
her eyes should go on or off.

Yeah, we did.

I wasn't so sure we should,
but I think in the end it works.

I really liked having it on,
because it's a subtle little thing

and we played with the sound to make sure
that it's not too much.

And this, again,

back to our smoke erasing effect
which is so eloquent.

And, again,
this was all from the beginning,

what we were planning
the whole movie around.

So whenever we shot all these locations,
we would have the erasure shot

that we would pick up on the day
knowing that we were going to be using it

- for this section.
- I love that image.

In fact,
they're using it internationally a lot.

As a poster, yeah.

- Yeah.
- It's heart breaking.

In fact, it's one of the reasons
why we wanted to make the movie

as pretty as it is, because if the movie
had ugly images you were erasing,

you would go, oh, that's fine.

- He doesn't want to remember.
- You got a situation there.

It had to be the most beautiful images
that you can't imagine losing.

That's the great...

The most moving thing
is that she has to erase herself

and his love of her from him.

She's sacrificing that to save him.

Yeah.

Who are you?

I really love the fact
that we don't linger

and don't have a whole bunch of,
wait, what just happened?

No. I remember in an earlier cut
there was a little more space in there.

We actually filmed all of that.

- Yeah, smartly tightened it up.
- I love that it's gone.

I don't want anything from you.

And this is another reason why
when we were first formulating the movie,

why that Gudetama was so important.

Without it, it's very hard to know
whether she's leaving hope.

- Mm-hmm.
- This just becomes a sad ending.

Whereas if you have a visual cue,
like she's leaving him a bread crumb,

just a little something to give you hope
like maybe he'll remember...

They're not totally disconnected.

Right. She's getting him to safety
but she's giving a little bit of hope,

someday maybe this will work out.

Again,
do you want to talk about the song?

'Cause this was also,
we knew from minute one,

the perfect song.

It was one of those...

We actually filmed it
with this song in mind.

And it was one of the first round of, hey,
wouldn't these wish-list songs be good.

And Anton actually, he sent this list
and I listened to it and instantly

I saw the end of the movie,
I saw every shot at the end of this movie.

Exactly what it needed to be.

And so I edited the song down to exactly
what I needed and made an animatic,

that was not like a drawing animatic
but a word animatic,

with shots of Ruby walking,
Gudetama shot,

Liam turns, starts to walk down that...

I remember you showing that
and I was amazed how just a simple text...

Each one of these shots is exactly
what was set to music

and we filmed it on the day
with the music in mind for this.

Her turning, the way her feet are walking,

how that goes into her
going into the stadium,

all the shots with the kids
with their hands raised.

All of that was set to the music
and we filmed every single shot

to the timing that we needed.

Smart.

But the weird thing is,
even an animatic with words,

just words on a screen and this song
made people stop and go,

that feels like something.

By the way, we have a cameo
of our author, right there.

- Alexandra Bracken, nurse.
- Nurse.

- Alexandra!
- Made the movie.

She was very worried.

- She did very well, she...
- She did amazing.

Yeah, I remember
she was worried about tripping.

There were a lot of cables
on the ground.

I love this shot.

Yeah, remember we had
to make him a little bit more damaged,

early versions he didn't look like
a plane landed on him.

Right.

This is an actual abandoned stadium,
which is kind of crazy.

It is amazing how many
abandoned structures we found

that worked for the movie in Atlanta.

Yeah.
It's an actual abandoned stadium.

We didn't have to do much except
for making sure the graffiti was cleared

and make our own to cover some of it.
But, it was real.

And then remember spending time
trying to figure out what color orange,

- what shade of orange paint?
- We really worked hard on that.

And I think we nailed it.

Dan, why didn't you
and I get a cameo in the stands?

- I'm just realizing,
- Yeah, why didn't you?

What happened there?

They'd be like, what are
those two old guys doing in there?

That doesn't seem appropriate.

- And that is The Darkest Minds.
- That is The Darkest Minds.

Here's our awesome credit sequence.

Which also took probably
very few people think about,

the amount of effort
that goes into getting this right...

But, yeah, we put a lot of thought into
trying to find a simple

but elegant font and effect.

With cool, you know,
back shots, moments from the movie,

like the train tracks there.

I always liked the idea of having
something beautiful to look at

so that people sit through
and watch the hardworking people.

The only thing we're missing
is a post-credit.

Uh... Sto...

Yeah, what happened
to the post-credit scene?

Post credit scene
following a Twinkie.

That's right. What was in the Twinkie?

Is it too late to do this?
It would have been awesome if we...

You're the producer, get the money
for it, let's do it now.

Little Easter egg.

We should introduce the character
from the second book.

Oh, my gosh.

I just like the idea of ending
the movie with an uplift

and it's sort of empowering.

I remember
when we first heard Ben, our composer,

who's amazing, his approach
to this end score

and it sounded amazing.

Right. Because we could have gone
with a song,

but we never really could top
the emotion of this.

Yeah, no, this felt very sweeping.

Powerful.

And also the imagery is classy.
It's really... pretty.

It really... Yeah, we saw a lot
of prototypes that weren't quite right

and I think we ended
with the best version.

And the Ospreys.

Ospreys get their moment.

Very cool. Well, this was fun.

Yeah. Thanks for hearing us out.

Yeah,
I hope if you're watching this,

I hope you enjoyed the movie and, uh...

thanks for letting us blab over it
for a while.

- All right.
- All right.