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Monster Makers
How did you end up in the
FX business?
PATRICKTATOPOULOS:
I was
in Greece playing on a beach
somewhere and I saw this
American magazine called
Cinefex
and I thought, these
people are making
creatures and stuff... I
have to go to America and
do that. In a nutshell that’s
how it started; funny but
true.
How has the
CGI revolution impacted
on the old-school
creature creators? Has it
taken much work away?
It did. It still does. It’s
very interesting to notice
that in this large industry
of creatures and people,
it’s basically streamlined
the people doing this because
it’s been harder and harder to
work. That said though, looking
at New Zealand and
Lord of the
Rings
, they see the huge aspect
of makeup and miniatures and
things. CGI is there for places
where mechanical creatures will
not go – obviously a gigantic
elephant creature running
through the desert. CGI is there
for big running action. When
you’re extremely close to a
creature, it’s very hard to sell
something CG. In the
Underworld
films, for example,
sometimes you have a suit,
sometimes a CG creature.
Maybe you always have a bit of
both on the creature to make the
thing a bit more interesting. It
feels to me like this is the future;
it’s definitely an appropriate
combination of both mediums.
Some of the best monsters
aren’t CGI creations – look at
The Thing
,
The Howling
,
Aliens
...
I agree with you, but you
know the hardest thing to do is
to convince the director to spend
a day shooting one ugly monster
coming out of the closet when
he could do it in ten minutes or
have it taken care of with CGI at
the end. It’s not exactly cheaper
but I think it makes the life of
the director sometimes simpler.
It depends with which director
you work. I worked with Stephen
Sommers on
Van Helsing
, and
Stephen just doesn’t want to be
bothered by creature FX on set.
He did do a couple of things that
were practical, but most of his
approach was CGI. He’s a great
guy and an extremely hard
worker but he doesn’t believe in
suits, when some other director
might say there’s nothing as
good as a real suit on set, shot
properly. And at the end of the
day, how do you shoot it? Most
people that do creature stuff
have to also consider, how do
you film it to make it look
convincing?
Your work has a very
distinctive look.Who would
you say has influenced you the
most in terms of design?
It’s funny you mentioned
The
Howling
because when I was in
Greece looking at
Cinefex
magazine, I was a huge fan of
Rob Bottin who did that
creature. That wolf was
amazing and I’ll tell you why.
People like Rick Baker and
Stan Winston are certainly
the more well known
makeup and creature effects
people in town, but what
Rob adds is a creative
science to creatures that’s
way out there. On
The
Thing,
there was a sense
of design that went beyond the
regular stuff. I don’t think I’m
following his steps but for me
it’s important that at the base of
everything is the design. The
quality of rendering is obviously
extremely important, but a cool
design will remain a cool
design, you know what
I’m saying? I was
influenced by Frank
Frazetta, the painter. I
was influenced by
people like that just
because of the aesthetic
and proportion of the
characters, the dynamic
of the characters. And
I’m very much into
classic painting – Bosch,
Brueghel – and comic
books.
What do you consider
your favourite creation?
My favourite creature to date
is still the
Pitch Black
creature.