Jason KingSalty Popcorn's Mitch hangs out with CHRIS MILLER - Director of PUSS IN BOOTS
December 8th 2011 09:07
:
Yay Mitch, great interview
Category: Interviews
Special thanks to Mitch - this was a great interview Mitch and I am jealous I could not attend myself. Rock on!!!
It was a sunny Sydney day at the Intercontinental Hotel, overlooking the harbour, when 5 writers got together around a table were introduced to animator, writer, producer, voice actor and director Chris Miller. Chris was in town to discuss his latest project, the new DreamWorks 3D animated movie, Puss in Boots. To read the review of Puss in Boots, CLICK HERE and to see all the pics and video from meeting Salma and Antonio at the premiere CLICKETY CLICK HERE.
After he takes his seat and greetings and hand shakes are shared, the interview kicks into gear and this is where we pick up...
MATT: So, the Shrek series has a lot of characters which can potentially all have a spin-off film of their own. What was the decision to make Puss In Boots the first character to branch out with his own film?
CHRIS: I think he made a real splash the first time he appeared in the Shrek movies and was a bit of a scene stealer and the personality that Antonio Banderas poured into that character, I think just made such an impact. His booming voice coming out of this little furry package had such an impact. I think it was just a matter of time, I really do. I mean, even the idea was floating around DreamWorks for a while. It would kind of catch fire and then sort of, maybe dwindle out a little bit but it never went away and some drafts got written... Actually, the producer that's on the film right now, Latifa Ouaou, was just a great creative partner in the making of Puss in Boots. She was on originally, then she kind of rolled off, she produced another movie, Monsters Vs. Aliens and then came back on when I did so, it's been around since 2004, but in that time, I don't think there was really that much consideration for another character from that world.
INTERVIEWER #2: Technically speaking, what would you say was the hardest sequence to do in the film?
CHRIS: Technically? Probably the section of the movie from the time the beanstalk takes off until the 3 of them go through the cloud world and into the castle in the sky. There was so many elements there and actually creating believable clouds was a huge technical challenge. We had the technology developing and fortunately we had the artists so it was a matter of time and I always had faith that they were going to get there, but actually when it came right down to dealing with cloud proportions, that was just a tremendous pain. I mean, I have to say, it's one thing to look outside and look at clouds that are miles away and see them beautifully formed and lit but once you're within a few feet of it, it's just fog and so finding a way to make it proportional to the cats without feeling like you were on a sound stage with some dry ice from a cheap old monster movie style, it was tough, it was really tough but I think that we got a lot of depth out of it. Especially with the 3D and the beanstalk is just a character in itself.
DAVID: So you made your way through DreamWorks climbing a ladder, I was wondering if you could talk about the process from starting there to becoming a director.
CHRIS: I started off applying for a job on Antz originally, it's all coming back to me now and I was told by a friend who was working there to ''just bring your work, the guy answering the phones right now is actually a story artist, we're desperate so just come in and go through the motions." I remember showing my portfolio to the head of story and he just threw it and just went ''oh sorry, this is just not going to work out" and I didn't get the job and as I was leaving, I ran into this woman who was assistant of the producer, Aaron Warner and it was the first time I met her, it was Latifa Ouaou and we were just chatting and I mentioned that I didn't get this job and I was about to leave and she was like, ''what are you talking about?'' and she grabbed my portfolio and showed it to the producer who came out a few minutes later and he said ''you're hired, don't worry about that'' but now I realise that Latifa, who was his assistant at the time, she's now producing Puss in Boots so she kind of got me my first job as a story artist and now is complete creative partner on Puss in Boots but being a story artist is, I think, a great way into directing animation because you just get first crack at visualising a screenplay or you're given an outline and it's just a great training ground for writing dialogue, blocking out shots, composition, it's sort of like editing your own material, you get a mini film school with every sequence you do and you really get to learn so much about movie making in general and the process, so I did that on Antz and I did it again on Shrek, I was the head of the story department on Shrek 2 and then directed Shrek the Third.
INTERVIEWER #3: And I guess flowing on from that, now that you're in the director role, there's so many moving parts in a movie like Puss in Boots, there's so many different departments working on different things, how do you even start keeping track of all those things?
