And had their photos taken.
Look at that.
New York in 1933, in living color this time. Not in black-and-white.
They also got to have their photo taken outside the real Venture.
Action!
It's very important that we get them very excited...
about what we're trying to do.
So to that end, we've been taking tours of 35 people at a time.
And we're walking them through the workshop...
and showing them everything that we've been doing.
They've also been visiting the miniature stage...
the shooting stages, and other bits and pieces...
that's going on around Miramar.
I'll see you all in the cinema for more waffling in a minute.
And last, but not least...
they watched the Weta digital presentation given by Joe Letteri.
This is from the first week's shooting.
This is the scene of Ann arriving at the docks.
This is now putting all the bits together.
Later on in the evening, they returned back to the Camperdown theater...
for a surprise.
...that I just want to thank you again very much for coming down.
I thought we'd show you a little bit of the film...
but in a very crude, animatic form.
It's very unusual explaining footage to anybody at this early stage.
And I must admit I was a little nervous. And finally thought, "Oh, my God...
"I'm actually going to be showing some people some of this film."
It was quite exhilarating for us because Peter got a standing ovation...
and so it seemed like it was all worthwhile. So it was really great.
- Thank you all so much for coming down. - Thank you.
What was amazing about the Summit was the reaction we got from everyone.
It was just one of those things that gave the tone and the feel of the movie.
And no one really had any idea what they were going to see.
It's great to finally after a few months of seeing maquettes of Kong...
actually seeing him move.
That was a really wonderful snapshot.
To get a sense of what the whole tone of the movie is going to be.
Keep up the good work.
The great thing about getting a good reception is that...
it gives you a bit of a morale boost.
And it's made us sort of a little bit more excited about the film that we're working on.
So looking forward now to just getting the shoot finished...
and push the film through to its completely finished state.
So that those 18 minutes now becomes a fully-fledged feature film.
Hi, welcome to the Second Unit Production Diary.
I'm Randy Cook, Second Unit Director, and we're gonna show you today...
a few of the things that Second Unit's been up to for the last couple of months...
while Peter's been directing Main Unit.
Go ahead, pitch!
A lot of the stuff we do tends to fill out sequences...
...that have already been shot by Main Unit.
They basically film a scene...
then we come along afterwards and pick up all the little bits that are left over.
So, as a result I'm doing things that Pete has neither time nor inclination to do.
Some of the shots out on the Venture.
The only stuff we've filmed on the boat, so far, has been in the parking lot.
They say it's because it's a better controlled environment...
...you can get better shots, but we all know...
Peter's... I think he vomits, apparently.
As soon as he steps on a boat, vomit happens.
And we got to shoot scenic shots of Ann and Jack...
being swept down a river.
What we're gonna do is have a Tarzan swing into the river.
Three, two, one, swing into frame and let go at the right time.
And hopefully we'll have a nice, spectacular splash.
They're getting slapped around a little bit.
So they're really suffering for their art today, that's for sure.
We've shot everything from typical inserts of stuff...
to car chases, which is, you know, the usual domain of the Second Unit...
to actual close-ups on the principal actors.
It's always a breath of fresh air actually, going over to another unit.
Ready!
And three, two, one, head!
Three, two, one, pack!
The treadmill was just something that everybody got subjected to...
at one point or another.
Three, two, dance off! Back.
It was always a bit of a competition between everybody...
who could run the fastest on the treadmill.
Cut!
I was the fastest runner on the treadmill...
that I almost needed hospitalization afterwards, okay?
Peter and I have similar tastes in some areas.
However, we only get to work together real briefly in the morning.
He gives us a real quick brief about what he wants, and then we go out and do it...
and show him what we're up to.
We use video cables, we use Internet...
...wherever Peter is, he's gonna be getting a picture from Second Unit.
This is our Second Unit monitor down here, which is showing us...
what Second Unit are doing. They're doing their vaudeville routines.
That's good, that's good.
It's a very interesting job, being another director's hands...
you know, because you have to have the ability to do it.
Yet you have to go with that director's flow.
Yeah, we're on the Hooverville set today...
Hooverville being sort of, I guess, the slums.
It's the depression times. All the people are out of work, they're bored...
they're just sitting around. We're just shooting a montage of shots.
Basically, what we're filming here...
the extras out there don't even know when the cameras are rolling.
I was a Hoovervillian today...
...and I sat around and acted bored.
Which I was.
Half the time, when you turn the camera off, they start looking natural...
and as soon as you tell them they're turning it on...
...they'll look really unnatural.
So we spent the whole morning rolling without anyone really knowing.
We were bouncing around all over the film on that day because...
we went from the shantytown to Skull Island...
with natives' feet running around in the rain...
to the skyscrapers of New York under construction.
All of it, of course, was on the back lot, crammed quite close together.
From the depths to the heights today, in more ways than one.
One of the exciting things about working on Second Unit for Peter is that...
you do get to do things that other Second Unit...
directors don't necessarily get to do.
We're not, you know, just expressly doing car chases...
and people falling in the river.
We're getting to work with the main actors, and sometimes getting to...
finish off scenes that he started.
You know, again, he gives you a lot of leeway, at times...
and one appreciates that trust.
I think you should be as extreme as you wanna be.
- Let's do it! - You know, it's vaudeville, go for it!
- Boy, is that the right answer! - Go for it.
Hello. Welcome to day 115.
Today, we're going to show you a little bit of the sound department.
Several of you have written in...
wanting to know more about the technicalities of recording sound on set.
Jeremy, Matthew, Jody, Don, Stefan, Akash...
Bryan, Nick, Nathan, Keith and Mike.
It's ironic that this particular production diary is on this day...
Today happens to be the day that we're recording...
a scene involving our Carl Denham, sound recordist.
Of course, in 1933, they were having to record sound themselves...
and they have much the same problems as we still do today.
We're off on a magical journey.
A journey into sound.
My title is Production Sound Mixer.
And my job is to record sound at the time the film is shot.
So, like the scene that we're doing today...
we've got a whole heap of characters who are all gonna be doing lines...
which means I've gotta put out a number of microphones...
and I'll mix all that shit together to record the actors' dialog.
We're doing a master and there's a lot of characters talking...
so we need to put out a lot of mikes. There'll be boom mikes...
there'll be plant mikes or radio mikes on people...
You think this is about sound, it's actually not. They're doing me for drugs.
