How was the Anaon monster made, in practical effects?
The new French fantastic series, which arrives on Prime Video, assumes its inspiration Stranger Things, but goes further by paying tribute to the great amber tradition of practical effects, by creating its creature without VFX from scratch. Explanations.
No tennis ball at the end of a pole or 3D creature added to the post-Prod for Anon. The French fantastic series which arrives today on Prime Video (before a clear broadcast on France 2), assumes its parentage with the Amblin cinema of Spielberg and therefore, necessarily with Stranger Things. But she intends to do it with her strength: Guillaume Labbé As an investigator, the revelation Capucine Malarre In the local eleven and especially the Breton folklore in the background. Completely turned in real sets, in island-and-vilaine, between the mountains of Arée and the chaos of Huelgoat, Anon Play the room of the local Croque-Mitanité, called Bugul-noz. And to go with these breathtaking landscapes, which gives the series all its identity, there is no question of making a monster of green funds.
The director David Hourrègue and the creator Bastien Dartoisnourished to cult films from the 80s, absolutely wanted to make, from scratch, a creature in real effects:
“Interestly, this is a monster that we made, with a guy who is in the costume!” rejoice David Hourrègue which explains in the process: “We have made 80% real effects for 20% of VFX in the series. It is more a question of taste than budget. Because we are nostalgic for the era of the cinema of ‘Props’. The one where Mark HamillIn The counterattack empire (1980), played with Yoda, who was just a big puppet manually animated. It was not a problem, because the actor played with something tangible in front of him. “
Since then, he believes, the filming on a green background have disconnected the actors of their environment: “Since we have tilted on green backgrounds with tennis bullets at the end of a pole, everything becomes a case of projection of mind on the part of the actors. I do not believe it.”
For Bastien Dartois Also, the approach was clear from the start:
“We were convinced that we needed a creature present in real life, on the set, imagined and created by artists who were able to work on his look, his texture.”
A choice that revives a certain love of craft work. “I have an immense love for cinema crafts, and more precisely SFX makeup. I am always amazed by the work of Guillermo del Toro and its teams on Pan labyrinthon Hellboy 2or that of Phil Tippett on Star Wars… All those guys who made tangible monsters for us. “
The duo claims this inheritance and wanted all that to Anon Despite a constrained budget:
“We are of this generation Amberthat of Spielbergwho did not hesitate to put an extraterrestrial puppet in a kid’s room to make us believe that he had found a friend for life … In short, we just just followed the recipe of our glorious ancients. “
Anon was able to benefit from an alliance between France TV and Prime Video, for production, but that did not make it possible to make follies. On the contrary, it was necessary to be clever to succeed in concretizing this desire for French fantastic: “Our budget did not exceed that of a classic television thriller “precise David Hourrègue. “So we decided to reduce the number of filming days to increase the daily budget and better concentrate the means. I come from a generation of directors accustomed to filming 7 sequences per day. I can do with this rhythm. The whole thing is to succeed in taking the team and the actors. We did not have much time, but we had the means to do things correctly, to have a most cinematic rendering possible.”