CHRIS: It's pretty insane, I mean it's hundreds of people involved, probably about 400-600 at it's peak, it's crazy. It's collaborative, I mean, you have to be really, really open and within that huge organisation, there's a tight creative core when it comes to just designing the film and writing the movie. A team of story artists, I think 5-7 artists at any given time and really, what you end up seeing on the screen, I would say 85% of the content, comes from that group of artists, along with the screen writer, who's supporting them and they're shooting ideas back and forth and our writer, Tom Wheeler, did incredible work and there's myself, my editor and Latifa, my producer and from there, you start building the story, creating the tone and then you get every department on board, understanding singular path and you do that for about 3 years, so it's constantly evolving and you're open to ideas, like I said, coming from any direction but it's pretty amazing when it works because it can definitely fall apart, it can be a fragile thing but when it's working and everyone is understanding what you're going for, it's amazing how that many artists can create work that just, frankly just feeds right into a path. You end up and I think Puss in Boots feels like this, it feels singular, it doesn't feel like there's 150 authors on this movie, you know? It doesn't feel schizophrenic, it worked out, there was a nice chemistry.
In other words, I have no idea how it works (Everybody at the table laughs).
MITCH: Speaking of the content that's in the movie, it's no secret that Puss likes to indulge in a bit of casual catnip every now and then....
CHRIS: (Laughs) Yeah, yeah.... it's for medicinal purposes...
MITCH: Well this is the 2nd time I've seen him busted with it...
CHRIS: It's true. Yeah, he was busted twice by Johnny Law (laughs).
MITCH: Regarding the content, especially the humour that caters to both kids and adults, obviously there's a line to be drawn but has there ever been a joke pitched to you that you felt crossed that line too much?
CHRIS: Yeah..... well, you go on gut, you go on instinct so you think, ''that really crosses the line''. I mean, usually, they're filtered out pretty early. The one joke that was cut out and actually, it would've played great, it was no problem with content and we kept it in there right until the very end but we actually ended up editing some things out just for pacing but there was a joke in there, it's probably not even going to pitch very well in this room, but it was in the scene where Kitty reveals that she doesn't have claws, which is her very heart wrenching story and Puss is very supportive and he used to share, at the end of that sequence, that he too had once lost his claws, only it wasn't his claws that he lost, (Chris implies Puss got neutered) It would cut to this trip to a vet when he was very young and Puss gets really quiet and introspective and Kitty puts it together and then Puss just whispers ''I don't want to talk about it'' (Table laughs) and it was hilarious, it was some of the best animation I've ever seen but I mean who knows, maybe it'll be on the DVD. I mean, that was borderline but it was probably a good thing that it didn't end up in the movie. (Table laughs) I mean, definitely Antonio reading that line was just so (Chris impersonates Antonio), ''what is going on here? Is this what I think it is? This would never happen!'' (Table laughs) It was like a real insult to his manhood so yeah, Puss is not neutered.
MATT: Guillermo Del Toro was the executive producer on the film, what was his input creativity wise?
