every day in production is a crazy day
of production if you have these many
hours you need these many hours you're
always fighting the amount of hours the
light of the day the amount of strength
that you have to push the boulder up the
road once we got out to kind of
Louisiana in the summertime toward the
end of the schedule things got a little
crazier it was really hot and humid and
we were doing a lot of work outside well
you don't see on screens that they are
doing it in 100 degree heat with 70%
humidity and cicadas buzzing every other
scene
[Music]
hi I'm Victoria Lanza I'm John from
Schwartz and this is how you make a
marble blockbuster when we think about
kind of the way that the marble slate
comes together it happens on a series of
what we call our creative retreats where
Kevin and Victoria and Lewis and some of
the other producers and executives go
out to a house in Palm Springs and sort
of talk about the next few years and
what those movies are gonna be talked
through movies that are in production or
in development and talk about the future
and sort of who's gonna do what and I
think at one of those retreats it became
really clear that Captain Marvel is
gonna be a big target for us and very
soon after that Kevin's announcement
made it official a secret to our success
is to go to Palm Springs when is 125
degrees so we can boil our stories boil
our ideas and never go outside stay
inside and work but there's an original
conversation of like these are the
characters that we have going on coming
in the next year or two and these are
the ones that we wish to have how do we
weave all of that within this huge
tapestry that we have that is
interconnected the birth of it happens
usually in Kevin's mind quite early all
of our movies really start with
character before there's theme before
there's action before there's structure
before there's plot there's a character
who's gonna be the core of the movie and
in order to make the movie work the
character has to work because if that
doesn't work the movie doesn't work and
with Carroll there was a really unique
combination of her toughness and her
humanity and her sense of humor and her
Air Force background and all of these
elements specifically from Kelly Sue's
comic books that made her seem like the
next Marvel superhero went through all
this publishing history and said this is
the version of the character that is
going to resonate you have the origin
story that you want to tell about that
character and then you have the
universality of that character for what
is our audience we all have a one point
or another an identity crisis we are all
told that we are weak and we don't
belong and that we're too emotional and
no that's not gonna work and at the end
of the day the global message of this
movie at least in my point of view is
listen to your voice listen to who you
are because you know who you are and
that voice is the voice that is going to
pull you forward
and lifts you my name is Carol every
movie has a creative producer attached
to it Jonathan being one of them someone
that watches every single bit of it from
the beginning to the end sometimes is
their vision alongside the directors
sometimes it's their pitch that they
come in and they say hey I think that of
all the characters that we have with the
six thousand this one particular
character has a place in our universe so
these are the people that make it work
then we bring it to our creative group
of all the other producers that do all
the other movies which is not many
there's an additional five or six and
there's junior creatives as well you may
have seen that parliment credit pop up
on a few of the recent movies this is
part of the work that that parliment
group does finding the right writers is
a difficult task and there's nobody
better than this man Wow you know it's
different every time I think for this
one in particular the first writers on
the project where Nicole Perlman and and
mega fav Nicole obviously we knew really
well from the Marvel writers program and
also from her work on guardians the
galaxy vol 1 so we knew that she had
kind of a great ear for science fiction
and that she really identified and
understood sort of what made Carol tick
we had also had meetings with Meg would
sort of come from the Picts art world
and done some really interesting work
with them meg really sort of felt like
she understood the voice of the
character in a great way and so we sort
of did something on this one that we've
never did before which is which is pair
up two writers who had previously been a
writing team that both came at it from
sort of very different perspectives and
both of those perspectives ended up
being really essential to those early
days of kind of development typically
you sit in the room in the next card the
next card go up and ice cars go down
it's a lot of breaking and breaking and
breaking story before we ever get to
that draft because by the time you're in
sort of draft world we've already beaten
out various versions of the movie which
will never see the light of day but are
important roads to go down so you can
find the right one one of the things
that we do that is very much a Marvel
thing that is plussing which means like
there is a draft and there's another
draft and there's a shooting draft and
there's revisions to that draft and then
when we go in to edit and we keep on
redefining and we keep on Reese Culp
tting and then just when you can't do
anything because time is taking it away
you can still do it on ADR so you're
still writing so now we're going into
the booth and we
those three words that maybe that is
what helps you to get the finish line on
that scene so it never ends it doesn't
it's not just one draft or two or
twenty-seven it doesn't end until the
movies out in the world we started
thinking about cast relatively early in
the process on this one right which I
think was driven mostly by by endgame in
some ways because we knew that endgame
was coming up and that movie was gonna
shoot before Captain Marvel did we were
shooting infinity war and then game at
the same time as a whole which is
something we've never done Captain
Marvel was going to be introduced in
infinity war as a symbol and then she
was gonna have her seen in endgame so we
had to do the thinking quite early as
mega Nicole were often working I think
we sort of had a good foundation for the
character under us and we knew that she
would need to be tough and fun and
vulnerable and human and super human so
sorry and Bri really felt like the right
person to do all of those things and
then we wouldn't start talking to Bri
