Game Over: RESIDENT EVIL Reanimated is a featurette found in DVDs for Resident Evil: Apocalypse which deals with the development of the film. It was filmed and edited by the Automat Pictures, a Los Angeles production company which at the time specialised in producing behind-the-scenes documentaries.[1]
Chapters[]
Game Plan[]
- runtime
- 12:25
In an interview with Producer Robert Kulzer, the first film was intended to be entirely original and outside the world of the games. For Apocalypse it was decided that it was time to bring in more game references for the audience. CODE:Veronica and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis cutscenes are shown in this chapter to compare with similar scenes in Apocalypse.
It is discussed how thanks to the previous film's popularity in DVD sales, Apocalypse has been produced with larger sets, more monsters and extras and more elaborate practical and digital effects to capture the scope of the film's plot.
Most of the footage in this section is of the rehearsals for the church scenes and outside Raccoon City Hall. Also featured are shots of the highway overpass where the survivors first meet the Nemesis, and filming of a school set being lit on fire.
In regards to the casting, the role of Jill Valentine is described as being originally cast to someone else who dropped out. Mike Epps is also described as being added in as comic relief.
Running, Jumping, Fighting[]
- runtime
- 10:17
This chapter deals with the stunts, led by coordinator Steve Lucescu who talks of how Alexander Witt expected heavy use of stunts during production. Actors Sienna Guillory and Oded Fehr talk about getting to do their own stunts as they already had martial arts training, though Fehr still finds it hard work as while he can do the stunts he is expected to do many in sequence for each film take. Witt himself congratulates Guillory and Jovovich, who were most ecstatic about doing their own stunts. In some instances, however, the actors had to be replaced by a stunt double due to safety concerns.
While talking about Fehr's helicopter wire jump sequence, they bring up how that was initially planned as being entirely done on a green-screen, with Fehr jumping from a prop helicopter and performing a wire-stunt. To make it more dramatic, Witt instead had pilot Dave Tommasini fly some 50 feet above a building and have a stunt performer do the wire jump. For close-ups, Fehr was hoisted by a crane.
As Lucescu was only familiar with Jovovich's stunts in the first Resident Evil, extra time was spent training her in martial arts. For stunts deemed too hazardous for Jovovich, stunt performer Joanne Leach was brought in. Her signature move was running through a corridor full of glass, which in the film was Alice being shot-at through a window. Another stunt Leach performed was a wire-stunt where she jumps over a police cruiser and is seemingly propelled by the concussive force of it exploding. The rest of this stunt was completed by Jovovich from another angle. A third involved Leach running 250 feet down the side of a building attached to a descender rig. Against Witt's advice, Jovovich demanded she do the stunt as well; a compromise was given, where she would only do the last 60 feet.
Searching for a person to play the Nemesis creature rather than using trickery, Matt Taylor was decided upon as their man due to his imposing size. Consequently, the costume had to be tailored to his size and could not be worn by any other performer. Due to the weight of the suit, he could not stay more than 15 minutes in it during shoots. To prepare for the Alice/Nemesis show-down, Taylor and Jovovich trained four hours a day for six weeks.
Zombie Choreography[]
- Runtime
- 08:51
Director Alexander Witt opens this chapter with describing the Zombie acting as problematic.
Derek Aasland, the assistant Undead choreographer, agrees that it is very hard to choreograph Zombies, especially with 3-400 Zombie actors. During the film's production he wrote "The Bible of the Undead", a story bible explaining what the Undead are in the movie universe and how this affects the individual's movements.
Sharon Moore, the lead Undead choreographer, describes how professional dancers were hired and brought through a four-day boot camp to train them to act properly. Training went beyond walking, but included studies on how to perform vacant expressions and proper face muscle movements.
Aasland adds that there were rules for training. No hunchback zombie walks were allowed. Neither could actors perform a straight-arm walk, or drag their feet. The specific zombie actions wanted were referred to as the "Liquid" and "Zen zombie". Due to poor muscle control, the "Liquid Zombie" involves constant body movement with the impression they are perpetually off-balance and about to fall. The "Zen Zombie" raises its arms when in close proximity to its victim and try to hug them. When biting people, they are to move their mouths left and right as though resting on a pillow.
Aasland and Moore confirm that the background zombie were given equal make-up to the 'Feature Zombies' (that is, Undead who directly interact with the characters), and that the Undead child actors went through the same boot camp. Actor Raz Adotti (Peyton Wells) describes his newfound appreciation of the boot camp, having undergone training ahead of his character's zombification. The chapter ends with Milla Jovovich (Alice) referring to the Undead actors as the real heroes, having worked out in the cold in improper clothing.
Building Raccoon City[]
- runtime
- 07:50
This chapter revolves around the set design for the film, and includes an interview with production designer Paul Austerberry. Austerberry took snapshots from Resident Evil 3: Nemesis as a reference point, seeking places in Toronto that may match the scenes depicted in the game, or ways to adapt the script in a way that directly references the game. When it came to designing the Umbrella facility at the end of the film, Austerberry drew from the first film's depiction of The Hive, and these would be made on a soundstage.
One of the additional challenges in filming Apocalypse is that of the SARS Coronavirus pandemic, which had at the time made its way into Canada. Due to the drop in tourism and film industry activity, however, Alexander Witt notes the city became enthusiastic with the project and gave them a great deal of leeway in making the film, from closing bridges to crashing cars.
