I made a film that was impossible to make, but I didn't know it was impossible, and that's how I was able to do it.
Napravio sam film koji je bilo nemoguće napraviti, ali pošto ja nisam znao da je to nemoguće ipak sam uspeo.
"Mars et Avril" is a science fiction film. It's set in Montreal some 50 years in the future. No one had done that kind of movie in Quebec before because it's expensive, it's set in the future, and it's got tons of visual effects, and it's shot on green screen. Yet this is the kind of movie that I wanted to make ever since I was a kid, really, back when I was reading some comic books and dreaming about what the future might be.
"Mars i Avril" je naučno-fantastični film. Smešten je u Montreal, nekih 50 godina u budućnosti. Niko ranije nije napravio ovakav film u Kvebeku jer je skup, smešten u budućnost, ima gomilu vizuelnih efekata i sniman je na zelenoj podlozi. Ipak, želeo sam da napravim takav film još otkad sam bio dete, zaista, dok sam čitao stripove i maštao o tome kakva bi budućnost mogla da bude.
When American producers see my film, they think that I had a big budget to do it, like 23 million. But in fact I had 10 percent of that budget. I did "Mars et Avril" for only 2.3 million.
Kada američki producenti vide moj film, misle da sam imao veliki budžet za njega, poput 23 miliona. U stvari sam imao 10% tog budžeta. Napravio sam "Mars i Avril" sa 2,3 miliona.
So you might wonder, what's the deal here? How did I do this? Well, it's two things. First, it's time. When you don't have money, you must take time, and it took me seven years to do "Mars et Avril." The second aspect is love. I got tons and tons of generosity from everyone involved. And it seems like every department had nothing, so they had to rely on our creativity and turn every problem into an opportunity.
Možda se pitate u čemu je stvar? Kako sam uspeo? Dve stvari su u pitanju. Prva je vreme. Kada nemate novac, morate uložiti vreme. Trebalo mi je 7 godina da snimim film. Drugi aspekt je ljubav. Svi sa kojima sam radio bili su više nego predusretljivi. Izgledalo je kao da nemamo ništa i da moramo da se oslonimo na našu kreativnost i pretvorimo svaki problem u priliku.
And that brings me to the point of my talk, actually, how constraints, big creative constraints, can boost creativity.
I ovo me dovodi do suštine mog govora: kako ograničenja mogu pospešiti kreativnost.
But let me go back in time a bit. In my early 20s, I did some graphic novels, but they weren't your usual graphic novels. They were books telling a science fiction story through images and text, and most of the actors who are now starring in the movie adaptation, they were already involved in these books portraying characters into a sort of experimental, theatrical, simplistic way.
Ali, dozvolite da se vratim malo unazad. U mojim ranim 20-im radio sam neke ilustrovane romane ali to nisu bili uobičajeni ilustrovani romani. To su bile knjige koje pričaju naučno-fantastičnu priču kroz slike i tekst i mnogi glumci koji danas glume u filmskim adaptacijama tih romana, već su bili uključeni u portretizaciju likova u ovim knjigama na eksperimentalan, teatralni, pojednostavljen način.
And one of these actors is the great stage director and actor Robert Lepage. And I just love this guy. I've been in love with this guy since I was a kid. His career I admire a lot. And I wanted this guy to be involved in my crazy project, and he was kind enough to lend his image to the character of Eugène Spaak, who is a cosmologist and artist who seeks relation in between time, space, love, music and women. And he was a perfect fit for the part, and Robert is actually the one who gave me my first chance. He was the one who believed in me and encouraged me to do an adaptation of my books into a film, and to write, direct, and produce the film myself.
Jedan od tih glumaca je veliki reditelj i glumac - Robert Lepaž. Ja jednostavno volim ovog čoveka. Obožavam ga otkad sam bio dete. Divim se njegovoj karijeri. I želeo sam da on bude uključen u moj suludi projekat i on je bio dovoljno ljubazan da pozajmi svoj izgled liku Uženu Spaku, koji je kosmolog i umetnik koji traži vezu između vremena, prostora, ljubavi, muzike i žena. On se savršeno uklapao u tu ulogu. Robert je, zapravo, prvi koji mi je pružio šansu. On je verovao u mene i ohrabrio me da svoje knjige adaptiram u film, da napišem scenario, režiram i produciram film sam.
