Voiceover & narration

Joss Whedon

It became apparent that the two of them walking into a dark room, looking for something, and then talking to someone who had clearly called them there, gave us the information that we needed, and also kept them a little more mysterious. The scene was so mundane, and they were So... Just such normal bickering siblings, that it didn't... Didn't really add to their grandeur. This is the first time we see Ultron. And I look back, and I'm... The fact of him sitting in that chair is very, sort of, based on the great, sort of, John Buscema kind of... "The tortured king and the weight of the throne" kind of thing. But then he stands up, and that's how he's revealed. And I thought, "That's less cinematic than it could have been," after the fact. Children... This little bit that he says here is also really important in the theme. Simply because one of the first things I ever wrote when sort of just freestyling about Ultron in my head, was that children all kill their parents, because once you have them, you no longer care as much about yourself. You accept your place in the cycle of the world, and you know that you'll die, but there's something more important to you than that. And then, in parenthesis, I wrote, 'cause I was sending this out as a memo, "Don't worry, nothing like that will ever appear in the film." And then it actually did. But I do think that a connection that even I didn't make is because so much of this is about power... Yet also, so much of it is about family, and the responsibility we have not just as leaders or as heroes, but as parents. There is no time when anybody in the world understands what the truly powerful can do and go through, unless they're parents. Until the moment they're parents. And then, suddenly, they have complete mastery over somebody's mind. Not forever. In the case of my kids, not even for that long. But there is the ability to uplift or destroy. It is a perfect connection between what is going on in this movie, politically and thematically, and what is going on personally. This shot here is one of my favourite shots in the film, just the way Ultron listens. Again, ILM, they had James Spader's performance to work off of. They had face-capture on him, so he wore cameras on his face the whole time. But they really took it and used it, and managed to make a man who's made out of metal not just sound, but move like Spader and give the performance. When James took the gig, he said, "I don't wanna do voiceover work. "I wanna be able to give a performance." And, my God, he did. And they did such an extraordinary job of capturing it, so much so that when he is standing there doing nothing, I cannot stop looking at him. I developed a huge... Not even a man-crush, like a teenage girl-crush on Ultron. Like, I want a picture of him over my bed, and I wanna write about him in my diary, and I wonder if he's thinking about me. He's just gorgeous. 'Course, there's a lot of gorgeous to go around. This bit, there was a lot more of. We played the mystery of "What's up with Barton?" a lot. Is he still possessed? Is he villainous? Is he something terrible? Ultimately, we just kept the fact that he says, "I don't have a girlfriend," and then later says, "Girlfriend." My issue with it was simply... I mean, people felt, "Can we get some time out of here?" My issue was, I've just felt that people would only think that he was talking to Fury. Since he had been a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, and we've never seen Fury, and we know that S.H.I.E.L.D. is gone, that they wouldn't think that he was up to something dire. They would just think, "Oh, he's listening to his old boss." And the dancing I would have to have gone through to make that clear that he wasn't just didn't seem worth the effort. So we kept just a little bit of it. I miss it. I miss the idea of, "What's his dark secret? "What's his dark secret?" 'Cause I think it's important. His dark secret is obviously the crux of the film. And, I mean, the fulcrum, the thing upon which the entire film revolves, um, changes.

36:29 · jump to transcript →

Joss Whedon

It's just that I don't understand. I can't say enough about that moment. I was sitting next to Paula, the script supervisor, Paula Casarin, who's the best in the biz, and I looked at her, I was like, "Did he just say 'oh'? "Do you think he'll do that again? "Do you think he'll do it again?" Because James learns everything word-for-word. That's his M.O., like it's a play. And I was like, "You gotta do the 'oh.' You gotta do the 'oh. And then he did it when we rolled. And I went up to him, and the first thing he said was, "I added an 'oh.'I hope that's okay. "Il can do it again without, if you like." I'm like, "No, I love you." I don't think I said that, but you could see it in my eyes. The idea that Ultron is emotionally so capricious is just something I hadn't really seen in an AI movie, particularly one where the robots are going to decide that all humanity must be killed. For him to be the most human, the most temperamental, was very important. And it's why Spader's the only guy. Because he can do that sort of classic Keith David, "You want me to do voiceover "because I make the subwoofer explode "with the gravitas of my basso profundo." But then he can become completely goofy.