That's right.
If you find any, you owe me money.
It's pretty amazing how these guys are able to hide microphones in ties...
and in jackets.
The only downside to the radio mike is...
you need a little battery pack.
Sometimes, it's wrapped around your ankle...
like a prisoner, like house arrest.
This is worse than house arrest...
'cause now there's someone in your house listening to your every move.
Go and do it now.
Day in the life of a sound man, it's tough.
It's tough what they have to endure.
We're going to be shooting very soon, thank you, gang.
Getting almost nervous now.
It's the first shot of the day and it's pretty tight in here.
- And here we go, shooting, please. - And here we go.
- And roll sound. - Sound's rolling.
Speed.
And action.
I'm gonna have the ship's engines over all the dialog.
Seagulls, camera noise, wind, God knows what else.
I don't care, Mike.
You're the sound operator. Make it work.
Cut.
That was a bit of a roughie to start with. But we'll sharpen up as we go.
- Here we go, thank you, and roll sound. - Rolling.
Speed.
I try and get everything I can on the boom.
You know, you try and get a boom in there as much as possible...
because it's generally a better sounding microphone.
And cut.
So we're two takes into it now.
We've... Obviously, we've had some problems.
We've got a construction site next door.
A supermarket's building a new car park or something.
So it's very apt.
We've got a scene about a sound recordist...
who's complaining about all this noise in the background.
And we've actually got... loads of noise in the background here.
- Here we go, thank you, and roll sound. - Speed.
Why are you always saying "speed"?
Well, actually, Julia, that's a good question.
Why am I always saying "speed" on set?
"Speed"? Well, that's a good question.
It starts back, a long time back.
Me and my friends were back in the pub in about 1962.
And we were...
Also part of the sound department's job is to silence people on set...
who really just don't make any sense.
And action.
Mike, you are the shama-lama-ding-dong.
Get it right. Fix it. Make it work.
I mean, I'd love to be able to tell you who actually kind of fluffed their lines.
Strictly between you and me, it could have been Jack.
Come on in, I'll introduce you to the peeps, my crew.
This is... bad.
I don't care, Mike. You're the sound recordist. Make it work.
That's awesome. Awesome, guys.
Another day on set.
Yeah, it's a good scene. I was in that scene today.
I think it'll shape up really well.
It was a long, hard, rugged day.
Sometimes, you just, you gotta get smelly, you gotta get hot...
you gotta push it to the limits...
in the field of sound.
And today, I think we took it to the limit.
This is about day 118 of the shoot...
although it's really a second unit day.
Randy's in here. I'm just coming in 'cause it's too much fun to miss.
And, of course, I just get to sit back and take a snooze...
while Pete runs the set.
Well, I wasn't intending to today...
No, you weren't intending to...
This is more like... This is too much like good fun.
We're into the first of four days worth of shooting the Helldivers...
which are the biplanes that attack Kong on the Empire State Building.
Curtiss Helldivers, they are the American naval plane of the early 1930s.
And they are the same aircraft as what they used on the original film.
After a bit of research, we found out that no original Helldivers existed.
We were expecting to be able to copy one that was in a museum in the States.
It was weird but we found out that no museums had one...
that was actually an extinct aircraft. They're all gone.
You can't even buy a plastic model kit of this plane.
So we had to go to the Smithsonian and gather together...
the original factory drawings for the plane.
So we could actually recreate one.
So we started with the original drawings...
and decided to build the airplane just like they did in the factory in 1933.
All the sizes and shapes and everything on this airplane is true to the original form.
The plane is built out of steel tube...
and given it's shape with aluminum stringers...
and covered with fabric just like the real airplane would've been.
Just putting the fabric on the bare structure is the easy bit.
Then, we need to put reinforcing tapes over the ribs...
and rib-stitch it with a needle right through.
And then there's all kinds of paint that goes on top of it.
There's about three coats of clear dope...
then there's three more coats of silver...
and then the top coat of whatever color it is.
It does have a few original parts...
that would have been the same parts used on a real Helldiver.
The wheels and an instrument or two, to make it authentic.
Where's my fricking pilot?
Our pilot is Jim Dietz, who is a very renowned military artist.
I've actually got some of his World War I flying paintings...
on my walls, on the wall of my office.
And the gunner is Rick Porras...
who was our co-producer on all three Lord of the Rings movies.
Rick's just come down to New Zealand for a vacation.
He's not working on Kong, but he's jumped in the gunner's seat.
So I'm sitting here just thinking:
"These guys are actually really having all the fun, aren't they?"
And three, two, one!
Cut.
I just want to go into a real one now, now after we've been sitting in this.
But I heard that there really aren't any Helldivers around anymore.
So that's a bit unfortunate, but...
It's just really, it's got a good feeling with the wind.
You almost feel like you're up there for real.
It will be memorable. As they say, into the sunset.
You know, the trick with this sort of stuff...
is to make sure the planes don't look too much like they're stuck in a studio.
Obviously, the blue screen gets replaced with the skies of Manhattan...
but we're doing a lot of things like moving the sun.
We have a little sun on the end of a big crane and we...
swing that around so that you really get this great moving shadow effect.
And we're putting a lot of vibration into the plane...
lot of vibration to the camera so all the wires...
You know the flying wires that are holding the plane together...
are kind of vibrating and we kind of, sort of...
add that level of realism to what's essentially faking the flying.
Not everything's fake. We've got all these guns.
Everything's fake except those hot shells that are flying all over the place.
The guns aren't fake. The guns are real guns.
Projects like this are really cool in a way.
I mean, none of these airplanes exist anywhere.
And we've just created one from scratch.
And now, there's a Curtiss Helldiver.
If it ends up in a museum somewhere...
people from all over can actually come and see one, touch one...
and have an idea what one of these airplanes actually looks like.
Yeah.
Never really grow up, do you, boys? Never grow up.
Planes and guns. Build your big model planes.
It's cool.
Hi. This is Day 120 of our production diary...
and we're getting towards the end of the film.
We're here in the wet, dank...
K Stage jungles of Skull Island...
doing a little bit more with Naomi and some dinosaurs today.
Second unit are filming Adrien...
doing a little bit of cab driving.
It's interesting, movies don't really end...
with a climactic kind of moment.
They tend to dwindle...
and it becomes a process of long goodbyes.
Yes. Well, that was Jack's last shot, everybody.
