because we have a limited time I've pages and pages of students but I'm gonna try to jam it
all into one big long question for you so what I'd love is if you could discuss developing both
cinematically and literally the alien language and if you can mix into that your relationship
with denis villeneuve our direct dear director who you've got a long-term relationship with and
how you arrived at a lot of the shapes and the you know take whatever of that Wow that
said it's a huge question okay we we started the journey of arrival a bit before we started
the pre-production on on Sicario actually and we actually did not know we were gonna do a sci-fi
movie but I happened to be in LA and I visited a LACMA and there was an exhibit of James Turrell
so that's part one part two at the same moment Denis the nerve is in New York City with his
girlfriend and they they go to the Guggenheim and they see James Turrell exhibit alright so
now we're on on the pre-production during Sicario and we talk about art as we always do and said you
know what there's an amazing exhibit that I said the LACMA and I and he goes I saw same artists
in New York and said well if ever we do a sci-fi I think it should be you know the the thing that
should ignite our discussion this I totally agree okay cut after after Sicario and we start prepping
and we did we were lucky enough we had 14 our producers gave us 14 weeks of soft prep just to
throw ideas around like play ping-pong then he and during that that period we came up with the
the idea of the shell of the spaceship we tried many different shapes there was an even austere
shape because Danny and I love oysters and we said maybe that could be so right interesting
yeah exactly I should have kept all the receipts and that's what you're saying ya gotta be thinking
man all the time they're not always buying for us so so we tried many many shapes and one day then
he said that iiiii in my research I saw this this exoplanet around venus and it's it's oval shape
it's called yumiya and so we looked at no oval that's that's pretty interesting so we decided
that our ship was gonna be oval and made out of rock they're made out of rock was a very early
idea and we we decided to put it vertical and then I had the stupid idea to hey let's not let's not
have it land let's let's have it over ring over the earth they say yeah but how do they get in
hey let's use a scissor lift so the knee looks at me goes are you out of your mind and I say well
you know let's let's you know let's let's draw it up is let's see what it looks you know so so
we add the orange asmath suit and yet these guys on a scissor lift and in the first drawings and
and the shape layer is and then we you know and uh under sketchup the illustrations we were like hmm
the oval it's a bit boring so let's so we put it concave we pushed it inside and we just along did
it along did thank you and we saw from from from that idea okay we get in but in the script it's a
long corridor so it's okay that's not a shaft I'm sorry Danny so we had the idea of like okay let's
let's create the idea behind the did the 28 feet above the hovering above the ground was to have
the human beings do the extra mile for that first encounter because we thought it was interesting it
was supporting this story and the short story as well their script in the short story concept and
then in then inside we decided to put two like to do a gravity shift which was like the leap of
faith for the human beings and the interior of the ship became like sediment rocks to represent the
wisdom and the and the layers of history that that and time that that culture had and then
we decided to use the same concept of the ship with Louise Amy Adams characters house and where
she you saw it in the in at the beginning in the preview there so that big window you know so just
like in the interview chamber where they mediate the pods and we also apply that principle to the
University where she teaches so you do remember but in that you saw that and we used a university
that was brutalist architecture so to have the all the lines and the you know in the concrete
like that in the texture and yeah so what can I say more oh yeah and the interior of the ship is
black and the inter that tenses white so there's the contrast the interiors very minimalist and it
was we wanted to have the the convey the idea that it was a like a Buddhist temple very very Zen as
opposed to where the humans are in the tents it's white it's it's over there's a lots of
wires exposed wire that Paul did all the computer screens and it's total chaos because we're humans
and we cannot deal with the stress of adding aliens visiting us on a rainy Tuesday morning
and besides that the one of the big big challenge we had was the language and we tried many things
we spoke to many a specialist language specialist and it was always always very human and we wanted
to if we wanted the language to be just like the ship something very alien looking and very
different from from Ewan technology and I was hitting a wall and my lovely wife was an artist
IMATS andhaka decided she said can I help you is it yeah I think I need help and you know just just
a bit like the movie you'd said sir we need help from others and and she came up with these the
aesthetics of the logogram all these circles and it was wonderful and we said that Eureka we found
the language Danny right so then on we their stories about how we made the language a real
language reducing all the like dividing it with just like a pie like it just like a pie you know
pie pieces by slice and so we made a dictionary so and yeah and Antonia Deniz is a wonderful
person and we love working with him and he's working with Danny it's a collaborative effort
and he's the furthest away from a dictator he's just a sweetest guy ever and everybody
is entitled to to their ideas because doing he understands that making a film is a team effort
and there's a lot of people involved and even the head of departments we rely on our team and that's
that that's that's the beauty of moviemaking it's taming the Beast which is the which is the script
and trying to make it always make it better well Jan you got an answer as long as your question
anything to add they were rehearsing this upfront so this is this was not improper improvisation it
was but um both to to both of you gentlemen what aspects of this story's realization most sort of
challenged you guys it ultimately gave you the most satisfaction in solving because there's a
lot of logistics you're creating science of linguistics the science of time and space
you're dealing with the realities of emergency and civil response to phenomenon that we only see in
movies we never experienced in real life and so that's a lot of different parts both as we talk
about organic and nurturing and very linear and destructive or conflictive and I'm just
curious how you guys serve broke down the work and pulled all those parts together and what was
your hurrah or what was your Waterloo reading and reading back the script first thing yeah
that's one thing so I've written the script about four times before knowing where I was
going and I had time to with pectus as well we had like a two weeks ten days just together no
teammates coming in yet so we had time to talk to see possibilities and everything and all of
that and afterwards well we've got into for myself dressing wise into the military part
because for dressing wise it was a big part of the movie and when you talk about logistic it
was big logistic because we started with partly studio and then had to think about going away
with all of the same elements so both being used at the same almost at the same time so this was
organization logistic with our dressers and all of that a lot of research has to be done as for
all of what you see on screen everything military since I don't have a military background I had to
learn at the same time that type of language and everything in a situation we have to figure out
with batteries and Denis what kind of situation an emergency and for Daniel was always the same
we're coming back it's reality I don't want to change anything from what it was supposed to be
if military people will be intervening so that's the way we approach that part without end but
at the same time you have to think about other sets as well so it is the district coordination
administration it's all of that and you there's a lot of in going politics that we have to organize
what people and all of budget it's a something very important for us to risk and we did not have
a huge budget this has that's it that the kind of movie we started that it wasn't a big-budget movie
so we had to figure out different ways of using several elements several times the same way not
the same way but different ways in all of that so that's the way just an example on the tent we've
purchased and we had they came one tent came with interior white lightning but these guys had the
flashing hey but let's make all of the tent with interior lining oops budget issue so we have to
figure out something else and we did and we've done it so an example yeah we're actually at
that magic time so yeah no I'm sorry no but it was a great answer you get ladies and gentlemen
so can we run our next clip ps4 fantastic beasts