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The Art of the Rise of the Guardians-- Pitch's Lair
Chapter Scans
NIGHTMARE KING
One couldn't really pick a more appropriate inspiration for Pitch's home than the melancholy, sinking city of Venice. The decrepit walls of Pitch's palace are sliding into the water, and the interiors are covered with mud. Set in one of the most haunting and beautiful cities in the world, this gloomy Renaissance-style lair is a reminder of the dark turn the villain's life took hundreds of years ago.
"One of the interesting characteristics of Venetian architecture is the way the walkways are always at a slight angle," says Hanenberger. "There's a maze-like, Escheresque quality about the city that is disorienting. Venice has an enchanting and seductive twist about it--just like Pitch himself."
Although Pitch's history and the nature of his personality informed the design of the palace, the defining characteristics hinge on his nature. Fundamentally, Pitch is a creature of the night. The key design element the designers focused on when creating his world, then, was lighting. Since Pitch is considered a subtractive force (he thrives on fear and negative forces in the universe), the artists decided to take away the light from his palazzo, making it a realm full of sharply contrasting hues and dramatic, graphic shadows. This limited-color sequence also allowed the stereoscopic team to explore new ways of playing with depth of field and camera placement. For inspiration, the team looked at some film noir classics, including the famous Orson Welles film noir, The Lady from Shanghai, which climaxes in a memorable shoot-out set in a fun-house hall of mirrors.
The dark and moody sequences set in Pitch's palace are in sharp contrast with the moments in the movie when he seems to have triumphed over the Guardians and succeeded in making the children of the world lose their faith. "We had to imagine a place where he didn't need to worry about staying in the shadows all the time," says Hanenberger. "In contrast to the lair sequences, we created a scene that is overrun by whites and light grays. He doesn't need the shadows anymore, so the whole palette is white. It's a very clean graphic look-- Pitch is the only black shape against the blindingly white backdrop of a foggy Antarctica, which also underscores the emptiness Jack feels at that moment."
PITCH
"Darkness came in the shifting shape of a villain named Pitch," wrote William Joyce in his first Guardians book. "The dreams he hungered for most were those of children, the pure of heart. He could sense children from seven planets off, and with a mere touch of his hands, he could leave them plagued with nightmares for the rest of their lives."
Although Pitch, or the Boogeyman, is the enemy of the Guardians, the filmmakers didn't want to make him your run-of-the-mill frightening villain. The goal was to make him a fascinating and complex character that wouldn't be too scary for children in the audience. At one point in his backstory, Pitch wanted to be like the other Guardians, but ended up trying to inspire children through fear rather than belief.
"A lot of times in movies, you see characters who are the bad guys even if they don't deserve to be the villains," says head of story Hamish Grieve. "But with Pitch, we had the original bad guy-- the Boogeyman. The question was how entertaining we could make him."
When Jude Law came on board as the voice of Pitch, he became a velvet-voiced charmer-- an intriguing personality that could easily be pitted against North. "He is like the Darth Vader in Star Wars or Scar in The Lion King," says Grieve. "He uses these very contained gestures, which are in sharp contrast to North, who is big, wild, and very expressive."
The filmmakers who developed Pitch's look were keen on making him a very powerful villain so that Jack would have to become stronger in order to defeat him. As head of character animation Gabe Hordos puts it, "He wasn't going to be one of those finger-waving 'I'm going to get you!' kind of villains.
"To avoid the usual bad-guy clichés, he acts more like a guy who enjoys what he is doing in a playful way. We also explored the notion that he was linked to the shadows, and that maybe he could use them to transport himself," Hordos elborates. "Maybe he could go into a shadow and come out of another one... but if there were no shadows, he could be trapped."