Over the last couple of weeks, we've said goodbye to Jack Black.
He finished everything that Denham had to do and so he was able to leave.
I get squeezes. That's part of the fun.
Colin Hanks playing Preston, left.
We are now down to, I think, it's three more days of shooting with Adrien.
I'm hanging out on a rope, with Naomi on my back...
in a couple of little scenes to pick up a few stunts...
and I'm home free for a bit.
But I'm aware that, you know, reshoots...
Maybe a few weeks, maybe...
another movie.
And we're set. That was good. That was a good one, Adrien. That's cool.
Adrien has a couple more days.
There's a scene in a theater, which is the last set, I think, that's being built.
So, this is the Arty Theater.
This is what you call "a-set-within-a-set."
So we build a set which is the theater...
and then we build a backdrop which is the set...
and that's sort of happening as we speak.
So here we are, in the Empire State Building, in Q Stage.
This is a set we've just put together over the last few weeks...
and it's going to be shooting in two days' time.
Today's also a sad day for us 'cause the New York set...
out on the Hutt Valley, is being demolished.
We wanted to have our wrap party in the New York set...
except, we had this demolition date and we couldn't keep the set...
till the very end of the shoot...
'cause it had to be gone and we had to clear it away.
But nonetheless, it was a good day.
An amazing party on the New York streets.
So I'd just like you to all give a huge welcome to Neil Finn.
Good afternoon, all. Fantastic to be here.
And now, today, the set gets demolished.
Well, it's nice and quiet in here. It's really busy out at New York streets.
The guys are starting to strike it now.
Normally we'd just smash it all up and put it in the rubbish...
but we are saving a lot of New York streets.
What we do when we destroy sets is we keep little bits of them...
just in case we want to do more filming with them later.
There is, you know, the possibility we may use it for some pickups...
or maybe even another film.
And action.
Naomi we hang on to till almost the very end.
You know, we deliberately planned our schedule...
so that we would just be able to reduce things down to...
shots of Naomi to the very end.
And so, we're slowly reducing the size of our crew.
Obviously, as we get down to shooting with two actors and then one actor...
you don't need as many people in the wardrobe department...
make-up departments, you know, the AD's department.
The film just becomes smaller.
You end up almost like you're making a home movie by the time you're done...
and it doesn't really ever get any easier.
I mean, the scenes that we're shooting with Naomi at the very end...
they're very complicated effects scenes.
Lot's of interaction between her and Kong and dinosaurs, with blue screens...
and having to comp in creatures.
So, it sort of keeps your brain going right to the very end.
And action.
So that's what our next two weeks holds.
You know, the light's at the end of the tunnel.
It's a good feeling.
Everyone's enjoying just getting the film shot now...
and that's what we're facing in this last couple of weeks.
- Cut, good. - Cutting.
That was fine.
Hello. Welcome to production diary...
for Day 123.
For the last two or three months...
something's been going on behind the scenes...
that's sort of exciting.
And today is the day that...
Universal have allowed us to talk about it for the first time.
Very soon after our Christmas break...
Universal started to talk to Fran, Philippa, and myself...
about the idea of a possible sequel to King Kong.
And based on that, we've now solidified our plans...
for what would be, effectively, the Son of Kong.
Yeah, this is just tremendously exciting for us, you know, at Universal.
We had some production money stashed away...
for the second Chronicles of Riddick.
But we're not producing that particular picture.
So, happily, we had a significant budget...
and we're going to make Son of Kong with it immediately.
Because the screenplay is reasonably long...
and pretty rich, Universal have agreed...
that we're basically going to split it into two movies and shoot them back to back.
One of the things Universal is best at, renowned for, is the franchise business.
So, it's just a phenomenal opportunity for us.
It was a little tricky getting the main cast back, because as you can imagine...
with Adrien, Naomi, and Jack...
they had already been making plans.
It's a relief for me that it's finally out of the bag...
'cause it was top secret for so long.
I couldn't even tell my family or anything about what was going on.
If anyone has been paying attention, we've sort of been dropping little clues.
I'm really excited because I've never been in a sort of...
a sequel before. I've never been in, like, a franchise thing.
It's quite a great experience for me and my character...
because she discovers, when she hears that back in the jungle...
that son of Kong is still alive.
She, you know, à la Sigourney Weaver, Gorillas in the Mist...
runs back to the jungle...
because she wants to be there and nurture him...
because she owes that to King Kong himself.
It takes place, like, 10 years after the first one.
So it's right in the middle of World War II.
Denham returns to Skull Island...
except, Denham now is involved with the US government's war effort.
And so, it's a great opportunity to return to Skull Island, but then...
the story actually ultimately climaxes in Europe.
It's weird. We go to Germany with son of Kong...
and he helps us defeat Hitler.
Rather than just have son of Kong...
fighting, you know, more dinosaurs on Skull Island...
he is going to be able to...
combat some genetically mutated creatures...
that the Nazis are building and so...
as you can imagine, we are now, you know...
gearing up to basically do the conceptual art.
So, in total parallel, with all the work we've been doing on Kong...
the likes of Rob and the other sculptors...
have simultaneously been sculpting these characters...
like this 17 foot tall albino that we see standing here.
And we're very lucky to have Andy Serkis coming back, too...
to play son of Kong.
I just had this idea for Son of Kong.
It sounded ridiculous at the time, but Pete's up for anything.
I said, "Can we do some motion capture using my son Louis?"
Because Louis' now nine months, he's nine months old...
and it's exactly the same as an infant gorilla.
So for next week...
we're going to be doing the first motion capture on a child.
Well, not even... I mean, he's not even a child. He's a baby.
The previous team started with some very simple ideas...
of just how son of Kong would...
walk and run.
There's one scene...
where I'm kind of like riding on his back...
me and Adrien and Naomi.
So, in Son of Kong, there's quite a lot of comedy sequences and fun stuff.
But there's also a couple of really good action sequences.
So one of the things we're going to have to do...
is, on the shoulders of the gorilla...
we want to mount a couple of Browning machine guns.
And we're now just starting to do some of the more major sequences.
Particularly, a very involved sequence...
involving Russian T-34 tanks...
and Kong just outside the Fuhrer bunkers.
So this is actually our very first set...
that we have designed for the sequels...
for Kong 2 and 3.
