Getting to direct TRON: Legacy, the highly anticipated sequel to the cult classic computer programmer movie TRON, as your first major motion picture is the task that most fan boys and girls would do anything for. While you do have to worry about angering half of the nerd world if you screw up, the fact that you get to play out your own vision of the next chapter in the story pretty much makes it work the risk.
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For Joseph Kosinski, the man who actually gets to live this reality, the fight to have one of the most coveted jobs in the geek universe was a long journey. Although he had award-winning experience in making commercials and short films, his projects before TRON were completed in eight to ten weeks. From start to the final product, TRON: Legacy took three and a half years.
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“It’s definitely, in terms of time and commitment, was a huge leap,” Kosinski explained. “The scale is tremendous, but when it comes down to the day to day on set type stuff, I used a lot of technology that I had been playing around with in the world of commercials. I just kind of combined all those things into one project. It’s kind of going more on instinct than experience.”
The director first saw the original TRON in the mid 1980s on a poor quality VHS tape. He was impressed by the clean lines and minimalism of the film and wanted to carry that idea through to the next installment. When he found himself making his pitch to the Disney executives who had been trying to come up with an idea for the next film for the last 15 years, he realized he had to come up with something more than a verbal pitch. Rather than just talk about what he wanted to do, he decided to show them. After receiving a small budget to create a short film, he created a test piece in January 2008. That infamous footage is what was shown at San Diego Comic-Con, the response of which blew his simple project into a much-in-demand property. “This kind of incredible support from the fans is what gave it momentum,” he said. “I had to sell the project and sell myself at the beginning. It wasn’t like the just hired me and gave me a script and said, ‘Go shoot this thing.’”
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Kosinski didn’t get his start at a film school or even in computer graphics: Instead he took what he learned from his architecture degree and brought it to the movie business. Kosinski attended the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, where they used the same computer technology that Digital Domain and Industrial Light and Magic worked with rather than traditional tools. Rather than spend ten years designing penthouse bathrooms, he said, Kosinski decided start his own company that would focus on creating CGI for short films and commercials.
After getting the go ahead, there was still a whole host of problems. True, directing talent is hard at any time, but the fact that the original film came out in 1982 brought up the issue of Jeff Bridges’ aging. Added to that, he would have to direct his actors on a blue screen and try to have them imagine his vision while working. He began to shape his plan around getting as much material as possible for the actors to physically work with, starting with the soundtrack by world-renowned French electronic musicians Daft Punk. “I had always been a fan of Daft Punk. I knew that they are known for their electronic music, but I knew there was a lot more that they were capable of,” he said.
“I reached out to them, and we met for breakfast one morning here in Los Angeles and talked about our favorite films and our favorite film scores and composers – Wendy Carlos and Bernard Herrmann and John Williams – and the idea of creating a classic film score that blended electronic music and orchestral music in a really interesting way,” Kosinski elaborated.
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Having the soundtrack with him since day one was a great tool for the director, who could play the music while shooting scenes and edit in time to the music, a rare occurrence in the film industry. During each of the 80 days of shooting, he had the music, conceptual art, previews of animatics and little rough movies to show his talent so they wouldn’t be completely in the dark. Kosinski had the actors rehearse each scene multiple times, but still couldn’t prepare them for what the final product would look like. He remembers the look on Garrett Hedlund’s face when he saw the film on the screen for the first time. “It must have been pretty surreal for an actor to see the movie finished,” he said.
As for the other technological aspects, it took a lot of experimenting and playing with what Kosinski learned from his past experience and a lot of trial and error during the 18 months of post-production. Since he was using the most advanced 3D cameras, which were incredibly heavy and hard to move, he carefully planned where each shot would go, helping him in explaining to his actors what he was looking for. For Jeff Bridges’ role as Clu, a computer program that looks like the younger version of the actor, Kosinski knew that makeup couldn’t get Bridges as young as he wanted him to look. He had Jeff Bridges act out the lines and then had a body actor do all the motions, effectively shooting the scene twice. He then fused the two performances together and then used CGI to make the actor look younger. Lighting with 3D films tends to be dimmer because of the technology behind it, and was a problem he had to contend with, as well as malfunctioning wardrobe pieces. The light suits were wired, and often they would blink out forcing the team to film the whole scene over again.
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Not all problems turned out to be a bad thing for the cast and crew. After one of their cameras broke down in the club scene TRON: Legacy, they team found themselves with some downtime. They turned off the lights, asked the extras playing the deejays – who happened to be Daft Punk – to spin some music and danced until the camera was up and running. “Everyone was in lit up suits, it was surreal,” he said.
This weekend will be the barometer if Kosinski’s first foray into the film world will succeed, and to the director, the journey of his film career will truly begin beginning. There’s one thing he can definitely say he has under his belt, however. While light cycles and computer programs coming to life might just be science fiction to some, Kosinski, unlike most people who just dream about what the future can hold, has made his vision reality.