and then we did the big announcement at
Comic Con which was one of the happiest
days of my life
[Music]
yeah
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
are thinking about director starts quite
early at the same time that we're
talking about writers Jonathan is
presenting directors to us or where he's
talking to them interviewing them
looking at their work and some of them
are coming to talk to Luke Kevin and
myself we're looking for something
different every time talking to as many
people as you can and being willing to
be surprised I think we're always
looking for directors who are or
passionate about these movies and
storytellers who we've believed in in
terms of their vision and sort of the
take that they come up with and what
they want to do with the movie and whose
body of work lets us know in some way
that we can have confidence in their
ability to execute it and Ryan and Anna
very quickly I think rose to the top of
that pack just in terms of all of those
things they really understood the
character in a great way and their body
of work certainly is all about taking
characters you wouldn't expect and
making them the center of these amazing
films that explore those characters in
great ways you know they convince us
very quickly that they're the right
people to sort of do that for captain
mark yeah and eventually they sort of
come to the table with a more robust
take with visuals and references from
other movies you're always kind of
looking for that shared cinematic
language you'd like to talk about movies
in the same way and not that your tastes
necessarily needs to align but at least
like you sort of have that kind of
shared background to fall back on and I
felt like we definitely had that with
those two
[Music]
you know Megan Nicole got the ball a
long way down the field and she learned
a lot through that process and they were
incredibly helpful that movie wouldn't
exist without him at a certain point you
know they left the project Ryan and anak
had come aboard by then we sort of knew
we needed someone else to kind of pick
up the ball in terms of the writing and
settled very quickly I think on Geneva
if there is a switch at some point or
somebody comes in to help is because we
need another voice not because the voice
that we had before was not good that
voice gave us all they had and now we
need an additional voice so thus we got
a different writer and that led to many
months of sitting in room with Geneva
and Ryan and Anna and Mary Livanos who
was on the movie at the time just
sculpting and sculpting away and face
the story the greenlight is when we're
doing it as long as we tell our parent
company this is what we're doing we're
doing it we have an incredibly
successful relationship with the Disney
folks and in partnership with them we
just go forward and off we go and I
think it's really like part of the
strength of the Marvel process is you
know the movies coming out you know
what's happening and you're able to run
full speed toward a goal you don't have
to go through a long process of
convincing people that all your moves
are right and it also creates a lot of
stress because you don't have a lot of
time you have to mix it as quickly you
have to go and it forces you to sort of
lock yourself into something creatively
but you do have to run at full speed for
a very long time
we have enough that we're ready to shoot
but we don't have everything ready all
the time I'm gonna put it to you in
construction metaphor you ready we know
the address of the house we know it's a
house and not a condominium we know the
house has three bathrooms and four
bedrooms where the bathrooms are or the
bedrooms are
that is a shiftable event we know we
have a roof weather shingle or is not
who knows we know certain things and we
will start building but there is a lot
of freedom into whether the garden is in
the front or in the back so you may have
your friend Lumbee come your back lawn
everyone that comes to work with us has
that kind of collaboration and freedom
of creativity but we do keep it quite
loose in order to find the best story
and depending on how the structure of
the movie was being shifted and some of
these rooms were being shifted alongside
in this house it started to feel like it
was man bashing so we were really really
militant about not doing that because
the consequence of that is that people
will see it as such and not see the
truth of the birth of this phenomenal
character we were pretty harsh with each
other about that comment and that's
another way that's sort of the
Parliament is able to be really helpful
because we all sort of help each other
and look at each other's work and read
each other scripts and they're able to
say this meets the marble standard or
this does not Jonathan and the directors
have absolute creative control while
they're shooting and then Lou Kevin and
I watch it from the sidelines we're
usually prepping two projects and
finishing posting three or two there's
always multiple projects that are
happening at home but Jonathan is
steering the ship alongside with the
directors of course but then sometimes
we do have writers that are on set the
movie works best when it flows from the
directors and on this movie it really
did they really had a control over the
set they had a command over the story
and even though it was it's it's tough
because it was a much bigger movie than
they had ever undertaken before they
really understood the bones of it in a
great way we had a great team with us
many of whom had done several other
Marvel films and sort of knew the drill
paddy which are our line producer Lars
winter our first ad who's there to kind
of marshal the troops Chris Townsend our
visual effects supervisor who's done
several these movies now and knows how
to make them feel like Marvel movies but
Marvel movies through the eye of these
particular filmmakers Ben David
who's been with us for many many movies
man is the best we had two great editors
and Debby Bergman and Elia Graham our
production designer Andy Nicholson and
having this great team and support of
Ryan and Anna I think really allowed
them to go out and do their best work so
we had a lot of the old guard and people
that we've worked through many many of
these battles as we call it in the
battle zone or shooting that was one of
the things about the directors all you
have to worry about is that performance
everything else is happening because you
have the greatest of greatest behind you
and part of the process also supporting
the directors is making sure that we
prepare adequately because that prep
period is essential and one of the big
