The disclaimer from last night still stands.
This is the summation of the director's commentary for Night at the Museum. It can't be subdivided into parts the way the writers' commentary can, so I will have to suffice with a general summation of what director Shawn Levy discussed for an hour and a half. In truth, it was really a nice, long list of interesting facts about movie magic and the process of making Night at the Museum happen.
The opening act was quite different from the finished product. For instance it was once much longer, including such scenes as Larry trying to pitch a restaurant to a bunch of dentists, and it didn't include the opening title sequence which quite frankly establishes the movie as more than a comedy. The title sequence by Picture Mill sets up the, for want of a better word, "muchness" of the movie. By this I mean not only the grandeur of things coming to life but also the tale of a man coming into greatness and redeeming himself in the eyes of his son, who also learns to come around to his dad and see him as a pretty okay guy, rather than the fountainhead of all disappointment in his life. So the title sequence was added, and the first act was essentially gutted, since "the movie didn't want to take too much time" in getting around to putting Larry in that museum, in his new position as the night guard.
A lot of the second act is Ben Stiller and others riffing off of each other and cracking each other up in between takes trying to get to a final cut they can actually use. Also, scenes with the miniatures, including the two main little guys (no offense to the characters themselves) were filmed with the miniatures' actors out of the country, and here's how it would work: Stiller would do his lines to a toothpick, and more often than not, since Stiller likes reacting to something that actually exists, an off-camera reader would be imployed, reciting the lines of the character(s) represented by the toothpick. One of these, as an interesting aside, gave us the great gem of "It's Octavius, Mary." Then, two months or so later, the actors playing the miniatures (Owen Wilson and Steve Coogan, just so you're convinced that I know what I'm talking about) would return, and they would be filmed on a green screen arena of some form or another while an off-camera reader, usually Levy, recited Stiller's lines. Since Stiller improvised twenty different versions, each of these had to be written down to get twenty different possible responses, and then these shots would be spliced together into a finished scene which thankfully comes off as real enough to take all the way to the bank (otherwise I wouldn't be doing this). Also an interesting aside, the special effects company responsible for the movie, Rhythm and Hughes, said it was the most improvisational effects movie they've ever worked on.
It took a little doing for Levy to realize that Night at the Museum is more than about being funny, and in fact he came around to this half way through the director's cut, and in fact he made a pact with Stiller regarding this subject: the movie would be edgier than most action/adventure spectacle movies, but it would have more heart and spectacle and action/adventure than most comedies. This also played into the addition of the title sequence which establishes the film and ultimately the franchise as more epic than it was originally intended to be.
A little something on Levy's directing style: he likes to remain open to good ideas wherever they may come from, and it pays off. In fact, I think he learned that in going through the shooting/production process for this movie, and he does express that "this is the movie of which [he is] most proud" and that especially Stiller helped make him a better director, if more demanding. Also, he has a tendency to shout out lines on set as they come to him, right in the middle of shooting, for example "Yeah, it's cool. It's freaking awesome!" and Rooney's "Keep a lid on it, Butterscotch!"
And a personal fave from the commentary, concerning Nicky discovering the tablet and quoted word for word from the director's own lips:
"If you actually think about this scene, it is inane, okay? The kid comes in, there's a shopping cart of stolen golden goods conveniently left there, the kid coincidentally picks up the tablet which coincidentally has the middle piece out of whack, which Ben coincidentally notices and understands the logic thereof, and by the way, the bad guys, for some reason don't advance because Ben's in the way of their walking path? I mean, it makes absolutely no sense. It also makes no sense that the bad guys wouldn't want the kid to activate the tablet because if he activates the tablet, they get their superhuman strength, so they'd actually be more formidible. So this is a scene that to this day I'm amazed that we get away with it because there is so much that doesn't work that I'm just thrilled that by the third act...we've got the audience and they're willing to go with us here."
Next on "For the Love of Night at the Museum": Notes from the Commentary Underground - Part the Third
Countdown: 335 Days to NATM 3
No comments:
Post a Comment