Daily Bruin

The Charlottesville white supremacist rally took place as the cast and crew of “BlacKkKlansman” prepared to film.

Director Spike Lee saw footage of the rally, and immediately knew he wanted to use it to end “BlacKkKlansman,” said Sean McKittrick, a UCLA alumnus and Oscar-nominated producer of the movie. The film follows the true story of Ron Stallworth, an African-American police officer in the 1970s, who works as an undercover detective to infiltrate his town’s Ku Klux Klan chapter. While Stallworth portrays an aspiring Klan member over the phone, his white Jewish coworker, Flip Zimmerman, meets the chapter’s members in person as they work to bring down the affiliation.

“BlacKkKlansman,” which has garnered six Academy Award nominations, is a contemporary period piece: It infuses elements of the 1970s to emphasize Stallworth’s strength in his endeavors, while also highlighting racism’s current prevalence in America, McKittrick said.

“(Stallworth’s) story in the racism he experienced in infiltrating the KKK connects with the racism we’re all experiencing today,” he said. “What is going on in our government and in the Oval Office is just proving what so many people knew – that racism is not dead, it’s alive and well and thriving in this country.”

To authentically portray the time period, Charlie Wachtel, one of the film’s Oscar-nominated screenwriters, said he and the crew would occasionally check out library books detailing the culture of the decade, like fashion trends and slang usage. One such trend, Wachtel said, was that of angel flight jeans, which Stallworth wears in the movie.

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Costume designer Marci Rodgers said the outfits she designed helped focus on Stallworth’s bravery and grace as he infiltrated the Klan. While he is undercover, Stallworth serves as a bodyguard for Klan wizard David Duke. Rodgers said she dressed Stallworth in a working suit made of denim, a prominent fabric during the 1970s, for the scene. Stallworth’s outfit helped him stand out among members of the Klan as he worked Duke’s protective detail, she said. Klan members donned modern business-casual suits, slacks and button-downs, but Stallworth’s look was in line with the prominent styles of the 1970s, conveying that he was not associated with the Klan’s world.

Sonical elements were also used to show Stallworth’s integrity in the movie. Terence Blanchard, the former artistic director at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, said he used open fifth intervals in his compositions, which serve as the root of most musical chords and are often referred to as a perfect fifth. Blanchard, whose work is nominated for best score, said the intervals carry strong tones in the music and resonate powerfully, which he used to convey Stallworth’s internal strength. In the film, the intervals are played in a harmonic progression.

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“I wanted to show the bravery of a guy who decided to take on the Klan,” Blanchard said. “I didn’t think it was a real story at first, and then when I found out that it was, I thought it was the most courageous thing I’d ever heard of.”

The film is deeply rooted in themes from the 1970s, but it resonates with present-day audiences, McKittrick said. The footage from the Charlottesville rally, played as a montage at the end of the film, is the most powerful part of “BlacKkKlansman,” he said. Lee chose to add the montage after getting permission from Heather Heyer’s mother; Heyer was killed during the rally by a car that drove into a crowd of counter-protestors. Even though he has seen the film hundreds of times throughout the production process, McKittrick said the footage evokes feelings of anger and sadness in him every time he watches it. While Stallworth’s infiltration of the Klan took place over 40 years ago, Wachtel said the hatred of that time is still incredibly relevant in today’s world.

“The decline of the KKK is by no means an indication that we as America have overcome racism – it’s here right in front of us,” Wachtel said. “It’s the person that lives next door to you, and they don’t have to hang a flag or wear a white hood for you to realize that.”

“Vice” jolts its audience from a straightforward White House cabinet meeting into an animated game board showing the powerful players of Washington, D.C.

Along with rolling dice, officials in the George W. Bush administration appear as pop-up players on the board – this is one of various surreal digressions in the film’s comedy-drama narrative.

The biopic starring Christian Bale as former Vice President Dick Cheney has garnered eight Oscar nominations. Alumnus and producer Kevin Messick said the film uses comedy to enhance his profound research to tell Cheney’s story over several decades, keeping audiences entertained and informed at the same time.

“In making the film about a somewhat boring bureaucrat, who had such a massive impact on the country and our history, it is easy to write it off as uninteresting,” Messick said. “There’s great difficulty in cracking an entertaining and educational movie.”

Before the inclusion of comedic segments, Messick said examining Cheney’s personal and political life was challenging. Director and writer Adam McKay’s script was not guided by one established book or narrative source. Instead, to uncover his backstory and impact in the government, the film’s researchers dug through archives and personally interviewed sources, including officials from various presidential administrations and those who knew Cheney from his early days in Casper, Wyoming. The film’s authentic construction relied heavily on original reporting, attorneys vetting the script and makeup artists recreating the physical appearances of public figures; this included the six months necessary to perfect Bale’s transformation into Cheney, Messick said.

From there, McKay’s script worked to keep audiences engaged with the heavy subject matter. The mock end credits scene, for instance, actually takes place in the middle of the film before George W. Bush reaches out to Cheney about becoming vice president. McKay said the scene comedically creates an imagined future, utilizing rolling text that describes Cheney’s alternate and peaceful life outside of government.