CHRIS: It was amazing. I mean, just having Guillermo, the way that he came onto the project was just this weird, faded thing. I remember, I was reading, this was all happening in a 24 hour period, I was reading in the trades that he had left The Hobbit, I can't remember what Variety said but I remember thinking, ''that's such a shame. That's the version of that movie that I want to see. Some dark, twisted version of The Hobbit.'' I love his movies and later that day I found out that he was actually in LA, he was at the studios looking around and we happened to be showing the movie to the studio to get notes, you do that every 3 months. They had 20% of the animation done but the story had a good foundation, it had it's legs under it. Guillermo accepted the invitation and saw the movie and said he loved it and asked us if he could work on the movie, ''is there anything I can do? I'd love to be apart of it.'' So, we made him executive producer that day but it was funny, he was like (Chris impersonates Guillermo) ''I don't want to fall in love with the film'' (Table laughs) So I was like ''do you not want to be around? I don't understand.'' We worked out a system where we'd bring him in once every six weeks or when we really just needed him and just show him stuff and let him react, like the giant's castle designs or architecture in town and the guy's just a great creative force because he saw where we were going, what we were shooting for and was just supportive of it, encouraging and always offering suggestions that would make what we had better. He's not the kind of guy that would tear something down and says ''I wouldn't do it like that'', he just sees what's positive in it and just pushes creatively that way. If we were ever stuck, like in the carriage driving scene, just pacing on scenes, it didn't have the pacing down of an action scene, just bring Guillermo in and just sit down with him for like 2 hours and he'll just start cutting and you learn so much and suddenly, you have this beautifully cut scene and then Guillermo would go away. Then we'd call up later and say we were discussing Humpty's character and invite him in and he'd say yeah. Guillermo comes back in and it was great, I think it was great for him because it just kept him creative and nimble and he offered, I thought, a really good solution for Humpty and, it was Guillermo's idea, that Humpty be more of a Da Vinci type character. To show him building stuff, show that side of him because you've got this mastermind, scheming character and you can't visualise that so I thought it was a great way to show his inventiveness. I mean, the guy's a great film maker so whenever we got jammed and then on top of that, he's a perfect executive producer because he was a buffer between the project and the studio. If you ever needed a buffer and the studio were like ''what are they doing??'' with Guillermo there it was just, let them do what they're doing. They loved him, they respect him so much and to me, that's what an executive producer should be, to act as that sort of liaison to the higher up's and he's shooting a movie right now. Didn't see him much in the last 3-4 months, as we were finishing, because he was in preproduction but the guys amazing, it was an honour.
INTERVIEWER #2: One of the things I noticed at the end of the film, the credits, is you have so much postproduction done overseas in India, especially the matte paint. I wondered why that was.
CHRIS: There were sequences done, not just matte painting. There's an Indian animation studio that DreamWorks is in business with and we were the first feature film that they tried to work into a pipeline. 2 sequences in the movie were done entirely in India. With video conferencing in Los Angeles it was definitely a challenge but I think we got there with it and the talent there is amazing, it's a great studio, particularly for broader animation, they're really brilliant. It took longer though because the style is so specific for Puss in Boots and the characterisation but they had 2 scenes in the film, 1 was one of the giants castle scenes before they go over the mote and the other was when Puss wakes up in the desert and the crows are flying over, that was also done in India but they took on everything. They were given the artwork, the production design but they completed 2 sequences. I think they're going to be used more, I think that's DreamWorks intention.
DAVID: How intensive was the voice directing sessions?
CHRIS: They were pretty loose actually, I mean, it's another pretty collaborative situation.
DAVID: I just ask because Antonio Banderas has done the character for a few films now and I know you worked with him in the other Shrek films...
CHRIS: Yeah, he's a total pro, I mean he needs nothing. He needs very little context. Someone like Salma Hayek and Zach Galifanakis even Billy Bob Thornton, it was the first time they'd ever done that, so I think they were little, ''what's going on? We're in a dark room with a microphone and I'm with you?'' and it was funny, to see Billy Bob a little bit nervous but I'm very impressed that he took it. He did it because he'd never done it before, he just wanted to step outside of what he was comfortable doing. He's got an amazing voice, he was fantastic. I just have to create as much context for them and then I do the line readings with them, so I'll play every other character to at least give them something to play off of but, we've got our day, we've got our script stuff and then we've got alt's for almost every line, just to try different stuff. If anybody wants to do improv, if they feel anything, then they're encouraged to do that. They really become apart of the writing process, indirectly because you end up work shopping all that material, you take all that stuff, you go back to the editorial, you cut it in and you start realising what works and what doesn't. You're informed by the performance so you start writing some more material for them and they play a real part of creating those characters.
INTERVIEWER #4: Puss is obviously part of a franchise and it's a very successful franchise and this is the first spin-off of Shrek, so how much freedom is there when you come into a franchise like this to create a whole new story?
CHRIS: Fortunately, we had a ton, I'm so grateful. Even the studio was wanting something new and we were a big proponent of that. We had a character, we knew we could create an entirely new world, new tone and we were pretty big, early on in this thing to not overlap anything Shrek. The association is, he's from that universe and there's a fairytale fabric to it but even that, we want to treat differently and they give us a lot of space and frankly, they let us fall on our faces a few times too without freaking out, it was a really supportive environment.... Does that answer your question by the way? Coz I have a feeling it had nothing to do with what you asked.
