It’s always going to be daunting to be given your first feature film directing gig, but how about getting your first directing assignment on a film that’s already partway through production and it’s your job to come in, completely refocus the project and pretty much get everybody to start over again. Oh, and you also know that the film is the world’s first look at what John Lasseter and the Pixar brigade have done since Disney handed them the keys to their animation department. Talk about pressure! But that’s what Chris Williams faced when he signed onto the hit Disney flick Bolt.
With the film coming to Disney DVD and Blu-ray on June 15th, Movie Muser’s Tim Isaac spoke to Chris about the challenges he faced making the movie.
I’d imagine that by now you must be sick of talking about Bolt. You must have been talking about it for months now, or years even...
(Laughs) Well, you know, I guess I’m excited about more people being able to see the movie. I’m really proud of the crew, what they made and I saw the sacrifices that they made, so I’m certainly glad to do it, so I really don’t mind at all.
Bolt was already in production when you came on board. Was it difficult coming onto a production that was already part underway?
Well, I guess it could have been, but one of the things that John Lasseter really stressed is that he wants his directors to be really invested in the stories they’re telling and be really connected to it. So rather than John just asking to go in and tinker with things, he said to me, “What movie do you want to make?” and that began our conversation. So ultimately we kept the premise of the original film – that Bolt was the star of an action TV series who believes in all the fiction of it – we kept that but pretty started from scratch after that. We changed the characters, we changed the story, we put a strain on all the departments because everyone had to do their work over again.
Do you think it made it extra difficult that it was your first feature as a director?
Well certainly I had a lot to learn. I feel like I’m still learning. I felt the best thing that I could provide was a throughline for the story that everyone could work off of. I think it’s always probably a disadvantage to have someone who it’s their first time and learning as they go, but I was the beneficiary of the best mentor you could ask for in John Lasseter. He’s obviously made so many great films and he knows exactly what he’s doing in all aspects of filmmaking, so he was always there to give advice along the way. Also, I was just really amazed and humbled by the crew and the way they rallied around, particularly the idea that this was John Lasseter’s first Disney animated movie. I think in a sense the compressed, difficult schedule we had to work to actually worked to our advantage, because I think people took on this challenge and really supported each other and pushed each other.
I was wondering, how much planning has to go into the look of a film like Bolt, because visually it’s a very striking movie, but presumably every single little thing that goes on screen has to be designed and created in a computer?
That’s one of the things about animation, you don’t get anything by ‘happy accident’. You have to carefully build and design every single little pixel that you see on screen and then you have to create a feeling of spontaneity when there is actually none, and that can be very difficult. There the credit has to go to the crew. I mean Paul Felix, our art director, he’s a great painter and used to be a background painter and 2D art director before getting into CG and he’s a real student of Disney history. He was looking back at the texture and the warmth of those old 2D animated movies and really wanted to apply those to CG and try to break down that clean, cold look that computers tend to give you. So he had all these wild ideas about the look and then our incredible technical department started writing programmes and getting ideas, in order to figure out ways to give Paul what he needed to create that look. That was really groundbreaking, I know there were quite a few patents earned during the making of Bolt.
I suppose with all the technical innovations involved with CG, and of course 3D with the cinema release, does it become one of your main jobs just to make sure everyone keeps the story in sight?
Yes, yes, I think that’s exactly right. I think my first job was to help build the storyline and the second was to foster an environment where everyone felt comfortable volunteering their ideas and working with each other. That was really important for me and for John Lasseter that people feel comfortable being heard and comfortable disagreeing. One of the things in animation is that it’s intensely collaborative. You literally have hundreds and hundreds of people working on one piece of art over a number of years. So naturally you have different departments working on different things but many of them almost never cross paths. So the directors have that unique point of view where they can travel from one place to another over the course of a day to make sure everyone’s working towards the same goal. Everyone has to understand the story, everyone has to understand the characters, or any given moment, so that their efforts are coordinated, and that becomes the most important part of your job as a director.
When you’re working with big name actors like Miley Cyrus and John Travolta, of course they’re more used to live action filmmaking, do they find it difficult going into an environment where they’ve got nothing visually to work against and everything has to be done with their voice?
Yeah, definitely. Some of the experienced actors especially are used to a certain way of working and find it very difficult to go onto animation because it’s a very draining process, especially as they work in isolation. They don’t even work with the other people in the scene. It’ll be the actor and myself, we’ll be in a room together and we’ll close the door, and rather than being able to rely on the dynamic that they set up with the other actors around them, or the set they’re in or the clothes they’re wearing, they have to imagine everything, and you have to help them to imagine everything. And they’re forced to jump from scene to scene and emotion to emotion very quickly and really commit each time to the line. I saw it again and again that after an hour or two, our actors were completely drained and I don’t blame them. It also takes a certain kind of actor, because there are some actors when you separate their voice from their face, it really loses something, and other actors where it doesn’t.
Where did the idea of using John Travolta come from, because he’s not necessarily the first person you’d think of for the voice of a lovable talking dog?
Travolta was actually everyone’s first choice and everyone felt it was perfect, and I think the reason is that in a lot of the roles that he’s most famous for he plays these cold blooded killers and murderers and these really bad guys, but one of the reasons he’s had such success is that when you meet him he’s such a lovely, sweet, gentle person, and dog-like in that way. When you see someone like that playing someone as aggressive as his character in Pulp Fiction or Chili Palmer in Get Shorty, who are so unlike who he is, there’s this great tension. That lent itself perfectly to Bolt, where you’ve got this loveable little puppy dog who’s completely devoted to his owner, but who thinks he’s this wrecking ball that can take on helicopters and armies of henchmen and beat them. That to me played to John Travolta’s strength. And I have to admit, I’m a pretty big fan, so it was a thrill to have him.
Thank you, Chris.
Bolt is released on Disney Blu-ray and DVD from 15th June. CLICK HERE to read our full review of the Bolt DVD.