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“(The scene) is certainly showing the audience that if … Cheney had retired successfully from a life in government and with Haliburton, things would’ve gone differently. (McKay) came up with: ‘What if the story ended there?'” Messick said. “The fake ending underlined that idea in a such clever and engaging way.”

Some of the film’s humor also emerged from the inherently absurd nature of Cheney’s life, said Jason George, a fellow alumnus and “Vice” co-producer. George said Cheney went from being a criminal youth to someone with great power. The improbable story of his rise was only somewhat amplified by the film’s humorous direction, as reporting on Cheney’s background brought out surprising stories, George said.

“In a way, I felt like I was a miner, going out and finding these rough stones. And then (McKay) would turn them into jewels, in ways that I never expected,” George said.

When connecting his own research to the film’s comedic moments, George said those who knew Cheney vouched for his sarcastic and funny asides. The personal anecdotes led to amusing scenes, including one where Cheney and his wife, Lynne, suddenly begin to speak in an absurd, Shakespearean iambic pentameter, George said.

“With Dick Cheney, you’re talking about someone who has had an incredibly rich life – from being in Congress, to being secretary of defense, to being vice president, to being in the House of Representatives for a long time,” George said. “It was a very fun experience looking through these 70, 80 years of Dick Cheney’s life to help McKay find the story he wanted to tell.”

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As for balancing “Vice’s” tonal shifts, editor Hank Corwin said he developed a shorthand language with McKay after working together on “The Big Short,” which he incorporated into the Cheney biopic. Corwin said he tried to reveal Cheney’s depth by combining human moments with the rest of the political narrative, such as a sequence featuring military scenes, Colin Powell’s controversial speech to the United Nations and Cheney as a grandfather, laughing with his family while discussing American Idol.

Corwin said his editing also allowed metaphors about Cheney’s character to seep into the historical narrative. For example, the film occasionally cuts to footage of Cheney fly-fishing, or teaching his daughters how to bait fish. McKay envisioned this as an important metaphor early on, representing Cheney’s knack for fly-fishing as symbolic of his patience and tenacity. Corwin said he included those shots to create an experience of emotional realism for viewers.

Coming from a background of both reporting and screenwriting, George said researching and conveying Cheney’s story in “Vice” was a learning experience, as his perception of Cheney as a public figure was different prior to the film. He said the film’s comedic moments and in-depth investigation of Cheney’s life helped illuminate what audiences might not know about Cheney or American history.

“I think that was what was so interesting about this story is (that) the protagonist is not the obvious protagonist of a film. … (McKay) saw in this character someone who was in the shadows,” George said. “He decided to shine that flashlight and say, ‘What is this guy doing, what has he done and how has that changed the world we live in today?'”

Thanos’ destructive snap might have only taken a second, but creating his hands took much longer.

Alumnus Kelly Port, along with a team of other visual effects specialists at Digital Domain, brought Thanos to life in “Avengers: Infinity War,” leading to an Academy Award nomination for best achievement in visual effects.

As the Digital Effects supervisor for Digital Domain, Port said he and his team were responsible for over 500 of the approximately 2,700 shots that comprised the film, alongside a number of other companies contributing to the others. Much of their work focused on creating Thanos, working with motion capture technology to translate Josh Brolin’s performance from the set to the screen, Port said.

“I think a big part of it is capturing the detailed aspects of Brolin’s performance because we’re all so used to seeing human faces … so there’s a lot of critical analysis that happens in our brains at the subconscious level,” Port said. “When you capture that performance very tightly and accurately, that’s a big part of (making the character realistic).”

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To convey such nuances, Port said Brolin wore a helmet camera, which tracked his facial movements and fed the information to a machine learning system. During postproduction, visual effects specialists worked with animators to apply the data to Thanos, comparing Brolin’s on-set performance to the animated character. If Thanos’ emotional expression did not match Brolin’s, Port said they would model the character by hand on a computer to bridge the gap.

“Technology for visual effects improves year to year. … In terms of ability to do facial capture, this is really the pinnacle of being able to capture facial performance,” Port said. “We haven’t been able to capture it this well before.”

For Terry Notary, who played Thanos’ henchman Cull Obsidian and was the on-set motion capture actor for Groot, such technology helps attribute human emotions to nonhuman characters. As he embodied both the alien character and a sentient tree, Notary said the slightest nuances – such as an eye flickering or a lip quivering – are recorded and portrayed in the final versions of the character.

“It’s just like acting in a costume, but the animators put the costume on after your performance,” Notary said. “Everything you do in your performance is pretty much verbatim on the character.”

Characters whose costumes are created digitally are often shown mock-ups of what their final appearance will be after special effects are added. While working on set, actors are typically able to see their 3D characters’ movements mimicking their own as they act, which helps them picture the movements that best exemplify their characters, Notary said. For example, Notary said Brolin established that the character needed to ensure his movements were powerful and heavy, due to Thanos’ bulky size.

