Computin' on a Budget
First time directors, more often than not, start their careers with low budget productions because the studios aren’t willing to risk hundreds of millions of dollars on a person that has not made anything yet. That was just the case with long time writer turned first time director, Alex Garland. Garland wrote the novel Beach that became a nationwide bestseller and eventually became an even bigger success when it was adapted into a movie with Leonardo Dicaprio. With Ex Machina being Garland’s first time sitting in the directors chair he had a lot of pressure on him; fortunately for everyone Garland wrote a masterful script, which he was nominated for Best Original Screenplay for at the Oscars, and he turned that script into an incredible visually compelling film, which won an Oscar for Best Achievement in Visual Effects beating out dozens of high-budget sci-fi movies filmed that year. In this essay, I will examine how Alex Garland and his production team used the low budget of Ex Machina to their advantage by creating a minimalistic mise en scène, which adds to the overall quality of the film.
Ex Machina is a film about a young programmer, Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) who is chosen to participate in groundbreaking experiment on a humanoid robot, Ava, (Alicia Vikander) developed by a genius billionaire, Nathan (Oscar Isaac). While its no Citizen Kane, Ex Machina was about as successful as a directorial debut can get. The film grossed nearly $38.3 million worldwide (the-numbers.com), which was more than double its production budget of $15 million. “Being an independent film without large financial backing, we faced many challenges on the production to create the finished looks.” Said Head of Makeup Melanie Hughes-Weaver. But what makes the movie so well done is that it is simple in aesthetics but very complex in idea and emotion.
With the low budget of Ex Machina, the production team had to go about making Alicia Vikander look like a robot without physically making a suit for her, which most massive budget sci-fi movies would have done. Andrew Whitehurst of Double Negative a visual effects firm that worked on Ex Machina, explains how they accomplished this, "Once we’d shot with the actors, we’d ask them to step out and then we’d shoot a 'clean plate', which is where we try and copy the camera move but with none of the actors in there," Whitehurst added. "We could use that then to paint out the parts of Alicia that we wanted to be rid of. That gave us a clean background that we could put the CG robot internals over the top of. We made decisions with the way that Ava was designed that if it had been a massive budget film we wouldn’t have done because you can do whatever you like." This works in Ex Machina’s favor because it made Alicia Vikander look so human-like that the only thing distinguishing her from a real human was her mind and that is what this whole movie aims to address. This was in big part thanks to Melanie Hughes-Weaver department Head Makeup who explains her work on Ex Machina, “The department consisted of Tristan Versluis, Charlie Rodger as my make-up assistant and myself as make-up and hair designer. Tristan had a small team of three people who would come in and out of the prep period to help him build certain prosthetic elements for the shoot. His role was primarily to prepare and apply Ava’s prosthetic pieces to help create the look of her ‘skin’ laying atop a robotic mesh head and neck. As the shoot grew closer, it was apparent Tristan needed to create additional effects on screen, some of which were a combination of physical and visual effects. The film was hard work and long hours, but with great reward once we saw how our teamwork played into an amazing finished character on screen. Long hours and low wages were made easier when we had such a lovely crew and director to work alongside. Alex Garland was very approachable and so well prepared for a first-time director. It was a relief, as it allowed us all to talk frankly about our thoughts on how best to achieve the character Alex we had been dreaming of creating for years.” A lot of the work was done in special effects. But what makes this film so great is that visual effect department didn’t go over the top with the special effects. What they did was make her arms and legs robotic and around her torso and head they added lights, wires and made it mostly see-through. These two photos are taken from a scene where Ava is calmly walking down a hallway admiring the faces of past robots. The crew filmed the first take with Alicia Vikander in her costume acting as Ava. Then the next shot all they did was take a “clean plate” as Whitehurst described which is just a mirror take of the last shot but with nobody in the frame. Once in post with both the shots they can overlap them and choose where they want Ava to look more robotic or see-through. Some special effects departments nowadays try and go overboard with the CGI. Luckily, Ex Machina went with the ‘less is more’ minimalistic approach. Otherwise, we could have ended up seeing something like Will Smith’s i, Robot. The simple nature of the SFX was refreshing in a time were over the top CGI puts people in the seats. The Academy thought so as well awarding Andrew Whitehurst and his staff the Oscar for Best Achievement in Visual Effects.
The next smart step production took to save some money that added value to the overall feel of the film was limiting the cast to 3 developed characters and only 10 credited actors all together. Oscar Isaac was paid $1 million for his role (moneynation.com) which was the most of the whole cast. With the acting pay being less than 1/10th their budget it left the crew and post-production much more money. Why the limited cast worked so well for this film is because the feeling of isolation is very important for the tone of the movie. Caleb, is all alone in this house with a scary alcoholic genius,Nathan is all alone on the planet being the smartest person alive, and Ava is alone and trapped in Nathans control. Another thing the simplicity of the cast adds to Ex Machina is with only three characters effecting the story its hard to know who is trustworthy and who is not, this enhances the suspense of the film till the very end.
With a limited budget traveling a lot is not an option. Ex Machina stayed in one main location throughout the movie. The film takes place in Nathan’s huge estate in Norway. The production was actually done in Alaska, but the setting nevertheless is breathtaking. Alex Garland uses the intense complexities of nature to contrast with the modern, unwelcoming, somewhat cold, style of the house. The feel of isolation is very strong because in reality they are very isolated from everyone. Domhnall Gleeson’s character, Caleb, doesn’t have access to any computers or phones and he is only allowed into the rooms that his key card unlocks. At times the set can feel like a prison, which in many ways it is. The estate is a prison for Ava because she is trapped in there and forbidden to even go outside. It is also a prison for Caleb because the only way he can leave is via a helicopter that comes once a week, he has a ‘warden’, Nathan who limits his external communication, his access around the estate, and manipulates his head quite a bit. It even resembles a prison, with its concrete white walls and plain red floor. The lights also add to the prison feel and play a big role in the emotion of the film. When the red light goes on the whole movie takes on a new feeling with something as simple as just a lighting change. Caleb’s who world is based around color. It is either red/bad or blue/good. When the power goes out everything is red. When Caleb is not permitted into a room the lock pad is red. The outside world is
all blue the ice and water of Norway. When Caleb has permission to enter a room the lock pad is blue. There is a scene where Caleb tells the story of “Mary and the black and white room” The first color Mary sees when she goes outside is blue. Picture 1 is from a scene where the power goes out while Caleb is talking with Ava and like a prison when the power goes out everything goes into lockdown. It is small points like this that enrich the minimalistic mise en scène of Alex Garland’s film to perfection.
With more and more movies trying to pack in as much CGI on screen as possible without you noticing, Ex Machina’s director, Alex Garland, took a different approach, not necessarily because he wanted to but because he had to. In the end it won him a successful box office performance, high critical acclaim for Hollywood, two Oscar nominations and one win for Best Visual Effects, and definitely another directing role with a much higher budget will be expected this time.
Bibliography
Shead, Sam. "Here's How the Robot in 'Ex Machina' Was Created for a Film with a Budget of Just £10 Million." Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 15 Feb. 2016. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.
"Ex Machina (2015) - Financial Information." The Numbers. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.
How Much Money Does Oscar Isaac Make? - Money Nation." Money Nation. N.p., 04 Jan. 2016. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.
Hughes-Weaver, Melanie. "Ex Machina: Make-up - Local 706." Local 706. N.p., 03 Sept. 2015. Web. 05 May 2016.
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