It's a Bavarian chalet...
where Denham is going to have his headquarters...
when he's behind the lines in World War II.
We'll probably have to go on location to Europe later on in the year...
about three weeks of location work...
where we'll need to just gather those, you know, the castles...
and the towns and the wide shots that will establish the European feel...
which we don't have that sort of stuff here in New Zealand.
One of the hardest parts of doing it...
is prepping for the stuff we're gonna be shooting in Europe later on.
Sort of trying to get together studio space...
get gear ready to go over...
get our lighting continuity packages sorted out.
It'll just be nice to be somewhere else...
that's just a little different.
Be nice to get away from the blue screens just a bit more.
Of course, it's made these final weeks of shooting...
the first movie rather complicated because...
we basically have very little preproduction time.
So, my day on the set these days...
is basically shooting the scenes with Naomi for the first film...
and at the same time I'm just having impromptu meetings all over the place...
to try to organize what needs to be organized for films 2 and 3.
Now, Simon, if we could just make sure these trees are kept secure...
for two or three months and...
we'll look forward...
- to getting back in the jungle here... - Yeah.
...later on this year.
So it's going to be a busy year for us...
and you'll be able to follow it all here on the kongisking.
That looks great. That's a fantastic color.
I think wardrobe's an important part of King Kong because it...
We are telling a period story...
so the sets and the costumes are what take you into that world.
My research of this started with the original film.
So we wanted to keep it true to that '30s style of filmmaking.
And it sort of embraced so many areas that the original hasn't...
like, you know, vaudeville, burlesque...
and it tries to show the very dark side of New York that you see.
Basically, the process starts by...
Terry gives us a design and we do a pattern.
We make up a toile, which is a mock-up, on a plain fabric.
And we get that as close as possible...
and do any alterations...
and then we cut it out in the real fabric...
and machining and hand sewing and all sorts of things...
and we've finished. The end.
There's this dress...
that has caused a lot of drama.
We had a scene a long time ago...
that had this dress in it, called "the locket scene."
We all loved this dress. But the scene went.
Now we've rewritten a new scene for this dress...
done in gold.
It's a beautiful fabric. Silk gauze.
And it's a good moment for it...
'cause she's got to look overdressed and fluffy.
And I think we're going down a fluffy road here.
Let me say what a lovely dress.
Oh, this old thing. I just threw it on.
In previous scenes, like the New York streets...
we hired a lot of costumes...
from Australia, England, and LA.
It was just really the vast quantities of period that we needed there...
that we couldn't possibly have manufactured.
We dressed about 3,000 people.
I reckon we've easily made 1,500 costumes.
We're going for gold, here, guys. We want it to look gorgeous.
And action.
It would be really nice to use original worn-out clothes...
on, say, the sailors.
But just the nature of the beast...
is that each of those sailors has to get...
wet, bloodied, muddied. So they can't just have one costume.
They have to have multiples of that costume...
so the only way we can do that is to make them new...
and then put them through a process that takes them to a stage...
where they look like these guys have lived in them...
for the past five years.
This is the breakdown area...
and these are Jack Driscoll's shirts.
And so basically, they all have to be done the same.
In this case, it's a lot of raw umber paint...
and then this kind of artificial mud that you've got here.
And, of course, it all has to be permanent dirt...
because they can't wear them for six months...
without having them laundered.
So it all has to be permanent so they can be washed...
and they come out of the washing machine...
Iooking as bad as they went in. They just smell a lot better.
Come on down. We'll take you down for the fitting.
Today we did fittings for the Arty Theater.
It's actually where Jack Driscoll's written a play.
And we're going for a slightly quirkier '30s look.
The men are just really in pinstripe suits with outrageous ties.
But the ladies have been really interesting today...
'cause we've done some pretty interesting designs on them.
Strong tailored silhouettes with really geometric hats.
So it's quite an interesting thing for the ladies.
- You look sensational. - I feel it.
- Great! - Fantastic.
The costumes are very important...
to get the feel of the period right...
and also where you are in terms of how rich people are...
or how poor people are. It gives you those senses.
So, wardrobe's an important part of every movie...
but particularly in King Kong, and it looks amazing.
So it's been a really enjoyable one as well.
Hello. Welcome to Day 127.
And we have a video diary today that some of you have requested.
Mark and Jean-Philippe and others have wanted to know...
what the unit photographer does.
The unit photographer is the stills photographer.
We're using a gentleman called Pierre Vinet.
And Pierre has been on every one of my movies since Braindead.
This is a hat that my mother made for Pierre.
Brain-Dead.
I have been with Peter for 13 years.
And the thing I like about being a still photographer for Peter is...
I don't really have a budget of how much I can shoot.
I just shoot everything.
Action.
Obviously, it's a critically important role...
because the stills photographer...
produces the first images of the movie that anyone ever sees.
They see the stills a long time before they see the movie, normally.
The stills always provide the first impression of the film.
So far, I've shot about 60,000 pictures...
on this production.
What you have to do is you have to create...
the mood of the photograph that the director's trying to create.
And he bites.
They're going to be used for publication...
Internet, posters...
marketing.
That's why it's important that you capture the mood.
And I know that my still...
with Peter Jackson...
represent the film.
You look at one shot and you know that that is King Kong.
That's what we did yesterday. Action shot.
Look at that. Is that a nice picture or not?
Pretty cool, man.
All the photographs that you see in books and magazines...
are photographs that they take.
They're not actually the same camera angles as what the real movie camera is filming...
because they can't be in the same space at the same time.
So the unit photographer has to actually look for a shot...
which is as good as the film camera shot.
The film camera shot usually has the prime position.
So, the photographer has to sneak in and around...
and try to get a different angle...
that's something that's gonna be strong and powerful.
The idea is for a photographer is...
you don't want to be heard and you don't want to be seen.
So you move very quiet on a film set...
without disturbing, especially your actors.
So you really have to be gentle...
and develop a really good relationship with the actor.
I'm going to play a joke today.
The joke's going to be on Naomi.
So...
That's very believable.
Look at you, you got a fright.
No, I'm laughing.
I would think it would be Jack Black, but I think he's in America.
Who else would it be?
- Yeah. - Process of elimination.
Every day I come on set...
and Peter's going to pull a surprise out.
When he told me I was going to do this photographer scene in the film...
I know I can be a photographer...
but I don't know if I can play the part, you know.
We'll do two takes, all right?