Another way the filmmakers approached the development of Pitch's character was to make him seem publicly endearing and willing to help others while allowing him to have a true, bitter side that reveals itself only when he is by himself. Pitch, then, is a divided villain who realizes that he needs the rest of the world, even as he sets out to destroy parts of it. "Pitch plays a cat-and-mouse game with the Guardians," says Hordos. "He comes in and out of the shadows to keep them on edge. Even when he is turning children's dreams into nightmares, he knows that he needs them. He takes their dreams, and, like an artist, he changes their form. Again, we felt that the more authentic and psychologically honest we were in our approach to his character, the more impact he would have in the story. Just like with the Guardians, the details about his background and the complexity of his character gave us a lot of rich material to play with."
The general appearance of Pitch went through several drastic incarnations. Production designer Patrick Hanenberger recalls one version that depicted him as a truly hard-core, almost medieval villain, complete with long fingernails, Goth-like features, and a metal mask. In other sketches, he was more of a normal human being. The designer even toyed with the idea of Pitch and Jack being brothers. Finally, thanks to evocative illustrations by James Baxter and scultupre by Hyun Huh, they came up with a design that was both simple and elegant.
"He doesn't have a key color or pattern," says Hanenberger. "He is like a chameleon that blends into the background. We always stage him at night, when he comes out of the dark corners of the rooms. We also rarely see him walking: He simply appears. We looked at the underbelly of manta rays to get that satiny-sophisticated texture for his wardrobe. He doesn't react to light the way the others do, so he's not simply a pale guy in a black cloak. Andy Harbeck and our surfacing team came up with a very subtle nonhuman skin for him. The result is a character that is sophisticated, elegant, and strangely dark and menacing."
NIGHTMARES
What would a villain be without backup-- in this case a stable of terrifying black horses? The aptly named Nightmares-- envisioned to be Pitch's henchman by writer David Lindsay-Abaire-- help Pitch accomplish his dark deeds and turn Sandy's golden dreams into fearful visions. Standing out from their black coats-- reminiscent of a slick oil spill-- are the Nightmare's glowing golden eyes, which serve as a subtle reminder that they preserve a connection to the Sandman. And their shapes are reminiscent of the design motifs used for Sandman's sand-- further visual evidence of their origin.
To reinforce the otherworldly nature of the Nightmares and to increase their dramatic impact, the designers decided to give each a spiderlike trail of dark ribbons. "These ribbons echo their movements and remain static as they travel, similar to ribbon twirlers in the Olympics," says production designer Patrick Hanenbreger. "We looked at liquid and smoke images for reference, but felt that having these shredded ribbons trailing them added a really effective, frantic look. It also opened up new possibilities in stereo 3D when the horses come toward the camera."
Another great idea that helped establish a distinct look for the Nightmares came from head of effects Yancy Lindquist, who decided to run some of the ribbon simulations backward and include them in the shots. The result was disconcerting and very unusual. "It was nothing like we had seen before," says visual-effects supervisor David Prescott. "You couldn't really tell what was happening or that they were being run backward. But the end result was weird and different, and we really liked it. The experiment was successful!"
Chapter Scans
PITCH TEMPTS JACK
At this point in the movie, Jack is alone and emotionally vulnerable, having abandoned the Guardians just before Easter. He's struggling to understand his past and decide whether he should join the Guardians in the fight against Pitch. When Pitch encounters Jack, he exploits this sense of confusion in the young hero, using all of his psychological tactics to lure Jack to his dark side.
To echo Jack's state of mind, the designers chose to create a surreal fun-house effect in the sequence, orchestrating a dynamic interplay of darkness and light. "We wanted to trick the audience into seeing things that aren't really there," says Hanenberger. "There are lots of walls that cast shadows on the scene, so it's easy to get disoriented in that space. Only Pitch really knows how to navigate this labyrinth of lights and shadows."
NIGHTMARE KING
One couldn't really pick a more appropriate inspiration for Pitch's home than the melancholy, sinking city of Venice. The decrepit walls of Pitch's palace are sliding into the water, and the interiors are covered with mud. Set in one of the most haunting and beautiful cities in the world, this gloomy Renaissance-style lair is a reminder of the dark turn the villain's life took hundreds of years ago.
