Amaya Toman Francis Lawrence, the director of the Hunger Games series or the See series, gave an interview to Business Insider this week. In the interview, among other things, he revealed some details from the filming of the mentioned series. The issue of finances was also discussed. The cost of See was speculated to be $240 million, but Lawrence called this figure incorrect. But he does not deny that See was an expensive series.
It could be interest you
As the title suggests, the central theme of the series is the human eye. The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic future in which an insidious virus has deprived those who survived its rampage of sight. Life without sight has its specifics, and the creators of the series needed to make everything look as believable as possible. Lawrence said in an interview that the shoot was not without consultation with experts and the blind, and that a great deal of work was also done by the team responsible for the props. The filmmakers achieved the effect of "blind eyes" not with contact lenses, but with special effects. Because there were so many performers that it would be practically impossible to fit the lenses - the lenses might cause discomfort for some, and the cost of hiring an optician would be too high.
But among the performers there were also those who were really blind or partially sighted. “Some of the main tribe, like Bree Klauser and Marilee Talkington from the first few episodes, are visually impaired. Some of the actors from the Queen's Court are blind. We tried to find as many blind or partially sighted actors as possible," Lawrence stated.
Filming was challenging for many reasons. One of them, according to Lawrence, was that many of the scenes take place in the wilderness and far from civilization. "For example, the battle in the first episode took four days to shoot because it involved a lot of actors and stuntmen," Lawrence stated. According to Lawrence, the first five episodes were shot mostly on location. "We were constantly in a real environment, which was only occasionally enhanced by visual effects. Sometimes we needed to make the village a little bigger than we could afford to build." added.
The first episode's battle took the crew four days to shoot, which Lawrence said was not enough. “In a movie, you would have two weeks to film a battle like this, but we had about four days. You're standing on top of a rock on a steep hill in the forest, with all the mud and rain and changing weather, with sixty-five people at the top and a hundred and twenty people at the bottom of the rock, all fighting ... it's complicated.” Lawrence admitted.
You can find the full text of the interview with Lawrence <a href="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1932/8043/files/200721_ODSTOUPENI_BEZ_UDANI_DUVODU__EN.pdf?v=1595428404" data-gt-href-en="https://en.notsofunnyany.com/">here</a>.
Probably the biggest disappointment on Apple TV+ for me. It's funny in places.