If they don't like it after two takes, we'll come back tomorrow.
- Do a couple more. - That's fair.
We're not doing four or five takes, man.
All the films I've done with Peter...
when he told me I was going to do King Kong...
that brought a big smile on my face.
I'm not much of a smiler.
But that brought me a smile.
Hi.
I hope this is working properly. This is Andy Serkis here.
We're gonna do a web episode to get our revenge on the DVD crew.
They don't know I'm making this.
But for eight months they've been driving us nuts, sticking the camera in our faces...
following us around, everywhere that we've ever been.
If it's all a bit rough, then forgive me but they don't know I'm doing this.
All right, cheers, see you later. Bye.
I'm making this for kongisking. Net.
And the DVD crew don't know about it.
- I'm gonna cut it together and it's a secret... - We're turning the tables on them.
We're giving them a taste of their own medicine, they're gonna feel the pain.
- Make them feel the pain, Andy. - Yeah.
Well, I'd actually like to DVD them in various states of pain...
and embarrassment.
And we'd probably light them really well as well, 'cause they never get that bit right.
I think it's high time that someone actually got a bit of footage of these guys...
who've hassled us for the last I don't know how many weeks, but it seems like every...
second day there's someone, "Jeff could you... Jeff, what are you doing here today?"
It's a love-hate relationship.
It's irritating, invasive and they get in your... way.
Well, it's very invasive, it sort of...
invades your constitutional rights as a crew member...
to just do what you do without having a camera in your face the whole time.
And basically, I... love it!
So my question is, is it voyeurism?
I mean anyone, anyone can get out with a video camera and make their own film.
It's the easiest thing in the world. I mean you could all do it.
So, are these people really earning their money or are they just a complete sham?
That's what I wanna know.
Yeah, you guys do a great job, you do, but you're always in the face!
That does not disturb me but it's when they're behind you...
when you turn.
It's totally different when it's actually pointed at us, it's like...
With one of these, you can tell what a person's body language is...
from 100 feet away.
You can tell whether people are having a good day at work, a bad day at work...
or whatever. I mean, check this out.
...be interesting changing gears.
'Cause we got, we'll be less of...
You know what I mean, like?
Okay, here it is. I'm gonna take inside the vault.
Look! This is "KKO395."
Three nine five, what's on this one?
"Naomi shopping in town."
"Colin clubbing it at the Matterhorn."
Okay, so I've actually now secretly removed all my most embarrassing moments.
I mean, moments that you just wouldn't want to see me.
I mean, they would completely ruin your image of me.
Looking through 1,800 tapes...
I discovered different actors respond in totally different ways.
Yeah, we're cool with that.
Yeah, on the other hand, Jack's a ham.
You fucks! Run for your lives!
Excuse me, Miss Watts? Miss Watts?
Hi, I'm doing a day in the life of the DVD crew.
And you've just done a really hard day's filming...
and now I'm just gonna follow you with a camera...
and when you're really exhausted, can you just tell me how you feel about that?
...off!
I mean, these days, you can't just sign on and get a job...
you can't just, you know, get a part in a film, and then actually go and carry it out.
Oh, no. You have to do this thing called B-Roll...
and Behind-the-Scenes and DVD footage...
and it's like living in Big Brother all the time.
It gets to the point where it drives you absolutely insane.
People can't leave you alone.
You can't even go to the toilet, you can't even pick your nose.
You can't go anywhere, people are just following you, it just drives you nuts!
It drives you crazy! But no, no, no...
they keep going and going and they think it's really interesting...
everything single living breathing thing that you do.
Every single second of every day.
Everywhere, everywhere, I have to slam the door in their face when I go to the toilet.
No, in fact, you haven't finished yet. I know you're on your way home.
Yes, no, I'm on my way to rushes.
- You're going to rushes? - Yeah, we got another hour yet.
- Okay, well, can I follow you to rushes? - Well, no!
No, no, look, it's more interesting here.
Okay. Welcome to day 125...
or section seven, or whatever it is, of our shoot.
I can't quite remember what day it is, to tell you the truth.
But I know one important thing.
It's the last week of shooting. It's our final week.
This is when you've got to really pace yourself...
and make sure you're not like one of those runners...
who trips just before the finishing line...
and ends up face-down in the mud.
When you collapse...
you collapse the day after the shoot finishes, not the day before.
Now, I do have a few thoughts and ideas...
of how I'm gonna actually get through this last week.
I've got a plan.
The Beatles said it best:
"With a little help from your friends."
Hey, Matt, could you get Bryan Singer on the line?
Bryan Singer. I think he's in Sydney.
Hi, can I speak to Bryan, please? I've got Peter calling for him.
Hello?
- Hey, Peter. - Is that Bryan?
- Yes, indeed! - Thanks for taking my call.
- Yeah. - How busy are you at the moment?
We moved to the night, so I'm at the office, just going through previs.
I'm just wondering if you could do a little favor...
like a little swap, sort of, thing, maybe.
I'm sort of running on fumes at the moment.
- So... - Yeah.
It would be kind of helpful to have another pair of eyes...
who I can trust, kind of, sort of, looking over my shoulder.
And then I could have a little rest, or a little snooze, or something.
I mean... Yeah, yeah.
And I figured if you're on 16-hour days...
then it leaves like eight hours that you wouldn't be doing anything.
You mean there?
Well, yeah.
Thank you, Seamus.
Bryan's not really here to direct, as such.
He's here for the eventuality that I might fall asleep.
Just in case.
It's very hard not to do.
Just give me a yell if you need me, Bryan.
Okay.
All right. I'm on a kind of a flip...
two-film, kind of, schedule thing.
So we may just do these, sort of, in one take.
- Keep it rolling along, yeah. - Yep, keep it moving.
When Naomi gets... Where is Naomi, by the way?
I mean, I know he's got great films...
but he can't just walk in on a set...
and say, "I'm going to direct this bit."
Well, at least he's a really good director.
Yeah, I know. That's true.
- At least we have somebody. - That's true.
If Peter feels safe, I guess I have to feel safe.
You just kind of have to go with it.
I mean, sometimes that's what this is about, filmmaking.
You know, run with the ball, I say.
Oh, he's awake.
I've only seen this previs.
Clearly, Kong is powerful.
I get his height. I understand the look.
Does he... Can he fly?