45:45 · jump to transcript →

Now you got it, right? - This is what I love. Once the gre... That's it going off. Okay. - Yeah. Well, I didn't know. Last night was the first time I had seen this shot finished. The MPAA, remember, was really worried... ...we were gonna put a giant set of genitalia on him. Oh, they did. - Oh, they did. Yeah, that's the director's cut version. This was hard, I think. Because we had just been in this violent extravaganza. And now for emotions. But I think it works. - It works great. Because Kate is good and India is good. "You came back for me." - Yeah. And I remem-- This-- All... The tears and so on on Kate is completely real. Yeah. - But this is why she is, you know... This is why Kate is a movie star. She times it so the tear comes exactly where you want it. And I remember.... You only get that from professional actors. They know their body like, you know, true musicians. Go. I'll send them... ...on a different path, buy you some time. This is a part of the movie where we struggled... ...tried to figure out what to do now. How do we end the movie? - Yeah. We went through so many different permutations. We did film Michael watching them. - Yep. From the roof. - Yep. This scene was always in the film. - Yeah. That she comes back and finds the.... There was a period where we weren't. No. This was actually decided... It was not in the script. This was halfway through the shoot, we realized we needed this scene. We didn't wanna end on a rooftop... ...because it's kind of cliché a little bit. We did it in our Swedish film, Storm, actually... So then we ended it on a rooftop. - So-- But, you Know.... Sometimes cliches work. - Yeah. I think it's better than a forest. lt worked for the voiceover. Yeah, it was in a forest. Yeah. That was-- Yeah. But you want a nice wide shot. - Right. You see the city, see the world. And.... - The close-ups. I remember waiting for Len to write this voiceover, it took forever. But then he got it, and it was great. - Then he delivers. Because you get this "fuck, yeah" feeling. I've always thought that it's Kate that writes them... ...but Len actually does write them. Well, we'll never know, will we? I like those guys. That's those Swedish guys, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. Wonderful writers, John Hlavin... ...Michael Straczynski, Allison Burnett. Yep. There's Len again. - Len and John Hlavin. Kevin Grevioux, shout-out to Kevin. - That's right. Anyone fancy a pint? - We have to trash everyone. We have to trash those guys for sure. - Producers. David Kern, there he is. - And David Coatsworth. Good on you, mate. Yeah, that's it. - That's it. Scott Kevan, DP. Excellent. Yep. - In the house. Claude Pare. - Yes. Award-winning production designer. Jeff McEvoy, the gentleman. - Yes. He was there the whole time. - Monique Prudhomme, costumes. Paul Haslinger, Underworld veteran. Are you gonna go through all of these? I'm just reading. It's not that hard. Tricia and Deb did all of the Underworlds too. Couple of small words here. - Needs no introduction. India, she was the third girl or second girl in the room. Remember that? - Yes, absolutely. And we just looked at each other. "This is the girl." "This is the girl." In, like, five seconds. Me and Bjérn never did big Hollywood movies. But you sure as hell had before. - Yes. "Does it work like this? Can we say yes?" You were like, "Yeah, yeah. I think we should go." That was amazing. That'll be the last time that ever happens in your career. When we saw Theo, we all liked him... ...from the very beginning too. - Yeah. But India was... She was the first day of casting. But Theo we cast in London, though. Yeah, but the moment we saw the tape, it was done. But that was after going through a lot of people in L.A. Yeah. A lot. - Yeah. Richard Wright. - Yeah, how about that? Yeah. Love that guy. Yeah. - Yeah. Paul Barry. I Know it sounds funny but... We forgot to shout-out to Paul Barry. Paul and Nee Nee. - Best first AD ever. And here it says.... - Brad Martin. Gets his own card, damn it. - Yes. As he should. You should work with him if you wanna do good action. Oh, you know-- I actually am right now. How about that? Good for you. I thought this Evanescence song worked too, quite frankly. Yep. America's biggest Goth band. They're Americans? Yeah. - Yeah. Dude. - Yeah. "Dude." - What? But there's-- It's... When you sit here... ...and look at the names of all the people that worked on the movie... ... you realize what a collaborative effort these things always are. The fact that the five of us can sit in a room... ...and talk about it is one thing... ...but the filmmakers are really everybody on this list. Well, but the other.... I agree, but at the same time l.... After we finished shooting the film, which was a very difficult shoot... ...we came back to Los Angeles and we cut at the Lakeshore offices... ...and Mans and Bjérn were there religiously every day... ...putting their heart and soul into the movie. And I think they were... They put their heart and soul into the movie... ...from the moment we met them to the moment the movie was finished. So as producers, I think we have to really thank them. Thank you very much. - Yeah. That was very nice words, Gary. Thank you. - You're welcome. We are as tall as we are... ...because we stand on the shoulders of giants. Yeah. - And I kept saying to myself... And this is the part where everybody turns this stuff off. Nobody's listening right now. - We worked our asses off. But James McQuaide delivered on those visual effects. I Know. I gotta tell you, man.... It only took five years off the end of his life. Oh, jeez. The best he's ever done. lt was fantastic. It is very therapeutic to watch this. It is, isn't it? Yeah. - Now it is done. We can move on. - It's done. Yep. And it's Friday night at 6:20 p.m. And.... Film's opening tonight. - Yeah. Have we got numbers back? Have we got numbers about how it's doing? Yeah, very good so far. The advance New York early-screening report... Excellent. Didn't you say that it did great in Thailand? Taiwan. - Taiwan. Thank you, people of Taiwan. - Yeah, thank you, Taiwan. Shout-out to Taiwan. All right, so this is pretty much it. Thanks, everybody, for listening to our babbling. And have a good night or a good day or whatever. Are you gonna say something in Swedish?