INTERVIWER #4: What kind of influences then were you looking at?
CHRIS: 'Legend' was our big sort of theme, like it was going to be an epic origin story so a lot of influence came from cinematic figures, either legendary actors or characters. Like Clint Eastwood, I mean there was a bit of a spaghetti western vibe but to me it's more Clint Eastwood than Sergio Leoni, it's in the fabric. Indiana Jones is in there a bit and James Bond and Errol Flynn, these all just come with the Antonio package but he's in there too. It was that kind of stuff that really influenced style and approach, anything that's sort of supported the character of Puss in Boots.
MITCH: When I was speaking to Salma on the red carpet the other day, she mentioned that she gets filmed when she's in the recording booth and I've heard that a lot. How imperative is it to get their physical reactions and also, how funny is it to watch that tape back afterwards? (Table laughs)
CHRIS: I have never seen the tape now that I think about it, I don't even know what happens to that stuff.
MITCH: DVD extra for sure!
CHRIS: We just treat it as a bit of extra information for the animators but when we're going over dailies or going over shots, we never reference it, we never even look at it. It's there for them to have as they're putting together a shot, if there's some idiosyncrasy, if there's something that one of those guys do consistently that just feels right for the character or yeah, if you catch them just doing something funny, they have it but it's really funny, like we never talk about it. Even, like I said, during dailies, it never comes up so I don't even know how much of that stuff is used. Actually, the animators shoot a lot of personal video reference which is just absurd. I mean, they built, for Humpty, this guy, the lead animator, built a suit, like an egg suit so he could videotape himself acting out scenes, it's really pretty twisted the lengths that some go to (Table laughs). That stuff is funny, they really get a lot of ideas just from each other yeah and they have the video to support.
MITCH: So that gold jumpsuit is out there somewhere.
CHRIS: It is. (Laughs) Actually, it's just a really cheap trash can that's attached to some rope. It's just really... it should be on the DVD or something.
At this point, we'd reached the end of our interview. Chris Miller was a really chilled guy who enjoyed talking about his work just as much as he loved doing it which was awesome. For his latest directorial work, the aforementioned Puss In Boots, check it out in cinemas when it hits screens on December 8.
It was a sunny Sydney day at the Intercontinental Hotel, overlooking the harbour, when 5 writers got together around a table were introduced to animator, writer, producer, voice actor and director Chris Miller. Chris was in town to discuss his latest project, the new DreamWorks 3D animated movie, Puss in Boots. To read the review of Puss in Boots, CLICK HERE and to see all the pics and video from meeting Salma and Antonio at the premiere CLICKETY CLICK HERE.
After he takes his seat and greetings and hand shakes are shared, the interview kicks into gear and this is where we pick up...
MATT: So, the Shrek series has a lot of characters which can potentially all have a spin-off film of their own. What was the decision to make Puss In Boots the first character to branch out with his own film?
CHRIS: I think he made a real splash the first time he appeared in the Shrek movies and was a bit of a scene stealer and the personality that Antonio Banderas poured into that character, I think just made such an impact. His booming voice coming out of this little furry package had such an impact. I think it was just a matter of time, I really do. I mean, even the idea was floating around DreamWorks for a while. It would kind of catch fire and then sort of, maybe dwindle out a little bit but it never went away and some drafts got written... Actually, the producer that's on the film right now, Latifa Ouaou, was just a great creative partner in the making of Puss in Boots. She was on originally, then she kind of rolled off, she produced another movie, Monsters Vs. Aliens and then came back on when I did so, it's been around since 2004, but in that time, I don't think there was really that much consideration for another character from that world.
INTERVIEWER #2: Technically speaking, what would you say was the hardest sequence to do in the film?
CHRIS: Technically? Probably the section of the movie from the time the beanstalk takes off until the 3 of them go through the cloud world and into the castle in the sky. There was so many elements there and actually creating believable clouds was a huge technical challenge. We had the technology developing and fortunately we had the artists so it was a matter of time and I always had faith that they were going to get there, but actually when it came right down to dealing with cloud proportions, that was just a tremendous pain. I mean, I have to say, it's one thing to look outside and look at clouds that are miles away and see them beautifully formed and lit but once you're within a few feet of it, it's just fog and so finding a way to make it proportional to the cats without feeling like you were on a sound stage with some dry ice from a cheap old monster movie style, it was tough, it was really tough but I think that we got a lot of depth out of it. Especially with the 3D and the beanstalk is just a character in itself.