A little worrying that our director is just, you know, nodding off...
but understandable 'cause this is a heavy schedule.
All right, everyone. We'll shoot this one.
You're charging each other. Kong lands in. She's gonna step back once.
And, action!
Kong lands.
T-rex is coming. You back up.
Make sure you're between his arms. They're around you.
All right.
And he charges!
Right. And, cut! Cut. Okay.
So, what time will you be able to make it tomorrow?
Because I'm probably gonna need a little bit of help tomorrow.
Sure.
Well, I'll do the best I can. I'll try to be here by 10:00.
Well, feel good. Well, hang in there.
So, this is our last day today...
and I'm not gonna have Bryan coming in today.
He's done a great job. A real super man...
but I'm going to finish this film like a man.
I'm doing it myself. I'm staying awake.
So, Peter's asleep, again, gang. This is our last shot.
We've got to get it done. Can you hurry and get Frank in here please?
Copy that. Bringing Frank onto set. Yep.
Copy, Caro. Frank traveling now.
Yeah, we're standing by for Frank.
- Hi, Frank. - Hello.
Hey, everybody, this is Frank Darabont.
I'm sorry, Peter's fallen asleep again. We've got to get this last shot.
So, he's gonna direct this shot.
- Team, this is Frank. - I love your work.
- Oh, thank you. It's really nice to meet you. - Hi, Frank.
- Hi. - Pleasure to meet you.
Has anybody checked Peter's pulse?
Is he... Like a narcoleptic kind of deal?
Maybe.
Okay, good. Well, I'll be over there.
Let's roll one, why not?
All right. So let's lock down the studio, please. We're gonna shoot.
And, cut!
Yuck.
That was really... The suit just isn't working.
- You don't like the suit? - No.
Maybe it doesn't match the previous take.
We should do one with Naomi, then.
We've got to get it from a human girl's voice.
- Here, Pete. We should play it back. - Print it and check the gate, please.
Yeah. No, whatever you want. I'm just going to have a little sleep.
All right, good.
Next set up.
Okay.
Today is the last day of the shoot.
This is the last shot.
So we finally got to Day 131...
which was our official end of principal photography.
Well, it's the last set up of mine, you know.
But I'm still pretending it's the last set up.
Even though we'll be back on Monday.
- Okay, guys. - I don't want to finish really.
I don't want to finish. I want to stay here.
Keep shooting forever and ever and ever. Stay in Wellington.
The last week or two have been...
fun, enjoyable, the light was at the end of a tunnel.
And so it was very much working closely with Naomi...
and obviously with Andy Serkis.
It was kind of bittersweet, you know, I think everyone...
was on one level relieved to get to the last day. But you're also...
painfully aware that it's the end of friendships that have been made.
This period of our lives is over, and it's a very intense feeling...
when you're shooting a movie. You do bond closely with the crew...
and the cast that are working with you. And suddenly it's all over.
Cut. Good.
- Cut. - Good.
I think we're done.
Thank you so much, everybody. Thank you very, very much.
We're sort of done, for the time being.
Yeah. It was also Naomi and Andy's last shot, as well, so...
We had some farewells. I got a lovely signed photograph from the crew...
where every single member of the crew had signed it.
Wow. This is so cool. This is really great.
Thank you.
I somehow tricked myself into thinking that one film would be a little easier than three.
But, as it turned out, it has been a very difficult film to make...
and you have been an absolutely wonderful group of people to work with.
I've needed all the support that you gave me. I really have needed it.
And you've always been there and always lived up to the challenges.
Put that camera away and come and have a party with us.
Come on, you deserve it. Earned it.
For me I'm, you know, I'm relieved to get through the shoot...
because you sit down and you study everything...
that you did shoot over the last six or seven months...
and you basically craft the movie out of it.
These production diaries have been a lot of fun...
and they are going to continue. We are going to do one diary per week...
during postproduction.
And we've got a very complicated post ahead of us.
Welcome to this bonus video diary. This is like a video diary...
that we could never show while the film was being made...
because it's got too much interesting stuff in it.
But, it's the anatomy of a part of the T-Rex fight.
Now anybody who's familiar with the 1933 King Kong...
will be very much aware of the scene where...
Kong and the tyrannosaurus fight.
As far as animation goes, it's really a milestone of choreography...
the way that Willis O'Brien and his animators choreographed this...
wonderful wrestling match between this giant reptile and Kong.
It was obviously a sequence that we wanted to include in our version of King Kong.
Ever since we first conceived the movie in 1996, we've had this idea...
that Kong ultimately fights a family of tyrannosaurus, three of them.
And the fight escalates and gets bigger and bigger.
I wanted the fights to not be stuck in one place.
I wanted it to be like a brawl that goes out of control...
and rampages through the jungles and the rocks and terrain of Skull Island.
So it started out initially with conceptual art.
Jeremy Bennett and Gus Hunter did some very early designs.
And there was one in particular that I responded to...
that had Kong and the T-Rex...
falling over the edge of a cliff and getting tangled in vines.
Given quite a detailed brief, I guess, by Peter...
as to what he imagined the environment to look and feel like.
It was two pieces of rock that jutted together that opened up at both ends...
so you had a sort of bottleneck, I guess, environment...
that was quite spacious at either end and bright...
which would be quite handy in backlighting all of Sydney...
and illuminating the CG characters.
You know, we wanted it to be pretty lush and damp and mossy and vine-laden.
What he wanted us to do was to create...
Skull Island, so that it looked just like the 1933 film...
but that we were just there with better cameras.
Sequences like this have to have a strange balance of reality and stylization.
You're always wanting the visual effects to be as real as possible.
But on the other hand, I want Skull Island to be unreal...
in a fantasy kind of way.
I wanted the island to be more jagged and more monsters...
and more amazing scenery than what you could ever find anywhere.
So you're not actually trying to match a realistic environment.
You're trying to create a heightened, over the top, fantastical landscape.
And from that point, the animation department become involved...
because what I love doing are animatics, which are like moving storyboards...
which is basically a piece of computer animation that's quite crudely done.
But it does allow you to, first of all, choreograph the fight...
and then to actually plan the camera angles that you're gonna use.
So we tend to just animate what I call, "An eye of God point of view"...
which is just simply a wide camera angle...
and you see the little figures moving around.
And all you're simply doing is looking at the choreography.
You're looking at the timing, the fight moves.
