This is the third-to-shortest featurette on the 2-Disc Director's Cut DVD of Beowulf, with a running time of just under five and a half minutes. It consists of interviews, concept artwork, clips of the film and behind the scenes footage. Going over the design and the approach they took to it, this shows drawings from the process, and describe the different ideas that they had for lighting, look and style. Chiang is apparently the man responsible for the latter two, as he is praised by Zemeckis. Everything is explained well, and this is concise and informative, if also a bit promotional, with the massive love-fest that is going on some of the time. The pacing is spot-on, not a moment is wasted and it doesn't go by too fast, either. They do admit that they took a few liberties to make it more dramatic and grand, though it still seems like it was mainly based upon the research. And I personally love the irony of the two clips being shown as they talk about how the 3D is used to enhance the whole, and not only a gimmick, are high on the list of the most gratuitous ones. I recommend this to anyone who wants to know about the subject. 7/10
2 Reviews
More than just a gallery
Chip_douglas29 August 2009
Warning: Spoilers
Now they could have gotten away with a collage of images for this segment on the Beowulf double disc set, or even have a click-able gallery of production art, but instead we get one last 5 minute documentary focusing on the art developed by Doug Chiang's department for the film. So keep your eyes peeled for a cavalcade of gorgeous paintings and many different interpretations of the characters, monsters and settings of Beowulf. At some points the editing is so quick that you can't tell the moving digital paintings from the finished scenes (and of course the fact that they segue in and out of each other doesn't help either).
Doug Chiang talks about doing historical research for the settings and props and finding out that castles in the fourth century weren't very grand at all, more like large huts. Since the film makes a jump in time somewhere past the half way point, the designers did take the opportunity to expand Beowulf's home, Herot to show how he had enforced the walls and added a handy watchtower. We catch another glimpse at Anthony Hopkins wearing his full Hrothgar costume for reference pictures, but unfortunately none of the other actors are seen that way. Doug also takes pride in showing off the model work. Notice that the model of Grendel's lair is supposed to be a giant dinosaur's skeleton and that Beowulfs subconsciously incorporates the spine and giant ribs into his redesign of the Mead Hall.
Another interesting tidbit from Zemeckis is the revelation of the three lighting schemes used in the film, based on light in 4th century: the gray danish sun in winter, fire and gold. Dougie talks about using the horn as the light source for the cave rather that than equipping it with 'movie lights'. Also, for the first and only time on the DVD, there is talk about the film being released as a 3D feature in theaters. So we get some examples of the more obvious shots where the three dimensional effect was best used, including the spear that is pointed at Beowulf's eye the moment he arrives in Denmark. If you want to take a long good look at your own leisure at what that went into the making of Beowulf, I highly recommend Mark Cotta Vaz & Steve Starkey Chronicles book "The Art of Beowulf".
7 out of 10
Doug Chiang talks about doing historical research for the settings and props and finding out that castles in the fourth century weren't very grand at all, more like large huts. Since the film makes a jump in time somewhere past the half way point, the designers did take the opportunity to expand Beowulf's home, Herot to show how he had enforced the walls and added a handy watchtower. We catch another glimpse at Anthony Hopkins wearing his full Hrothgar costume for reference pictures, but unfortunately none of the other actors are seen that way. Doug also takes pride in showing off the model work. Notice that the model of Grendel's lair is supposed to be a giant dinosaur's skeleton and that Beowulfs subconsciously incorporates the spine and giant ribs into his redesign of the Mead Hall.
Another interesting tidbit from Zemeckis is the revelation of the three lighting schemes used in the film, based on light in 4th century: the gray danish sun in winter, fire and gold. Dougie talks about using the horn as the light source for the cave rather that than equipping it with 'movie lights'. Also, for the first and only time on the DVD, there is talk about the film being released as a 3D feature in theaters. So we get some examples of the more obvious shots where the three dimensional effect was best used, including the spear that is pointed at Beowulf's eye the moment he arrives in Denmark. If you want to take a long good look at your own leisure at what that went into the making of Beowulf, I highly recommend Mark Cotta Vaz & Steve Starkey Chronicles book "The Art of Beowulf".
7 out of 10
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