And Robert is actually the very first example of how constraints can boost creativity. Because this guy is the busiest man on the planet. I mean, his agenda is booked until 2042, and he's really hard to get, and I wanted him to be in the movie, to reprise his role in the movie. But the thing is, had I waited for him until 2042, my film wouldn't be a futuristic film anymore, so I just couldn't do that. Right? But that's kind of a big problem. How do you get somebody who is too busy to star in a movie?
Robert je zapravo prvi primer kako ograničenja mogu pospešiti kreativnost. Jer on je najzauzetiji čovek na planeti. Hoću reći, ima ugovorene poslove do 2042. i zaista je teško doći do njega, a ja sam želeo da bude u mom filmu da ponovi svoju ulogu. Ali stvar je u tome da ako bih ga čekao do 2042. moj film više ne bi bio futuristički pa nisam mogao to da uradim, zar ne? Ali to je prilično veliki problem. Kako učiniti da neko ko je toliko zauzet glumi i u filmu?
Well, I said as a joke in a production meeting -- and this is a true story, by the way — I said, "Why don't we turn this guy into a hologram? Because, you know, he is everywhere and nowhere on the planet at the same time, and he's an illuminated being in my mind, and he's in between reality and virtual reality, so it would make perfect sense to turn this guy into a hologram."
Pa, rekao sam kroz šalu na produkcijskom sastanku, i, usput, ovo je istinita priča, rekao sam: "Zašto ne pretvorimo ovog lika u hologram? Jer, znate, on je svugde i nigde na planeti u isto vreme. U mojim mislima on je prosvetljeno biće između stvarnosti i virtualne realnosti, tako da bi imalo tako mnogo smisla pretvoriti ga u hologram."
Everybody around the table laughed, but the joke was kind of a good solution, so that's what we ended up doing.
Svi za stolom su se nasmejali, ali šala je bila moguće dobro rešenje i to je upravo ono što smo na kraju uradili.
Here's how we did it. We shot Robert with six cameras. He was dressed in green and he was like in a green aquarium. Each camera was covering 60 degrees of his head, so that in post-production we could use pretty much any angle we needed, and we shot only his head. Six months later there was a guy on set, a mime portraying the body, the vehicle for the head. And he was wearing a green hood so that we could erase the green hood in postproduction and replace it with Robert Lepage's head. So he became like a renaissance man, and here's what it looks like in the movie.
Evo i kako. Snimili smo Roberta sa 6 kamera. Bio je obučen u zeleno i kao da je bio u zelenom akvarijumu. Svaka kamera je pokrivala 60 stepeni njegove glave, tako da smo u post-produkciji mogli da koristimo gotovo svaki ugao koji nam je trebao, a snimali smo samo njegovu glavu. Šest mesci kasnije snimali smo čoveka, mimičara koji je predstavljao telo - prevozno sredstvo za glavu. On je nosio zelenu kapuljaču koju smo mogli da uklonimo u post-produkciji i zamenimo je Robertovom glavom. Izgledao je kao čovek iz doba renesanse, a evo kako je izgledao u filmu.
(Music)
(Muzika)
(Video) Robert Lepage: [As usual, Arthur's drawing didn't account for the technical challenges. I welded the breech, but the valve is still gaping. I tried to lift the pallets to lower the pressure in the sound box, but I might have hit a heartstring. It still sounds too low.] Jacques Languirand: [That's normal. The instrument always ends up resembling its model.] (Music)
(Video) Robert Lepaž: [Kao i obično, Arturovi crteži se nisu pozabavili tehničkim izazovima. Zavario sam zatvarač ali ventil i dalje ne naleže. Pokušao sam da podignem palete kako bih smanjio pritisak u zvučnoj kutiji ali sam možda zakačio zvučnu nit. I dalje zvuči previše tiho.] Žak Langirand: [To je u redu. Instrument uvek na kraju oponaša svoj model.] (Muzika)
Martin Villeneuve: Now these musical instruments that you see in this excerpt, they're my second example of how constraints can boost creativity, because I desperately needed these objects in my movie. They are objects of desire. They are imaginary musical instruments. And they carry a nice story with them. Actually, I knew what these things would look like in my mind for many, many years. But my problem was, I didn't have the money to pay for them. I couldn't afford them. So that's kind of a big problem too. How do you get something that you can't afford?
