Original subtitles

I have this really deep love for war movies, in particular World War I I movies.

FARELL: We lost Germany.

We lost France.

- If we lose today. . . - Oh , my God .

FARELL: . . .we won't get to fight another. - The film is epic.

It's like the landing at Normandy, one of the turning points of World War I I .

Referencing World War I I brings a reality to it.

I didn't so much look at it as a science fiction movie.

It worked on the most basic level as a war movie.

LI MAN : Every version of the screenplay always started with a massive battle on a beach .

And when I decided to make the film ...

...I thought, no point being subtle about it...

...let's make a massive battle on the Normandy Beach .

The point is, you wanna kind of do that romantic war movie.

MAN : Action !

CRU ISE: It's inspired by World War I I even from the design , the wardrobe...

...and the structure of it being there on the beaches of Normandy...

...and it is a nightmare for this person .

You're going the wrong way.

You're gonna miss your moment.

So we went out and sought people who kind of had that viewpoint.

And we brought in Oliver Scholl , with whom Doug had worked before.

We kind of looked more at Saving Private Ryan...

...or these kind of movies, older war movies to say what is the feel of these...

...and how can we get that into our movie...

...without becoming science fiction but becoming about those soldiers fighting .

So once we found ourselves there...

...then the aesthetic of the movie began to really be affected by it...

...and it became a very, very reality-based aesthetic.

We came up with sort of a design metaphor for the world that it's set in .

The phrase was "World War I I of the future."

My experience making films prior to this had been one very much of shooting on location ...

...in real environments, suddenly I get to England ...

...and we would scout real locations and sort of sat on it...

...and then my producers and Kim Winther, my first A. D...

...said , you know, it would be more efficient if we built that beach on the back lot.

It's enormously helpful to be on what has essentially been a back lot studio.

Let's have the control , let's be able to manage with the stunts and the crane work...

...and the exo-suits on a controlled environment.

- That's what I like. Yeah . MAN : Yeah .

When I got to Leavesden here and started seeing the sets being built...

...and some of the models and some of the pre-vis...

...I was thinking , "My gosh , this is gonna be gnarly."

LI MAN : Three hundred feet by 300 feet, with a whole water part of it...

...where the ocean's coming lapping in and dunes on the other end ...

...and just this massive playground and we can do anything we wanna do...

...with explosions or big trenches.

SCHOLL: You can't portray the speed of a creature...

...if you have not enough space to move around .

You need to have a certain scale of portraying , like, a giant alien invasion .

So the beach set had to be big .

We had massive scenes on a beach where you have tremendous amount of guys...

...in these exo-suits.

And then , you have the action team that, kind of, come up with what we're going for.

[ALL SHOUTI NG]

I basically have two directors, I have myself and Simon .

And Simon's a brilliant d irector.

The role of the second unit director is to sort of come up with the action ...

...dream how it's gonna look and then hopefully go and shoot it.

There's CG hovercraft, CG cars exploding ...

...we'll have people, we'll have a couple of people running on , really, on fire...

...you know, blasting away. Flares, missiles going off, explosions going off.

LI MAN : I'd say, within two days the whole thing had just turned into basically a giant mud pit.

We'd see people wheeling equipment and everything was just always stuck in the mud ...

...leaving the monitors to go talk to an actor...

...was, like, this physical act of exertion ...

...because you'd be stuck in the mud and you'd have to like, dig ...

...and try to get your foot out without leaving your boot behind .

S I LVER: It was a quite an incredible experience.

Qu ite difficult too, it turned into mud very quickly.

And so to keep the sand fresh and the set dressing alive...

...and the costumes operating was a great challenge.

I think the beach got the nickname The Bitch ...

...by the end of the seven weeks that we were on it.

I think anytime you work in sand , I mean , we've all gone for a walk on the beach ...

...and you come home with aching ankles and feet...

...and it's very different when you're carrying an 85-pound suit...

...and trying to run up trenches.

[SHOUTS]

Basically, it puts you into a situation ...

...where almost every single shot's gonna be a visual effect.

You have to extend everything , put the armies in , put the ocean in , put the sand dunes in .

And that's before you even start thinking about the creatures and additional army.

LI MAN : This film was gonna be such a crazy marriage...

...of CG characters and CG world and real action .

And Nick really got it and really helped guide Simon Crane and myself through that.

I'm telling Nick that the shot has to tell the story.

So I have to see the alien come up in the shot.

[SQU EALI NG]

[M EN SCREAM I NG]

DAVIS : Then onto the beach we built the set.

Sort of 300 square foot of sand dunes.

And we surrou nded it with green screens basically...

...I think we had about 1000 foot of green screen out there about 30 feet high .

We're there just to cover it, capture all the light data and information ...

...using , you know, special cameras that give us 360 degree photographs...

...you know, with full dynamic range...

...so that later on the computer artists can then re-create the lighting of each sequence.

And that enables us in post production to be able to light our digital sets very accurately...

...and match the practical photography.

I can basically use one reference camera...

...and pan it around and see what the world would look like.

And then you have to go shoot with these other cameras and you're just seeing green ...

...but you have to sort of keep in the back of your mind what it's going to look like...

...you know, based on the sort of virtual scout you did .

The film just does not look like a CG movie because these sets were all real ...

...and they really did the crazy things they do in the story...

...they actually did for real .

When you're doing the action , it's not just about doing the action ...

...it's performance, it's-- You've gotta think about a million different things.

It's the recovering from the event for a split second and then ...

-...realize that this thing is going nuts on you . - Great.

CRU ISE: You have to be on top of it, chase the tone and chase the scenes.

Things sometimes you think are gonna work, they don't...

...or things that you're not sure of actually work better.

CAGE : Behind you !

Look out!

PAXTON : I've been in a lot of big movies that had a lot of effects sequences...

...but this thing , when they start setting off this stuff...

There might be 25 explosions and rockets going off in any one take.

You really don't have to use your imagination at all .

You're just reacting to what they're physically doing .

[MAN SHOUTS]

PAXTON : That's been pretty easy to play off of.

Whereas the mimic, you know-- You're turning to see the mimic, well , is it--?

Wait a minute. Where I'm standing , would it be like this or is it there?

You just have to kind of know.

MAN : Cut it.

- Yeah , good , it was perfect. Yeah , it was fun . - Sure?

CRU ISE: I was going back and forth within the action .

Sometimes I'd be on first unit all night then second unit during the day...

...just to be able to accomplish what it is we wanted to accomplish .

CRAN E : It's great that we throw ideas at each other...

...and , you know, it gets bigger or gets smaller...

...but it gets better, it always gets better.

LI MAN : Simon and I were doing the exact same level of work...

...so those second unit days were just as valuable as my first unit days.

SOLDI ER: Hey, sarge, the new guy...

...what's his name again?