How Wētā FX brought the magic to Better Man

Monday, 23 December 2024

Visual effects hiding in plain sight.

That’s how Luke Millar, VFX supervisor at Wētā FX, describes the end result of the astronomic effort that went into creating the Robbie Williams biopic Better Man, in which the British singer-songwriter is depicted as an ape.

Wētā FX was responsible for the majority of the visual effects in the ambitious independent Michael Gracey-directed feature, which last week was named on the shortlist of films vying for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.

Better Man, by all accounts, pushes the boundary of what’s creatively possible. Building on Wētā’s heritage in making digital primates, its work on Better Man centred around depicting Williams as he sees himself ‒ unevolved ‒ due to his becoming famous at the age of 15, via the metaphor of a chimpanzee.

Through the film ‒ which tracks Williams’ rise to stardom from his humble beginnings growing up in Stoke-on-Trent, his being a part of boy-band Take That, and later, his solo career and relationship with All Saints member Nicole Appleton ‒ the digital ape interacts with other characters like a human.

An animation pass showing the transition from on set performance to final render in the Royal Albert Hall scene of Better Man.

While it’s easy to forget you’re watching a monkey thanks to the movie’s sometimes disarming emotional depth, the visual seamlessness was, in fact, very deliberate.

“As soon as you get into a scene, the monkey just disappears. You just don’t see it any more. You get absorbed in the character. You get absorbed in the story. … Of course it was going to work,” Millar said in an interview with The Post. “I never thought it was ever going to be anything other than something that could work. … [We] cut the whole gamut of human emotion within this film.”

For the film, Wētā developed new technology to enable its VFX pipeline to receive data from concert stage lightboards, so its team could recreate them digitally.

Many of the challenges its team faced were in the ape’s interactions with its real-life counterparts and environments, including one highly technical scene in which the ape and Nicole Appleton’s character share an intricate dance number on a boat, in which they’re always touching each other.

Better Man features music star Robbie Williams as an ape, a metaphor for how Williams sees himself as unevolved, thanks to his becoming famous at a young age.

Wētā initially got involved in the film as it created pre-visualisations of its 10 musical numbers, which Gracey used to secure funding. Staff ended up spending about three years on the film.

That included principal shooting in Melbourne before a series of location shoots around the world, including the notable Rock DJ scene that shut down London’s Regent St, the Appleton dance number in Saint-Tropez in France, and at the Royal Albert Hall for the finale scene (filmed with the actual Williams, to capture genuine audience reaction), followed by about two years of post-production work.

Wētā first completed an animation test of the ape from a 30-second clip of the real-life Williams. Millar said seeing the results of that, and thereafter throughout filming, there was no doubt the monkey idea would come together due to its magnetism and visual irresistibility.

Millar said the film was one of the most interesting Wētā had ever done, with a highly collaborative visual effects process that unusually began right from the start and continued throughout.

An animation pass comparing the digital character's facial and body performance to Robbie Williams from the original Knebworth concert in 2003.

Wētā wanted its VFX work to be as anonymous as it could, Millar said. Its team worked to develop Williams as he progresses through life, with five different ape versions created covering Williams at age 7 to age 30.

Williams’ character is acted by Jonno Davies through performance capture, the technique used for Gollum in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

Millar says during the conceptual process for the ape, artists originally went too far in the direction of Williams’ look, and pared the monkey back to a point where the only things that were 100% from the actual Williams were his eyes, brows and tattoos.

Wētā used reference material captured when Williams visited the set, in order to maintain his likeness and recognisability.

The boat scene in Saint-Tropez was particularly difficult for technicians to create as the ape and Nicole Appleton’s character are engaged in an intricate dance

Scenes including the Royal Albert Hall and Knebworth Park ones drew detailed parallels to the real-life happenings, that further aided the sense of familiarity, Millar said.

And Jonno Davies also meticulously studied Williams’ public behaviour.

Shooting for the Rock DJ scene was interrupted by the late Queen’s death, which saw crews have to come back six months later than expected.

The highly choreographed three-minute, 42-second uninterrupted take was shot over four nights, with Regent St ‒ one of London’s primary shopping streets ‒ shut down overnight to traffic.

It comprises 5334 frames and features 500 dancers, and five digital costume changes.

By the numbers

– Knebworth Park scene filmed in Serbia featured 2000 extras and 108,000 digital extras

– There are 1968 VFX shots in the film, all but 60 done entirely by Wētā FX

– 600 crew contributed to the film

– Williams’ digital ape model features 1,356,167 strands of fur; 225,712 of those strands were shaved to replicate tattoos

– One hour and five minutes of the film are musical numbers

– At least 1000 grams of glucose powder used as a prop on set

– The ape wears 226 costumes and has 50 different hair styles

– Luke Millar appears as a digital extra 767 times

– Wētā FX has worked on 18 projects featuring digital apes, from King Kong (2005) to Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024) and Better Man (2024)