"One of the interesting characteristics of Venetian architecture is the way the walkways are always at a slight angle," says Hanenberger. "There's a maze-like, Escheresque quality about the city that is disorienting. Venice has an enchanting and seductive twist about it--just like Pitch himself."
Although Pitch's history and the nature of his personality informed the design of the palace, the defining characteristics hinge on his nature. Fundamentally, Pitch is a creature of the night. The key design element the designers focused on when creating his world, then, was lighting. Since Pitch is considered a subtractive force (he thrives on fear and negative forces in the universe), the artists decided to take away the light from his palazzo, making it a realm full of sharply contrasting hues and dramatic, graphic shadows. This limited-color sequence also allowed the stereoscopic team to explore new ways of playing with depth of field and camera placement. For inspiration, the team looked at some film noir classics, including the famous Orson Welles film noir, The Lady from Shanghai, which climaxes in a memorable shoot-out set in a fun-house hall of mirrors.
The dark and moody sequences set in Pitch's palace are in sharp contrast with the moments in the movie when he seems to have triumphed over the Guardians and succeeded in making the children of the world lose their faith. "We had to imagine a place where he didn't need to worry about staying in the shadows all the time," says Hanenberger. "In contrast to the lair sequences, we created a scene that is overrun by whites and light grays. He doesn't need the shadows anymore, so the whole palette is white. It's a very clean graphic look-- Pitch is the only black shape against the blindingly white backdrop of a foggy Antarctica, which also underscores the emptiness Jack feels at that moment."
PITCH
"Darkness came in the shifting shape of a villain named Pitch," wrote William Joyce in his first Guardians book. "The dreams he hungered for most were those of children, the pure of heart. He could sense children from seven planets off, and with a mere touch of his hands, he could leave them plagued with nightmares for the rest of their lives."
Although Pitch, or the Boogeyman, is the enemy of the Guardians, the filmmakers didn't want to make him your run-of-the-mill frightening villain. The goal was to make him a fascinating and complex character that wouldn't be too scary for children in the audience. At one point in his backstory, Pitch wanted to be like the other Guardians, but ended up trying to inspire children through fear rather than belief.
"A lot of times in movies, you see characters who are the bad guys even if they don't deserve to be the villains," says head of story Hamish Grieve. "But with Pitch, we had the original bad guy-- the Boogeyman. The question was how entertaining we could make him."
When Jude Law came on board as the voice of Pitch, he became a velvet-voiced charmer-- an intriguing personality that could easily be pitted against North. "He is like the Darth Vader in Star Wars or Scar in The Lion King," says Grieve. "He uses these very contained gestures, which are in sharp contrast to North, who is big, wild, and very expressive."
The filmmakers who developed Pitch's look were keen on making him a very powerful villain so that Jack would have to become stronger in order to defeat him. As head of character animation Gabe Hordos puts it, "He wasn't going to be one of those finger-waving 'I'm going to get you!' kind of villains.
"To avoid the usual bad-guy clichés, he acts more like a guy who enjoys what he is doing in a playful way. We also explored the notion that he was linked to the shadows, and that maybe he could use them to transport himself," Hordos elborates. "Maybe he could go into a shadow and come out of another one... but if there were no shadows, he could be trapped."
Another way the filmmakers approached the development of Pitch's character was to make him seem publicly endearing and willing to help others while allowing him to have a true, bitter side that reveals itself only when he is by himself. Pitch, then, is a divided villain who realizes that he needs the rest of the world, even as he sets out to destroy parts of it. "Pitch plays a cat-and-mouse game with the Guardians," says Hordos. "He comes in and out of the shadows to keep them on edge. Even when he is turning children's dreams into nightmares, he knows that he needs them. He takes their dreams, and, like an artist, he changes their form. Again, we felt that the more authentic and psychologically honest we were in our approach to his character, the more impact he would have in the story. Just like with the Guardians, the details about his background and the complexity of his character gave us a lot of rich material to play with."