tools that we use in prep is the
storyboard and previous process we had
Brian Andrews Tony Liberatore a Darren
Dellinger and Enrico D'Allesandro who
all drew various sequences and those
boards sort of got turned into into
previous that Ryan and Anna oversee that
sort of let them understand you know
before they step on set what shots do
they need what angles do things to get
and and communicate to the crew and
everything about how the day is going to
go the important thing about our movies
too is to have the shorthand to know
remember what we did on of interest one
okay we're not doing that we're doing
this it's also very successful in the
efficiency of time which is the one
thing that we fight really hard and we
never win it's especially helpful when
you're pretty deep in when you are
storyboarding and pre visiting and
prepping and scheduling and writing all
at the same time and all those processes
are happening in parallel and shooting
and shooting there's never really a
moment where you sort of sit back and
say all right now we just have to
execute we're constantly in a process of
conceiving and improving and executing
it's evening and improving and executing
and the minute that you shot one frame
of film you're posting in our movies
we're probably posting always about four
months before your shooting because
we're building things in CG we're
creating look devs we're creating the
R&D for these worlds that we have to
create that take a long time to create
so we are posting before your shooting
and when you're shooting you're posting
money is always a concern but it should
never be the guiding concern the concern
is the creative one of the things that
we've learned over the years is
limitation is the mother of all creation
we definitely have come up with great
ideas that we didn't have if it wasn't
for the limitation of that moment
captain marvel I think was our 21st
movie
by now we sort of understand what it
takes to make a movie feel like it has
the scope the marble media the movie
needs to have and sometimes it's not as
much as you think you just got to be
smarter this movie in particular had a
shorter post than we usually do this was
a 28 week post and I think we usually
like to have a little more time than
that and that just means a lot of six
days a lot of seventh days a lot of
consecutive days in a dark editing Bay
and so I give a lot of credit to our
editors dev burman and Eliot Graham who
really grinded it out we had the very
first time that a female composer was a
part of this size of movie Pienaar she
had to work at it ten times harder
because over 28 weeks that sort of
cheats you from an immense amount of
time when you think about it we don't do
outside of Disney screenings we have
friends and family screenings which is a
group of people that either work for
Disney or companies that are under the
umbrella and because we have so many
things that people can't talk about what
people know so that we don't spoil it
for the rest of the world but we do get
input from other folks other than
internal folks so we've sort of gone out
to try to find audience members were
close enough to us where we know they're
not going to you know leak everything on
the internet but far enough away where
they're gonna give us honesty honesty
and I think that the harsh truth is what
we were after
and let me tell you we got it I mean you
know you screen the movie three or four
or five times throughout the course of
post-production with a different
audience every time and you learn a lot
yep you know I think on this movie we
screened a lot for humor whether the
jokes worked we screened a lot for
confusions because the movie is
complicated in a lot of ways want to
make sure the audience was following it
you know there was just a lot of stuff
we wanted to try and you just sort of
need to sit there in the room and feel
the energy with a real crowd in order to
understand whether it's working or not
they're not for the faint of heart let
me tell you we tried to warn the
directors that this is not please don't
get attached to each and every word and
don't let this moment destroy your
spirit it's a little different for us I
think because we've been through it a
few times all of these movies believe it
or not our ugly duckling was in one way
or another before they become beautiful
swans the audience in every screening I
think we ever did put up their hands and
said we want more than 90s more 90s
music more 90s references we love it
we want more
know that that's what that friends and
family group told us they wanted but you
still have to have that movie out in the
world this still has to open globally
and then you go almost immediately from
that process and step out into the light
of the premiere and it's like what I
thought I just finished this movie
yesterday for me the premiere is pretty
stressful because sometimes our actors
have seen the film sometimes they
haven't sometimes the crew members that
have worked so hard I've seen it
sometimes they haven't and then when it
goes out to the world five or six days
later is is that moment where you just
like there were a couple of times during
this journey where I felt so proud to be
a mother to be a woman and to be a
female producer in times where these
stories are very needed when we finish
and I got up there were these two women
and they both with tears in their eyes
they were there with their daughters
saying thank you for having taken the
risk I felt really relieved so I knew
that this movie was gonna mean a lot to
a lot of people that the character was
really important that the movie was
making a really bold statement to the
world and it felt like we accomplished
those things it felt like we didn't drop
the ball on the first female superhero
where you're gonna put out of the first
titles of female superhero we were going
to release the true success of who we
are are the partnerships and who we are
doing this movie with and to be able to
create that kind of harmony that's where
I think you see the filmmaking process
being lifted
I really like the impact that it seems
to make on the culture you go into a
movie and you hope that people are gonna
see themselves represented on screen and
especially for this one women who'd
wanted that kind of heart to occur in a
marble knew who'd wanted that hero that
they could identify with got that the
most proud moment for me was to be at
the premiere with my wife and my little
one she came out run and she goes I'm
just so proud that you're my mom the
fact that she at 8 years of age
understood that this was important there
was 10 times more important to me
you