DAVID: So you made your way through DreamWorks climbing a ladder, I was wondering if you could talk about the process from starting there to becoming a director.
CHRIS: I started off applying for a job on Antz originally, it's all coming back to me now and I was told by a friend who was working there to ''just bring your work, the guy answering the phones right now is actually a story artist, we're desperate so just come in and go through the motions." I remember showing my portfolio to the head of story and he just threw it and just went ''oh sorry, this is just not going to work out" and I didn't get the job and as I was leaving, I ran into this woman who was assistant of the producer, Aaron Warner and it was the first time I met her, it was Latifa Ouaou and we were just chatting and I mentioned that I didn't get this job and I was about to leave and she was like, ''what are you talking about?'' and she grabbed my portfolio and showed it to the producer who came out a few minutes later and he said ''you're hired, don't worry about that'' but now I realise that Latifa, who was his assistant at the time, she's now producing Puss in Boots so she kind of got me my first job as a story artist and now is complete creative partner on Puss in Boots but being a story artist is, I think, a great way into directing animation because you just get first crack at visualising a screenplay or you're given an outline and it's just a great training ground for writing dialogue, blocking out shots, composition, it's sort of like editing your own material, you get a mini film school with every sequence you do and you really get to learn so much about movie making in general and the process, so I did that on Antz and I did it again on Shrek, I was the head of the story department on Shrek 2 and then directed Shrek the Third.
INTERVIEWER #3: And I guess flowing on from that, now that you're in the director role, there's so many moving parts in a movie like Puss in Boots, there's so many different departments working on different things, how do you even start keeping track of all those things?
CHRIS: It's pretty insane, I mean it's hundreds of people involved, probably about 400-600 at it's peak, it's crazy. It's collaborative, I mean, you have to be really, really open and within that huge organisation, there's a tight creative core when it comes to just designing the film and writing the movie. A team of story artists, I think 5-7 artists at any given time and really, what you end up seeing on the screen, I would say 85% of the content, comes from that group of artists, along with the screen writer, who's supporting them and they're shooting ideas back and forth and our writer, Tom Wheeler, did incredible work and there's myself, my editor and Latifa, my producer and from there, you start building the story, creating the tone and then you get every department on board, understanding singular path and you do that for about 3 years, so it's constantly evolving and you're open to ideas, like I said, coming from any direction but it's pretty amazing when it works because it can definitely fall apart, it can be a fragile thing but when it's working and everyone is understanding what you're going for, it's amazing how that many artists can create work that just, frankly just feeds right into a path. You end up and I think Puss in Boots feels like this, it feels singular, it doesn't feel like there's 150 authors on this movie, you know? It doesn't feel schizophrenic, it worked out, there was a nice chemistry.
In other words, I have no idea how it works (Everybody at the table laughs).
MITCH: Speaking of the content that's in the movie, it's no secret that Puss likes to indulge in a bit of casual catnip every now and then....
CHRIS: (Laughs) Yeah, yeah.... it's for medicinal purposes...
MITCH: Well this is the 2nd time I've seen him busted with it...
CHRIS: It's true. Yeah, he was busted twice by Johnny Law (laughs).
MITCH: Regarding the content, especially the humour that caters to both kids and adults, obviously there's a line to be drawn but has there ever been a joke pitched to you that you felt crossed that line too much?