“You have to play this nonhuman character without any costume to hide underneath. You’ve got a motion capture suit, which is this skin-tight, Velcro suit,” he said. “There’s no hiding at all.”

However, actors unfamiliar with motion capture technology often make the mistake of overemphasizing their physical movements, he said. The more subtle movements, Notary said, are what actually help create a poignant, memorable scene. When working as Groot, he said he emphasized the teenage character’s vulnerable emotional state through inward-focused, slouching positions. But when Groot sacrifices his arm to help Thor, Notary wanted to convey the emotional shift the character experienced, using the motion capture technology to reflect his more confident movements, he said.

Diane Villaroman, who works as a programmer analyst for UCLA’s Virtual Reality Motion Capture (VR-MoCap) laboratory, said motion capture technology is useful outside of entertainment as well. For their research on spatial memory, Villaroman said they utilize small reflective markers to capture more subtle facial movements and larger markers on the rest of the body to track other physical movements – a process that also helped create Thanos.

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But capturing the nuances of Brolin’s performance was still challenging to translate to the screen, Port said. Where action scenes featuring swift movements and short shots are more forgiving in capturing performance, Port said the challenge of creating Thanos was the multitude of long shots fixating solely on the character. The scene where Thanos sees young Gamora was also challenging, as it was necessary to convey the moment of reflection Thanos went through as he considered the cost of what he had done.

“We had a lot of intimate framing – things like this were highly dramatic and subtle performance had to come through,” Port said. “The fact that (Thanos) was really the lead character of the film, with over an hour of screen time, made it critical that Thanos worked for the film.”

Addiction, fame and toxic relationships could potentially lay the foundation for an extremely problematic story.

But in 2018, these issues were at the heart of a film that racked up eight Academy Award nominations, and widespread critical acclaim.

Co-written by UCLA alumnus Eric Roth, “A Star Is Born” reincarnates the tale of two lovers and musicians that struggle with the spotlight.

The Daily Bruin’s Raunak Devjani spoke with Roth about controversies and critiques surrounding the film, as well as his experience creating Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga’s characters, Jackson and Ally.

DB: What was it like working with a first time director on “A Star Is Born?”

ER: I had a really good experience. He knew the kind of movie he wanted to make. He wanted to make it very intimate and personal and what I call ‘first person,’ so he had that point of view. He wanted you to feel like, when the performances were happening, that you were with them – what it felt like to be a performer, which also helped to know these people inside out and made it feel very real.

DB: Some previous iterations of “A Star Is Born” didn’t achieve nearly this much critical acclaim. Was there any pressure going into a remake that wasn’t guaranteed to succeed, especially with a first time director?

ER: I don’t think it had anything to do particularly with the first time director. But I think that the movies are so historically known for their iconography; I felt a burden to be true to what the movies were because I think they’re still representative of so many things within the business. Some movies are better than others … but you try to do your best to make it current and buyable and also something that people can relate to in this era.

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DB: In the film, there’s a mixed portrayal of Hollywood. It’s shown as an industry that’s glamorous and dreamy, but one that can also tear people apart. What kind of statement were you trying to make about Hollywood with the 2018 version?

ER: It’s true about the entertainment industry, I guess, that there were people or performers trying to be themselves. And on the other hand, you have an audience that demands you be potentially something else. You have to try to find some balance as to who you are. I think it’s just what the subject matter lends to, to a certain extent. A lot of that is true about the pressures of Hollywood.

DB: You’ve said you read and research a lot before you write characters. What kind of research did you put in for Jackson and Ally?

ER: I mean, I think you’re trying to create a certain kind of artist for Jackson. He’s sort of a blend of country and rock ‘n’ roll. And so with him, the test becomes creating who the person is – what’s their psychological makeup? It’s not any different from trying to create any character: What’s his background? What does he sound like? What does he look like? And then with (Ally), there was a little bit of a difference because her public persona was so well-known (but you have to find out) who she is, kind of get under her skin. Because Lady Gaga is one persona and Stefani is another one.

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DB: There’s been some controversy around Ally as a character – some say the design was problematic because it shows a female that loses agency, but others would disagree. What’s your take?

ER: I never thought about it, really. I’m just portraying her as this character who might be, and in other words, those are the storylines of “A Star Is Born.” There’s a figure that’s trying to guide or lead somebody in a different way. But I don’t know. I’d have to think about that. I know I told (Lady Gaga) when we started what (her) character (Ally) would remind me of. I said, ‘I’d like you to go watch “Moonstruck” and Cher. She’s – I don’t want to say vulnerable, per se – but she has areas she’s strong in and areas she’s weak in. I don’t know if this would take her purchase. I think it has as much to do with where she is honest and true to who she is and what she’s singing and that kind of thing. And there are many people who find themselves in relationships with people they maybe shouldn’t be with, you know. In the movie, there’s a great line. (Bradley) is kind of blaming everybody else (for his problems) and she says, “No, this is your fault.” So I think she maintained herself. I think saying that (she lost agency) is a little black and white, and these things are a little more complicated.