Martin Vilnev: Ovi muzički instrumenti koje ste videli u odlomku predstavljaju drugi primer kako ograničenja mogu poboljšati kreativnost, jer su mi očajno bili potrebni ovi predmeti u filmu. Oni su predmet želje. Oni su zamišljeni muzički instrumenti koji sa sobom nose lepu priču. Zapravo, znao sam kako će oni izgledati, u mojoj glavi, već mnogo, mnogo godina. Ali, problem je bio što nisam imao novca da ih platim. Nisam mogao da ih priuštim. A to je takođe veliki problem. Kako dobiti nešto što ne možeš da priuštiš?
And, you know, I woke up one morning with a pretty good idea. I said, "What if I have somebody else pay for them?" (Laughter)
Ali, jednog jutra sam se probudio sa jako dobrom idejom. Rekao sam: "Šta ako ih neko drugi plati?" (Smeh)
But who on Earth would be interested by seven not-yet-built musical instruments inspired by women's bodies? And I thought of Cirque du Soleil in Montreal, because who better to understand the kind of crazy poetry that I wanted to put on screen? So I found my way to Guy Laliberté, Cirque du Soleil's CEO, and I presented my crazy idea to him with sketches like this and visual references, and something pretty amazing happened. Guy was interested by this idea not because I was asking for his money, but because I came to him with a good idea in which everybody was happy. It was kind of a perfect triangle in which the art buyer was happy because he got the instruments at a cheaper price, because they weren't even made. He took a leap of faith. And the artist, Dominique Engel, brilliant guy, he was happy too because he had a dream project to work on for a year. And obviously I was happy because I got the instruments in my film for free, which was kind of what I tried to do. So here they are.
Ali koga bi uopšte interesovalo sedam još nenapravljenih muzičkih instrumenata inspirisanih ženskim telima? Na pamet mi je pao Sirk de Solei u Montrealu, jer ko bi drugi bolje razumeo tu vrstu sulude poezije koju sam želeo na ekranu? Dakle, kontaktirao sam menadžera Sirka, Gija Lalibertija i predstavio mu svoju ludu ideju sa ovakvim skicama i očiglednim prilozima i nešto prilično neverovatno se dogodilo. Gi je bio zainteresovan za moju ideju ne zato što sam od njega tražio novac, već zato što sam došao kod njega sa dobrom idejom i svi su bili srećni. Bio je to savršen trougao u kome je kupac bio srećan jer dobija instrumente jeftino zato što još nisu napravljeni. Pokazao je malo vere. Umetnik, Dominik Engel, izuzetan lik, bio je srećan jer je dobio projekat iz snova na kome će raditi godinu dana. I, očigledno, ja sam bio srećan jer sam dobio instrumente besplatno, što sam, otprilike, i pokušavao da uradim. I, evo ih.
And my last example of how constraints can boost creativity comes from the green, because this is a weird color, a crazy color, and you need to replace the green screens eventually and you must figure that out sooner rather than later. And I had, again, pretty much, ideas in my mind as to what the world would be, but then again I turned to my childhood imagination and went to the work of Belgian comic book master François Schuiten in Belgium. And this guy is another guy I admire a lot, and I wanted him to be involved in the movie as a production designer. But people told me, you know, Martin, it's impossible, the guy is too busy and he will say no. Well, I said, you know what, instead of mimicking his style, I might as well call the real guy and ask him, and I sent him my books, and he answered that he was interested in working on the film with me because he could be a big fish in a small aquarium. In other words, there was space for him to dream with me. So here I was with one of my childhood heroes, drawing every single frame that's in the film to turn that into Montreal in the future. And it was an amazing collaboration to work with this great artist whom I admire.