Moving back to Austerberry, he describes how the production design process typically worked: he would read the script, discuss ideas for a set with Witt, then design several 3D mock-up based on what the script describes. Witt would then decide whether they needed a 3- or 4-walled set to work on, and if they had enough space for the actors to move around with space for the camera crew. If they had already picked a location, Austerberry would do a 3D mock-up with necessary modifications (e.g. Prince Edward Viaduct having a wall on when used as Raven's Gate Bridge). When it came to using Toronto City Hall as Raccoon City Hall, the necessary glass corridor depicted in the scene did not exist, and a set had to be constructed on-location which could be destroyed accordingly. An important stage in this process before construction could begin was also it being vetted by other departments, such as the SFX team if needed.
When it came to Raven's Gate Church, seven weeks were spent constructing the set, which required as much as 100 people. Austerberry did research on English Gothic Revival architecture to get ideas on its design, and incorporated stone angel statues after spotting them in the book.
Big Guns[]
- runtime
- 05:27
Big Guns deals with the firearms used for the film, featuring interviews with Charles Taylor, the film's gun wrangler. Apocalypse uses a wide arrange of firearms, from handguns to submachine guns to .50 calibre sniper rifles. One of the design approaches was for each character to have their own signature weapon. At least three Desert Eagle Mark XIXs were used by the cast, with Oded Fehr using two with a black oxide finish, and Mike Epps having one with a gold finish to match his character's personality. Throughout the film, Milla Jovovich used a variety of weapons, using a Beretta 92FS and two Para-Ordnance P14 Limited handguns (the latter used in the church scene to enable her to spin as said in the script), two Heckler & Koch MP5Ks (which she mistakenly identifies as UZIs), and a High Standard K-1200 Riot Shotgun. Actress Sienna Guillory meanwhile was given training on police firearms procedures, and was not allowed to dual-wield any handguns.
The section moves on to discussing one of the more unique weapons in the film, the M134 mini. This weapon was heavily modified to be used on the film, with its firing rate halved to 3000rpm, its barrels cut down to 14 inches. When fully loaded, it weighed 65lb. Nemesis stuntman Matt Taylor had trouble firing the gun in the police station sequence at first, having not expected to feel being blown backwards.
Smoke and Mirrors[]
- runtime
- 10:47
This sequence deals with the visual effects used, including interviews with supervisor Alison O'Brien. As a rule from director Alexander Witt, everything that could be done practically was done practically from explosions to car crashes, with everything else using a variety of techniques including matte paintings, miniatures, green screens and CG. This took up much of the post-production time, with the documentary still following the team's work in January 2004. For the Licker sequence, a lot of work went into how the creatures would look and behave, expanding on the script where Alice's attack is all on one page. At one point an animatronic Licker was being tested, but it was found too cumbersome and abandoned in favour of a totally-CG creature. To give them personality, it was decided how they wag their tongues be used in lieu of their eyes to indicate their mood. To get their flesh right, meat was purchased from a butcher.
The Undead Dogs were created using trained stunt dobermans, one of whom - "Jasmine" - worked on the previous film. Because the dobermans were agitated by make-up, they would instead wear a coat which only some of the gore make-up put on. More gore would be digitally added, and trackers attached to the coats to insert exposed ribs to the footage. This process took several weeks. For the sequence where Jill strikes a dog with a fire extinguisher, this was performed using a rubber prop. An animatronic version was used for the sequence where Nicholai is mauled by a jumping dog.
Two significant helicopter effects were developed for the movie. The first was in tandem with the stunt department, who wished to have a performer acting as Carlos jump out of a helicopter and onto a padded mat; this was accomplished by replacing the mat with a separate shot of Oded Fehr hovering over the floor on a wire. The second major effect was the sequence where the Nemesis destroys two helicopters. In the storyboards, this was depicted as him firing rockets at both, causing them to explode. The effects team instead envisioned that a single rocket would destroy one helicopter, and the resulting explosion destroy its twin. In the actual filming, two helicopters were flown over the city, with Mr. X, Inc. exploding nearly ten miniature helicopters over a week.
The chapter then moves over to the wall-walking sequence, which was accomplished through a mix of digital effects, spliced footage and stuntwork. Rather than stand on top of Toronto City Hall, Milla Jovovich stood on the steps of a green screen to begin her descent. This footage was then added into footage of the roof to give the impression she was actually there. The actual stunt was accomplished in full by a trained performer,
Next, it talks about the Nemesis costume, and how the face would move by remote control. After noticing that Matt Taylor's eye could easily be seen in test shoots, the mask was modified to squint harder so it would appear more realistic as the Nemesis' eye. Eric Robertson from Mr. X talks about the Nemesis POV shots his studio created, which were to visualise for the audience its cybernetic nature.
For the destruction of Raccoon City, the special effects team studied recently declassified footage of A-bomb tests. Mr. X created a 1:6 scale miniature of Raccoon City Hall. Each pane of glass hid a small explosive charge intended to throw glass outward to simulate the nuclear detonation. The construction and rigging took four months. O'Brien's team added in particle effects.
Gallery[]
- Game Plan
- Running, Jumping, Fighting
- Zombie Choreography
- Building Raccoon City
- Big Guns
- Smoke and Mirrors
Sources[]
- ↑ Game Over: 'Resident Evil' Reanimated. IMDb. Retrieved on 2023-05-02.
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