CHRIS: Yeah..... well, you go on gut, you go on instinct so you think, ''that really crosses the line''. I mean, usually, they're filtered out pretty early. The one joke that was cut out and actually, it would've played great, it was no problem with content and we kept it in there right until the very end but we actually ended up editing some things out just for pacing but there was a joke in there, it's probably not even going to pitch very well in this room, but it was in the scene where Kitty reveals that she doesn't have claws, which is her very heart wrenching story and Puss is very supportive and he used to share, at the end of that sequence, that he too had once lost his claws, only it wasn't his claws that he lost, (Chris implies Puss got neutered) It would cut to this trip to a vet when he was very young and Puss gets really quiet and introspective and Kitty puts it together and then Puss just whispers ''I don't want to talk about it'' (Table laughs) and it was hilarious, it was some of the best animation I've ever seen but I mean who knows, maybe it'll be on the DVD. I mean, that was borderline but it was probably a good thing that it didn't end up in the movie. (Table laughs) I mean, definitely Antonio reading that line was just so (Chris impersonates Antonio), ''what is going on here? Is this what I think it is? This would never happen!'' (Table laughs) It was like a real insult to his manhood so yeah, Puss is not neutered.
MATT: Guillermo Del Toro was the executive producer on the film, what was his input creativity wise?
CHRIS: It was amazing. I mean, just having Guillermo, the way that he came onto the project was just this weird, faded thing. I remember, I was reading, this was all happening in a 24 hour period, I was reading in the trades that he had left The Hobbit, I can't remember what Variety said but I remember thinking, ''that's such a shame. That's the version of that movie that I want to see. Some dark, twisted version of The Hobbit.'' I love his movies and later that day I found out that he was actually in LA, he was at the studios looking around and we happened to be showing the movie to the studio to get notes, you do that every 3 months. They had 20% of the animation done but the story had a good foundation, it had it's legs under it. Guillermo accepted the invitation and saw the movie and said he loved it and asked us if he could work on the movie, ''is there anything I can do? I'd love to be apart of it.'' So, we made him executive producer that day but it was funny, he was like (Chris impersonates Guillermo) ''I don't want to fall in love with the film'' (Table laughs) So I was like ''do you not want to be around? I don't understand.'' We worked out a system where we'd bring him in once every six weeks or when we really just needed him and just show him stuff and let him react, like the giant's castle designs or architecture in town and the guy's just a great creative force because he saw where we were going, what we were shooting for and was just supportive of it, encouraging and always offering suggestions that would make what we had better. He's not the kind of guy that would tear something down and says ''I wouldn't do it like that'', he just sees what's positive in it and just pushes creatively that way. If we were ever stuck, like in the carriage driving scene, just pacing on scenes, it didn't have the pacing down of an action scene, just bring Guillermo in and just sit down with him for like 2 hours and he'll just start cutting and you learn so much and suddenly, you have this beautifully cut scene and then Guillermo would go away. Then we'd call up later and say we were discussing Humpty's character and invite him in and he'd say yeah. Guillermo comes back in and it was great, I think it was great for him because it just kept him creative and nimble and he offered, I thought, a really good solution for Humpty and, it was Guillermo's idea, that Humpty be more of a Da Vinci type character. To show him building stuff, show that side of him because you've got this mastermind, scheming character and you can't visualise that so I thought it was a great way to show his inventiveness. I mean, the guy's a great film maker so whenever we got jammed and then on top of that, he's a perfect executive producer because he was a buffer between the project and the studio. If you ever needed a buffer and the studio were like ''what are they doing??'' with Guillermo there it was just, let them do what they're doing. They loved him, they respect him so much and to me, that's what an executive producer should be, to act as that sort of liaison to the higher up's and he's shooting a movie right now. Didn't see him much in the last 3-4 months, as we were finishing, because he was in preproduction but the guys amazing, it was an honour.
INTERVIEWER #2: One of the things I noticed at the end of the film, the credits, is you have so much postproduction done overseas in India, especially the matte paint. I wondered why that was.
CHRIS: There were sequences done, not just matte painting. There's an Indian animation studio that DreamWorks is in business with and we were the first feature film that they tried to work into a pipeline. 2 sequences in the movie were done entirely in India. With video conferencing in Los Angeles it was definitely a challenge but I think we got there with it and the talent there is amazing, it's a great studio, particularly for broader animation, they're really brilliant. It took longer though because the style is so specific for Puss in Boots and the characterisation but they had 2 scenes in the film, 1 was one of the giants castle scenes before they go over the mote and the other was when Puss wakes up in the desert and the crows are flying over, that was also done in India but they took on everything. They were given the artwork, the production design but they completed 2 sequences. I think they're going to be used more, I think that's DreamWorks intention.