1:16:16 · jump to transcript →

There we see Josh. He gets into it. In terms of casting, as we talked about Carrie and all the qualities she brings, she's beautiful and she's warm and she's empathetic and she feels reliable. She feels like a reliable narrator and I felt like that was an important quality for Lacey because she's the first adult character to believe in the movie as to what's happening.

23:06 · jump to transcript →

What did you say? I said, "/ can't swim." What does that have to do with anything? This is a beautiful wedding. Uh, thank you. Uh, yeah, it is. They really... Shooting in Hawaii has got its benefits. Am I right? By the power vested in me... I really want to know what in your brain makes swimming have anything to do with the gambling and the kid, but I don't want to get into it here. I just want you to know I'll be thinking about it for at least a month. That's great to hear. Where are you from, Margie? Ohio. That's a fake accent. Why did you just put on that accent that you haven't had the whole time? That... - Go, Cavs! All right, let's... All right. I don't trust anything you said anymore. "Go... Go, Cavs!" Is that how they even talk in Ohio? In fact, it's definitely not. I'm from Wisconsin. That's definitely not how they talk in Ohio. Can I come live with you? - No! Where? Why? No. I'm drawing the line. I got to go to the bathroom again! There she goes. What do you know about liquor? Man, I'm starting to hear it again through the door. Just a very... Great. When do I start? I mean, I mean, I mean... I mean... I can see you through the glass, now that you're back, Margie. You're just making pee sounds into the microphone. No, that was pee. I peed. Okay. - Okay. Well, it was a very short time to be gone peeing. I will say that. I think it was too short. What'd you say? - What? And, you know, to be honest, making this DVD commentary with Margie in away, you know, if I really think about it, is a lot like making a movie. There's adversity. There's things you don't expect that come up that you have to deal with. And you just have to get through it. And as we approach, you know, the end of our film here, it makes me realize maybe... 'Cause I'll be honest. You know, Margie, I was cursing you in my head a lot. And I was planning to immediately get out of here and call the producer and call the studio execs and ask for another voice-over session without you. And to do this over and... But, you know, I get to the end now and Igo, "You know what?" This is as, the most authentic commentary we probably could have done is showing the crazy shit you end up running against when you try to make a movie. We made a movie? No, we didn't... Yes, Margie, we made a movie. So you're part of that now. I just want to say, like, you know, guys, life is messy. Uh, it's never... Things don't go perfectly in life. And, uh, it's really how you get through the non-perfect things that make you who you are. I guess that's a good thing to get out of this. Just like Mike and Dave. And Alice and Tatiana. Just like Mike and Dave and Alice and Tatiana. Exactly. It didn't go perfectly. They didn't do all the right things. But at the end of the day, they pulled it together and got through it. And I think the family, the fictional Stangle family, is probably closer because of how much things went wrong and what they got through. But we just wanted everybody here to know... Wouldn't you say? Uh, yeah. Okay, suddenly not on board. Whatever. Um... We had some fun songs coming up here at the end of the movie. This, actually, also was added in halfway through production. I don't think these songs were in the script. We started wanting to do a fun little