- So we started experimenting with the idea
of this thing that we started to call Katie-vision.
We found it as a way to highlight her emotions.
We're about to break down the secrets of Katie-vision.
(techno music)
The Mitchells VS The Machines is about a very normal
relatable family that's put in a kind of
crazy position where
they find themselves needing to fight the robots
in this robot apocalypse.
(upbeat music)
She's our main character.
- [Katie] I'm Katie.
I'm sort of a weirdo.
My parents haven't figured me out yet.
- Katie-vision as a concept
kind of came when we were getting closer
to finalizing her design, figuring out who she was.
She felt very obviously like a creative person
and so we just really wanted to look
like she's finding ways to create, all over the place.
- [Katie] I've always felt a little
different than everyone else.
- It's a mixed of 2D animation,
and really collaging a lot.
There's a burger, there's just a photo of a burger.
She found a stock photo online.
A photo of a Pug kind of mixed in with 2D.
- There you go.
Look at you!
(microwave explodes)
- To illustrate Katie-vision, further.
I'm gonna add it on to a shot
that didn't originally have it.
So, this feels like it could have been a good opportunity
to have done some Katie-vision.
Here, this is a great example, too.
Where in the lighting, the lighting team did a lot
of really cool graphic things too.
This gives me a really great playground
to kind of build on top of it.
So, I can kind of create a new layer, which is a frame,
and then I can just draw directly on it.
Maybe this is a drone, it knows it's gonna be defeated.
Maybe I'll give it eyes and maybe it looks really nervous.
We had an artist create,
this kind of font that we've used to hide messages
'cause wherever there is a screen
we'd usually use some hidden message.
I've seen some people on Twitter have started to decode it.
We'd always try to capture the humor of the movie.
(upbeat music)
- Look at you!
(microwave explodes)
- Nice. It looks pretty good.
- Mom!
This is just like in a movie.
(laser gun beams)
Wrong movie, terrible choice!
Hey there.
(Katie screams)
- A lot of the time Katie-vision is emphasizing
like a positive emotion
but it's also kind of emphasizing like an extreme one.
There's a lot of little texts and jokes.
She had just tried to pull something off and it didn't work.
So it's fun to kind of see her poking fun at herself.
So as an example of rough layout where they're
they're doing rough blocking of character position,
really rough animation and figuring out the camera moves.
And so at this stage in the process
I'd spot a sequence to see
are there any opportunities here for a Katie-vision moment?
So you can see in this shot, it's just drawing lines in
but it was enough to kind of talk
through with the director about
"Does this feel good? Is this something
you'd want to pursue?"
- [Robot] Who are these unstoppable warriors?
- [Katie] We're the Mitchell's.
The only people who can save the world.
Super sorry, everyone.
- We worked out Katie-vision in a lot of different ways.
Sometimes it came from storyboards.
Sometimes it came from
like a napkin sketch from our director.
This is one that the storyboard team blocked in.
The Worst Family of All Time texts.
And we're just kind of embellishing
that in design with how Katie sees her family.
There's a lot of kind of wandering thoughts and doodles
adding little hidden text and details
so that it feels like she's really
sitting there and having a fun time with it.
- I can't wait for you guys to see my new movie.
- [Lindsey] This kind of movie piece we
did is Katie's goodbye video.
It's a movie that she's made to say goodbye
to her family before going off
to college and something she's really proud of.
And it's supposed to feel
like someone Katie's age is making it.
Katie-vision film style is you get things that are
a little quirky and it's fun to celebrate that.
We had puppets given to us in the storyboards
and there was a world where we could have built it in 3D.
It was something we ended up just doing physically.
You would actually just record
puppets against a green screen.
This is in my office with construction paper taped up.
I think we have a room at the studio
with a proper green screen and lighting rig,
but it was a mix of wanting it to be good enough
as someone who like our character really cares
about our craft, but letting it be a little flawed.
- [Man] See, this is good right here.
This is natural.
- Make sure to check
out the Mitchells VS The Machines.
It's streaming now only on Netflix.
(upbeat music)