Moj posldenji primer kako ograničenja mogu da podstaknu kreativnost u vezi je sa zelenom bojom. Ovo je čudna, luda boja i morate zameniti zelene ekrane u nekom trenutku i bolje da to shvatite ranije nego kasnije. Ja sam u svojoj glavi imao ideju kako bi svet trebalo da izgleda ali onda sam se ponovo vratio svojim dečačkim maštanjima i okrenuo se radu belgijskog strip majstora Fransoa Shejtena. Ovo je još jedan čovek kome se divim i želeo sam da bude uključen u film kao scenograf. Ali ostali su mi rekli: "Znaš, Martine, to je nemoguće. Čovek je prezauzet i odbiće te." Dobro, rekao sam, umesto što bih oponašao njegov stil, mogao bih da ga pozovem i pitam. Poslao sam mu svoje knjige i odgovorio je da je zainteresovan da radi na filmu sa mnom jer može da bude velika riba u maloj bari. Drugačije rečeno, bilo je prostora za njega da sanja sa mnom. I eto me sa jednim od mojih junaka iz detinjstva, crtali smo svaki pojedinačni kadar iz filma kako bismo to pretvorili u Montreal iz budućnosti. Bilo je odlično sarađivati sa izuzetnim umetnikom kojem sam se divio.
But then, you know, eventually you have to turn all these drawings into reality. So, again, my solution was to aim for the best possible artist that I could think of. And there's this guy in Montreal, another Quebecois called Carlos Monzon, and he's a very good VFX artist. This guy had been lead compositor on such films as "Avatar" and "Star Trek" and "Transformers," and other unknown projects like this, and I knew he was the perfect fit for the job, and I had to convince him, and, instead of working on the next Spielberg movie, he accepted to work on mine. Why? Because I offered him a space to dream. So if you don't have money to offer to people, you must strike their imagination with something as nice as you can think of.
Ali, na kraju, morate da pretvorite sve te crteže u stvarnost. I, ponovo, želeo sam najboljeg mogućeg umetnika koji bi mi pao na pamet. Pomislio sam na još jednog lika iz Montreala, Karlosa Monzona koji je jako dobar sa vizuelnim efektima. On je bio glavni montažer u filmovima kao što su "Avatar", "Zvezdane staze" , "Transformersi" i još nekim manje poznatim projektima, tako da sam znao da je on savršen za ovaj posao. Morao sam da ga ubedim da umesto da radi na sledećem Spilbergovom filmu prihvati da radi na mom. Zašto? Zato što sam mu ponudio prostor da sanja. Dakle, ako nemate da ponudite novac ljudima, morate da zagolicate njihovu maštu sa nečim neverovatno dobrim.
So this is what happened on this movie, and that's how it got made, and we went to this very nice postproduction company in Montreal called Vision Globale, and they lent their 60 artists to work full time for six months to do this crazy film.
To se događalo sa ovim filmom i tako je snimljen, otišli smo u jako dobru postprodukcijsku kuću, Vision Global u Montrealu, i oni su nam dali 60 umetnika koji su radili na filmu puno radno vreme, tokom 6 meseci.
So I want to tell you that, if you have some crazy ideas in your mind, and that people tell you that it's impossible to make, well, that's an even better reason to want to do it, because people have a tendency to see the problems rather than the final result, whereas if you start to deal with problems as being your allies rather than your opponents, life will start to dance with you in the most amazing way. I have experienced it. And you might end up doing some crazy projects, and who knows, you might even end up going to Mars.
Želim da vam kažem da ako imate neke lude ideje u svojoj glavi, a svi vam govore da je nemoguće ostvariti ih, pa, to je razlog više da želite da ih ostvarite. Ljudi imaju sklonost da se fokusiraju na probleme pre nego na konačan rezultat. Ali ako počnete da posmatrate probleme kao svoje saveznike, a ne protivnike, život će postati mnogo zabavniji na najčudesniji način. Iskusio sam to. A možda ćete i vi početi da radite neke nemoguće projekte i, ko zna, možda ćete čak završiti na Marsu.
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)