musical number at the end of the movie that also, hopefully, didn't feel too much just like tagging a musical number on the end of the movie, that we could get a couple jokes out of here. 7o me... Um, shooting at the barn here. We had to record these guys, we recorded these guys singing in the ballroom of the hotel we were Staying at. About two days, maybe the week before, we actually shot this scene. And, again, Zac's pitch to sing super-high like that, which was so funny. And it's like, the guys, they put the wedding together, all is forgiven. They're actually doing it here. They actually get a sweet little song out to their sister. Singing a very romantic song to their sister, which we'll overlook. They make it about the fact that she's their sister, so that's fine. And to you. To all of us. And then they just, they could taste it and they just had to go too far. They just have to go too far after this. Love you! So sweet. Thought they were gonna blow it. They did not. That's good. This is how we do itt... Also using one of my favorite middle school, high school dance songs to officially end the movie now, which makes me very happy. It's Friday night Oh, you don't throw... Throw it right in her face.

1:26:50 · jump to transcript →

People kept saying, well, just get rid of the plutonium in the beginning. I'm like, no, you have to have Mecca, the Vatican and the Temple Mount. And we came up with the idea of the core as a down payment days before we shot the scene. And that took us to this was when I when I wrote the breakout scene. You were the one that said, remember, in mission, it's always about showing what was supposed to happen. And these scenes, what we call a what if they always happen with narration over them.

43:55 · jump to transcript →

Francis Lawrence

This is what I want you to do. One of the things that I like here, too, that we did, that I tried to do a fair amount, and we did a fair amount... I mean, when you sort of look at the kind of intercutting of the opening sequence, and you look at a sequence like this, and some Stuff later on, was this idea for a bit of pace and momentum to do these intercuts, where you might have a little bit of voiceover that sort of takes us over a series of relatively quick images that allow for a faster passage of time. Then just wait for my signal. This is originally where that scene was, where she was smoking a cigarette. We've repurposed it earlier, and then used a different angle here to hear the music. And that music, interestingly enough, we knew that we were going to be playing music in that apartment, for that scene where she's talking about painting colors. But that was actually Joel Edgerton's idea, to use it as the signal, which I thought was just fantastic, so that you would know it sort of helps link them romantically, because of the scene, the previous scene, it's a very Clear signal that she could hear. But you can see that that obviously comes back at the end, and is very meaningful and very specific. And so for a sound and a piece of music to have so much meaning was really great. And very thankful for Joel coming up with that idea. In one of our initial meetings, when I hired him, he came onto the project, and we had a few conversations, and I think we facetimed a little bit, and went back and forth on some emails about the character. And then we had a little time to sit down before I went off to Budapest, and we Sat in an office for a couple of hours and went through the script, and it was in that that we came up with the idea for the music. Please answer the question. We'd need to know if you're emotionally involved. The answer is no.

1:26:15 · jump to transcript →