DAVID: How intensive was the voice directing sessions?
CHRIS: They were pretty loose actually, I mean, it's another pretty collaborative situation.
DAVID: I just ask because Antonio Banderas has done the character for a few films now and I know you worked with him in the other Shrek films...
CHRIS: Yeah, he's a total pro, I mean he needs nothing. He needs very little context. Someone like Salma Hayek and Zach Galifanakis even Billy Bob Thornton, it was the first time they'd ever done that, so I think they were little, ''what's going on? We're in a dark room with a microphone and I'm with you?'' and it was funny, to see Billy Bob a little bit nervous but I'm very impressed that he took it. He did it because he'd never done it before, he just wanted to step outside of what he was comfortable doing. He's got an amazing voice, he was fantastic. I just have to create as much context for them and then I do the line readings with them, so I'll play every other character to at least give them something to play off of but, we've got our day, we've got our script stuff and then we've got alt's for almost every line, just to try different stuff. If anybody wants to do improv, if they feel anything, then they're encouraged to do that. They really become apart of the writing process, indirectly because you end up work shopping all that material, you take all that stuff, you go back to the editorial, you cut it in and you start realising what works and what doesn't. You're informed by the performance so you start writing some more material for them and they play a real part of creating those characters.
INTERVIEWER #4: Puss is obviously part of a franchise and it's a very successful franchise and this is the first spin-off of Shrek, so how much freedom is there when you come into a franchise like this to create a whole new story?
CHRIS: Fortunately, we had a ton, I'm so grateful. Even the studio was wanting something new and we were a big proponent of that. We had a character, we knew we could create an entirely new world, new tone and we were pretty big, early on in this thing to not overlap anything Shrek. The association is, he's from that universe and there's a fairytale fabric to it but even that, we want to treat differently and they give us a lot of space and frankly, they let us fall on our faces a few times too without freaking out, it was a really supportive environment.... Does that answer your question by the way? Coz I have a feeling it had nothing to do with what you asked.
INTERVIWER #4: What kind of influences then were you looking at?
CHRIS: 'Legend' was our big sort of theme, like it was going to be an epic origin story so a lot of influence came from cinematic figures, either legendary actors or characters. Like Clint Eastwood, I mean there was a bit of a spaghetti western vibe but to me it's more Clint Eastwood than Sergio Leoni, it's in the fabric. Indiana Jones is in there a bit and James Bond and Errol Flynn, these all just come with the Antonio package but he's in there too. It was that kind of stuff that really influenced style and approach, anything that's sort of supported the character of Puss in Boots.
MITCH: When I was speaking to Salma on the red carpet the other day, she mentioned that she gets filmed when she's in the recording booth and I've heard that a lot. How imperative is it to get their physical reactions and also, how funny is it to watch that tape back afterwards? (Table laughs)
CHRIS: I have never seen the tape now that I think about it, I don't even know what happens to that stuff.
MITCH: DVD extra for sure!
CHRIS: We just treat it as a bit of extra information for the animators but when we're going over dailies or going over shots, we never reference it, we never even look at it. It's there for them to have as they're putting together a shot, if there's some idiosyncrasy, if there's something that one of those guys do consistently that just feels right for the character or yeah, if you catch them just doing something funny, they have it but it's really funny, like we never talk about it. Even, like I said, during dailies, it never comes up so I don't even know how much of that stuff is used. Actually, the animators shoot a lot of personal video reference which is just absurd. I mean, they built, for Humpty, this guy, the lead animator, built a suit, like an egg suit so he could videotape himself acting out scenes, it's really pretty twisted the lengths that some go to (Table laughs). That stuff is funny, they really get a lot of ideas just from each other yeah and they have the video to support.
MITCH: So that gold jumpsuit is out there somewhere.
CHRIS: It is. (Laughs) Actually, it's just a really cheap trash can that's attached to some rope. It's just really... it should be on the DVD or something.
At this point, we'd reached the end of our interview. Chris Miller was a really chilled guy who enjoyed talking about his work just as much as he loved doing it which was awesome. For his latest directorial work, the aforementioned Puss In Boots, check it out in cinemas when it hits screens on December 8.
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