Our role for the vines is basically working with Peter...
and designing all the set pieces, all the action.
So it's Kong and two T-Rexes in the air and they're all separate.
Then we play up the whole Ann pendulum thing while she's swinging...
and one of the T-Rexes trying to grab at her.
We had a lot of freedom at the beginning of the process...
to just make stuff up ourselves. It's like you have, a sort of, a toy kit.
It's like, here's Kong, you got three T-Rexes, you got the vines.
Go and have a play.
They devised this wonderful sequence where...
a T-Rex falls off the ledge, dragging Kong down with him...
and then there's this really quite intricate and complicated sequence...
that happens in these vines that are strung between the two sides of this chasm.
And it did turn from, you know, Kong fighting a Rex in the vines...
to Kong losing Ann in the vines, her dangling on a vine above a Rex...
you know, in the pendulum kind of action of her swinging...
and the Rex swinging, trying to snap, and all these close calls with her.
And then the Rex about to get hurt, Kong grabbing the Rex...
and them all falling together...
and then her hanging off the Rex's teeth above another Rex...
and, you know, all that stuff and it just, you know, I mean...
it's just sort of the way Pete designs sequences...
is just to up and up the stakes.
We would start to cover the piece of choreography...
from many, many different camera angles.
Those camera angles would sometimes run for one minute or two minutes...
just following characters all the way down.
And all of this footage...
becomes your raw material that you use to then put it into the Avid...
or the editing machine, and you cut the scene together.
So we get all this footage and it's actually long takes...
of every different angle that you could possibly want.
So we've done huge amounts of footage.
We would look at what was the best bits with Peter, and Peter would decide...
what angle he wanted to be on at any time.
And just like cutting live action...
you get a scene and you cover it from many different angles.
Really, in a way, it's like cutting real footage 'cause it's been animated so well...
that we can actually make a really interesting scene out of it all.
And then we had to really study what we ended up with...
because, of course, it's just an animatic.
Every shot in it is a visual effects shot. There isn't one shot that isn't.
So we broke the scene down into all its component parts.
We figured out what shots we needed Naomi for.
So we had to think of ways in which we could shoot Naomi...
in this very complicated series of shots that we had to do.
We built various rigs, harnesses that she wore.
And three, two, one, action!
I would have Naomi, you know, looking like...
she's swinging off a vine, and I'd just swirl the camera around.
At one stage, when she's on the head of the tyrannosaurus...
we made a very simple big polystyrene head that she was able to grip onto...
and we just simply had people who were moving and shaking the head around...
and she was just holding on for dear life.
And by that stage, Weta Workshop had built...
a miniature of the chasm.
He falls off that rock...
but he's hanging by his claws. So it was quite conceivable...
that he could swing and land on this cliff when it was out here.
So we pushed it back under to try and give the impression...
that there's no way. If he swung, he'd fall down here.
And Alex Funke and his miniature crew...
spent many weeks shooting all the different camera angles that were needed.
Well, the vine chasm itself is basically two gigantic stone walls.
But then when they were brought over here, we did all the final dressing.
The painting, the dressing with the little fine vines...
and moss and so forth.
So the walls looked wet and soggy...
and lots of stuff growing in the little cracks.
And as we're shooting it, we're always talking to the guys at digitals...
to whom we're gonna have to hand this material...
so that we can say, "Well, okay, here are the elements we're gonna shoot.
"Here are the different lighting passes. Here are the different smoke passes."
What do you need to make this final result that Peter wants to see?
We had sort of day-night Kong and the dinosaurs...
which is the domain of the digital department.
They took sculptures of the dinosaurs...
that were done by Weta Workshop.
What we got here...
this is STAN the T-Rex and this comes from Black Hills over in South Dakota.
And this is... I believe it's one of the most completed skulls ever found of a T-Rex.
And it's a beautiful specimen.
It was just great reference for all the sculptors...
to have this kind of stuff to look at.
Each of the three T-Rexes are slightly different to each other.
It's a family. It's a mother and a father and a child.
And they sculpted those and they made maquettes...
that were then scanned in the computer.
We need to then take that data...
and convert that into a creature that's animatable...
that can move naturally, that still preserves all that detail.
And then the color is layered on on top of that.
All the different texture passes are created.
I wanted the dinosaurs to have a slightly old-fashioned look.
I didn't want the smooth, pebbly skin...
that paleontologists tell us dinosaurs have today.
I wanted the old 1930s movie-style dinosaurs which were...
They had scales, and lumps and bumps on them. And much more crocodilian.
So, we had freedom to make them just like cool movie monsters, basically.
Kong took a long time, you know, to work through...
a very organic creative process of designing Kong.
All the detail that had to go into that is, you know, vastly complicated...
to make him into a living, breathing, digital gorilla.
We spent the best part of two years, I would say...
on working on his design...
and getting him to look like he does in the movie.
The vine sequence was one of the first sequences that we worked on.
And it actually was the process for us to work out the character of Kong...
and get his look...
and really see him as a character for the first time.
We knew from Peter that he needed to look like he was old...
and, you know, beat-up.
Like he lived in this world alone and it was a very dangerous, violent world.
For him fighting T-Rexes was not that out of the ordinary.
I mean, that's how he survived.
We were able to animate with the very early form of Kong.
What's interesting when the animation begins...
is that you don't necessarily need your finished creatures.
We had the animators start working...
even before we knew what the characters were gonna finally look like.
And so they animated their way through copying the pre-viz, basically...
and at certain times they enhanced and improved the dynamics.
They spent more time on the animation than what was originally spent on the pre-viz...
which is always done very quickly.
After doing the pre-viz, we had a nice little road map of the sequence...
and what each camera's supposed to be doing.
Kong is fighting one T-Rex, that's hard enough.
When he's fighting three T-Rexes, the animation really becomes difficult...
because you're dealing with weight and balance of all these large creatures.
You've got to portray that size.
But you also have to have the action...
that you would get in a big fight.
As these creatures fall and get caught up in the vines...
naturally the vines are snapping and breaking from the weight...
and they're fighting, which is causing other vines to dislodge...
and rocks to come loose from the walls and everything starting to fall in on itself.
And that was a very difficult thing to choreograph.
I looked at cable bridges...
because there's a few cool cable bridges on the outskirts of Wellington...
that you can sort of walk across, and you see the cables kind of moving...
and bouncing around, taking the weight. That was cool for vines.
