She-Hulk director addresses biggest challenge of CGI characters
The comedy series is one of Marvel's most ambitious in terms of visual effects.
The director of Marvel's She-Hulk: Attorney at Law has revealed the biggest challenge that came with shooting scenes featuring entirely CGI characters.
Orphan Black star Tatiana Maslany portrays lawyer-turned-superhero Jennifer Walters, who gains gamma-fuelled super strength after being caught in an accident with her cousin, Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo).
Unlike her avenging relative, Jen regains full control of her mind and body even while in her Hulk form, which allows her to continue with her day job tackling cases in the courtroom.
However, that posed a challenge for director Kat Coiro, who explains how the show's use of CGI characters – including She-Hulk herself – is very different to what we've previously seen in the MCU and other franchises.
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"One of the biggest challenges is that CGI characters usually make up a small percentage of the films that they are in and they often appear in big action sequences," she told RadioTimes.com.
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"This show features long stretches of CGI characters doing very normal things. And so, how do you allow the actors to feel as if they're doing a normal scene?"
The answer, in many cases, was a rigorous rehearsal process in which the cast's precise movements were mapped out, which meant certain scenes could be shot "without having to worry about their eye lines and where they were in the room".
However, other shot types – such as "a fast walk-and-talk" – required a different approach, with the crew reverting to a more simplistic technique that brings up a big problem of its own.
Coiro continued: "In instances like that, [Tatiana] would wear a stick with a cardboard head at the top. And the challenge there is, of course, especially with Tatiana, actors want to look into her eyes, and you're constantly telling them to look at the cardboard cutout.
"So we avoided that one as much as we could but sometimes it necessitated that."
When the initial teaser for She-Hulk: Attorney at Law dropped, some fans complained that the CGI didn't look up to par with earlier MCU projects, but the second trailer – released at San Diego Comic-Con – largely settled those doubts. Watch below:
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law premieres on Disney Plus on Thursday 18th August 2022 – sign up to Disney+ for £7.99 a month or £79.90 a year now. Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what's on tonight.
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