The general appearance of Pitch went through several drastic incarnations. Production designer Patrick Hanenberger recalls one version that depicted him as a truly hard-core, almost medieval villain, complete with long fingernails, Goth-like features, and a metal mask. In other sketches, he was more of a normal human being. The designer even toyed with the idea of Pitch and Jack being brothers. Finally, thanks to evocative illustrations by James Baxter and scultupre by Hyun Huh, they came up with a design that was both simple and elegant.
"He doesn't have a key color or pattern," says Hanenberger. "He is like a chameleon that blends into the background. We always stage him at night, when he comes out of the dark corners of the rooms. We also rarely see him walking: He simply appears. We looked at the underbelly of manta rays to get that satiny-sophisticated texture for his wardrobe. He doesn't react to light the way the others do, so he's not simply a pale guy in a black cloak. Andy Harbeck and our surfacing team came up with a very subtle nonhuman skin for him. The result is a character that is sophisticated, elegant, and strangely dark and menacing."
"Pitch is usually positioned with a shadow at his feet and his cape drags smooth along the ground. Although he's a physical character like the others, he's a little different and shadow-life since he is the Boogeyman."
-- DAVID PRESCOTT, visual-effects supervisor
"This version of the Boogeyman is extrapolated from the classic guy who hides under your bed. The whole idea with him is his weapon is fear. Fear makes him more powerful."
-- PETER RAMSEY, director
NIGHTMARES
What would a villain be without backup-- in this case a stable of terrifying black horses? The aptly named Nightmares-- envisioned to be Pitch's henchman by writer David Lindsay-Abaire-- help Pitch accomplish his dark deeds and turn Sandy's golden dreams into fearful visions. Standing out from their black coats-- reminiscent of a slick oil spill-- are the Nightmare's glowing golden eyes, which serve as a subtle reminder that they preserve a connection to the Sandman. And their shapes are reminiscent of the design motifs used for Sandman's sand-- further visual evidence of their origin.
To reinforce the otherworldly nature of the Nightmares and to increase their dramatic impact, the designers decided to give each a spiderlike trail of dark ribbons. "These ribbons echo their movements and remain static as they travel, similar to ribbon twirlers in the Olympics," says production designer Patrick Hanenbreger. "We looked at liquid and smoke images for reference, but felt that having these shredded ribbons trailing them added a really effective, frantic look. It also opened up new possibilities in stereo 3D when the horses come toward the camera."
Another great idea that helped establish a distinct look for the Nightmares came from head of effects Yancy Lindquist, who decided to run some of the ribbon simulations backward and include them in the shots. The result was disconcerting and very unusual. "It was nothing like we had seen before," says visual-effects supervisor David Prescott. "You couldn't really tell what was happening or that they were being run backward. But the end result was weird and different, and we really liked it. The experiment was successful!"
Chapter Scans
PITCH TEMPTS JACK
At this point in the movie, Jack is alone and emotionally vulnerable, having abandoned the Guardians just before Easter. He's struggling to understand his past and decide whether he should join the Guardians in the fight against Pitch. When Pitch encounters Jack, he exploits this sense of confusion in the young hero, using all of his psychological tactics to lure Jack to his dark side.
To echo Jack's state of mind, the designers chose to create a surreal fun-house effect in the sequence, orchestrating a dynamic interplay of darkness and light. "We wanted to trick the audience into seeing things that aren't really there," says Hanenberger. "There are lots of walls that cast shadows on the scene, so it's easy to get disoriented in that space. Only Pitch really knows how to navigate this labyrinth of lights and shadows."
"In this film, the tone is much more grown-up than in typical animation, which allowed us to tap into a more sophisticated level of acting. For example, Jack has a very complex relationship with the rest of the Guardians and Pitch."
-GABE HORDOS, head of character animation"