Having nightmares about vines?
Getting caught in them?
Being wrapped in them?
And then, of course, in that sequence the one other thing we have to do...
is a digital double for Ann...
because there are a lot of stunts required of Ann...
that Naomi actually wasn't able to do.
Just things that no one can physically perform.
We built a very realistic model of Naomi in the computer.
We scanned her.
And, I'll tell you what, in some shots you really can't tell the difference.
That's working on new techniques for lighting and shading her face.
For creating her hair.
For simulating the cloth. Doing the clothing.
For getting a really good facial animation performance.
For creating her facial animation.
So, we're using new approaches for all of that stuff...
just because of the demands of the scene.
I wanted to make sure that we had atmosphere...
and we had a feeling of depth.
So, we put the different layers together and we put smoke.
We put falling leaves, because as the vines get disturbed and they fall down...
I wanted bits of debris and leaves to flutter and fall...
to give it a very organic texture.
It's very important to be as real as possible.
So our job is essentially to put all of those things together...
into a believable sort of environment.
Dialing in the atmosphere, sort of making it...
Getting that sort of misty, spooky...
Skull Island kind of vibe that Peter really wants to get out of the sequence.
And, of course, the final thing, the sound effects and music.
Our sound department had to work on the roar of the tyrannosaurus...
the roar of Kong.
And you obviously want these great creaking, groaning sounds...
as the vines get stretched and they break and snap.
When I first saw it as a preview sequence...
I just thought, "What a spectacular scene.
"What a spectacular opportunity for sound effects."
So in this scene, we are using obviously different animals for the creature vocals.
And then, there's all the vines ripping out of the cliffs.
So we've been recording different root pulls...
and it sounds like that, that are going into...
the vines swinging and slipping out of the cliffs.
And once that's all done, we're finished. We go home.
- Just like that. - Yeah.
So, that gives you some insight...
into what it takes to put a very complicated scene like this together.
So it's a scene that was two years in the making, and we're very proud of it.
We'd love to show you a little bit of the finished result right now.
So let's have a look at some of the vine sequence.
Don't let Andy Serkis near you. He's a vicious man, who will humiliate you.
I'm doing "A day in the life of..." following the DVD crew around.
Well, you've lost them already.
- Good morning. - It's me. I'm sneaking in here...
but nobody knows I'm here.
What's with the camera?
I'm just doing this thing for myself. I'm just collecting a few memories...
just for when I go home.
Whoa! What was that?
Knock it off.
No, I have not been invaded over the last eight months.
Normally, you can pick your nose in total freedom and luxury...
but when you're being filmed all the time...
bodily functions are at the top of your mind.
- Can I just... Certain e-mail... - Sure. You got it.
I can't think of anything more annoying than having a camera...
all day right in front of you. Yeah.
Is that one of our cameras?
No, this is...
Right. Let them look right in the eye.
Stay away from her.
It's all payback.
- Hey. - Hi.
How are you?
I've got a lot of dirt on you guys. A lot of dirt.
I've managed to avoid the whole "DVD, Behind the Scenes" process...
for the bulk of the show, which is great.
Yeah. I feel like they're in my space. I like this bubble around me...
and they just come in and invade your privacy.
It gives the general public a very good understanding of what we do...
in the film industry, doesn't it?
And it sells DVDs.
You want a banana?
How many times do you hear that on this set?
Quite a few times. You're not the first.
I'll tell you something about Adam. Is, he'll ask you to do a production diary...
he says, "It's going to take half an hour to an hour." It winds up taking three days.
Actually, that's true. You milked it quite a lot, your 15 minutes.
You better believe it. I'm still riding it. You sucker.
Do you often have a lot of time off, then?
- We're working hard right now. - Yeah.
This is it. This is how it gets done.
Take their camera...
chuck it out there...
and do a victory dance.
Our Pellerin boys. They're really cool.
We love them.
I was not too impressed when I first saw them on the first day.
But now... Actually I quite... No, I don't like them.
Leave me alone.
They rank beyond our camera crew.
They should be deep in the whole thing.
In fact, can the movie, bring on "Behind the Scenes."
I kind of feel really bad that I've, you know...
said the things I've said about the DVD crew.
I think they are actually very, very valuable 'cause, I think it is worth recording...
all the things that happened on this film for your enjoyment.
I'm gonna finish off by saying that they're a really cool bunch of people.
And I want them to continue to follow me around...
so that I don't feel rejected.
Okay, bye.
- Here we go, and action! - Okay.
We'll just get you to help us with that timing. Great.
And if he's a little light...
let him get there and get his hand in a men-size dipper.
- Okay. - Yeah.
Because I can... That you just didn't get there.
- So, that's why... - Okay.
Yeah, which should be good. It'll be fine 'cause I can easily just cut...
All right, we will.
Good.
- Miller thought it was perfect. - Good.
- More or less. - School of common friends.
- How does that look? - Let's have a look.
On camera Tommy... This is Cameron's camera.
So, this is the one where the fist goes pop.
- So, that's a little bit too much of a sort of... - Yeah, it was a bit fake.
- That bit of arm waving. - Yeah.
He's gonna go crazy.
And he's gonna charge you guys on his knuckles.
And you guys are gonna be going like crazy...
with your gun, trying to wheel your gun around.
Start me...
- We have to be very deliberate when we... - How many have gone past it?
Like it happens afterwards?
Yeah, that's good one.
Hey, you, stop!
Stop him!
- Give me that. I know I'm scared of that. - You will have to get it.
I think I'm scared of that.
Otherwise, if it happened, just jump on the tailboard and just kind of go for a ride.
Go for a ride.
The idea would be that as the cab rolls away...
you're just putting your hand out, and you're just sort of standing here.
- Kind of watching it go. - Okay.
Martin, that was your first...
Your first landing was a little bit close to the edge.
When that... The first one when you go on to your front.
Very, very exciting. Extremely exciting.
Peter said that looked very exciting.
Yeah, well, that's good. I thought it looked really exciting, too.
Three, two, one. Action!
- And cut. - Perfect.
That was real good. I think we've got it.
We'll just do one more for luck, okay?
Okay, I'm just gonna close this project.
Which is their doing Day 126, which is I think, it's about wardrobe or something.
So, I'm gonna close it, and then I can edit the one that I'm gonna send to you.