GURN EXCLUSIVE! Interview with Tom Blake – Creature maker / Animatronics Genius

Tom Blake is a 30 year old creature builder / animatronics whizz kid / animator / sculptor / illustrator based in London. He’s worked on some of the most important films and projects that the field has to offer, and with some of the biggest names – from Jim Henson’s Creature Workshop on Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Guillermo Del Toro on Hellboy 2 to Spike Jonze on the upcoming Where The Wild Things Are adaptation. Gurn settled down with Tom to talk about what it’s like getting to make monsters for a living, and also what the future holds for an industry going the way of CGI.

Hi Tom – thanks for taking the time to talk to us. So just to get the boring background stuff out of the way first, where are you from and when and where did you first get an inkling you’d like to do anything like the kind of work you do?

Hi guys

I’m originally from Kent but am based in London now.

I had an interest in films for as long as long as I can remember to honest. Any one from my generation will know about films such as – Jason and the Argonauts, Clash of the Titans, The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth and obviously the Star Wars films to name a few. Just mesmerizing stuff to a small kid. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles too. That just blew my mind – Still does.

The second I worked out that people had to make all those insane creatures, that was when the penny dropped – I knew my own destiny.

So it was simply a case of ‘That’s what I’m going to do, no two ways about it’ and then just got on with all the stages in between where you were and where you wanted to be (presumably art a-level etc)? That’s impressive!

What was your first job that felt like serious progress? And what had you been doing up to then?

I stepped straight out of university onto the first Harry Potter film. I thought then…..WTF!!!

It couldn’t really have started any better to be honest. It was where I wanted to be. I was living the dream.

Just on the strength of your potfolio from university? Fantastic! What kind of stuff were you doing on that first Potter film? And was it a massive learning curve for you – did you feel thrown in at the deep end?

I was sculpting, mold making, painting, some basic animatronics, puppeteering. Loads of cool stuff.

I learnt so much. I was working with people who I had read about in books and magazines and seen in ‘making-of’s’. People who I really looked up to. They had also worked on a lot of the films that inspired me to get into Creatures – there were guys there who had worked on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!!!!

For me it was mind blowing. A huge Warner Bros production with amazing sets and actors involved and loads of creatures to make. It was my dream job.

I was in at the deep end a few times but that is how you learn. I had wanted it so bad for a long time so I was ready. I just got on with it and did it!!

Amazing – and presumably having that on your CV opened many a-door for you after that? Did you just throw yourself into whatever came along, or did you take your time and carefully pick projects that interested you?

I worked on the next 2 Harry Potter films after that with some smaller jobs in-between.

I have always been very picky about the jobs I go for. I want to work on the best projects with the best people. I think if you can sustain that throughout your career then you will do well.

Inevitably there will be times when work is a bit thin on the ground and you have to take on a smaller job, but ultimately you have got to strive for the best. No one “wants” to work on Dr Who – You would rather be doing ‘Aliens’ or ‘Terminator’. Know what i mean?!

“No one “wants” to work on Dr Who”… that’s serious commitment! (And by the way, I notice that one of the ‘smaller jobs’ you took was a Radiohead video!)

So was there anything you did around that time that really blew your mind? And particularly fond memories of the Harry Potter movies?

The Dr Who comment was a bit harsh. I know people who work on it. I have just never liked it. Sorry.

Anyway, Just to be working on big budget productions was insane. I got to do a days puppeteering on Star Wars Episode 2 – Attack of the Clones. It was at Ealing film studios. George Lucas was there, as was Anthony Daniels (C3PO) Kenny Baker (R2D2) – both in costume. That, as you could imagine, blew my mind. Still does. I got a credit too.

I also got the chance, through the guy i was working for on Harry Potter, to stay at Skywalker ranch in San Francisco. And a trip around Industrial Light and Magic!! Not bad.

I was on holiday there and he made a few calls and…..bingo! – Perks of the job!!

Good times.

Tom you’re blowing me away here – I’d love to pry a bit about the Skywalker Ranch – do they really have Lucas Dollars there? Is it a big resort or more homely than that..? Who gets to go there? Just celebs like yourself, or could I call up with a pile of money and get a room?

No sign of any Lucas dollars. He has his own fire station though – and I mean “Station”!!

Its on a lot of land with the main building at the top and guest houses toward the bottom. There are archives there too which unfortunately were closed at the time. Imagine the stuff that must be in there!!

It is a beautiful place and I got the impression that it is celebs only or if your pals with George.

Me and George go way back so I’m in.

Wow and wow again. So back to business… One thing I wanted to ask, apart from to mention amazing films like Corpse Bride, Charlie & The Chocolate Factory and Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, was about your day to day work on these kinds of big budget productions. Are you given an amount of freedom to come up with character appearance from the script, or do directors wade in a lot? Or is every job different? Also, what constitutes an average day? Simply getting stuff to work, or are you designing with specific movements or scenes in mind?

Generally, on big productions, everything is designed in the Art dept. You will be sculpting to a specific design.

There is sometimes room for adding your own ideas, but this depends on the director or who your working with but usually its pretty locked down.

The smaller jobs allow for design which is why some people prefer those sort of jobs. I have to admit, I love it when there is a chance to design stuff.

There is scope for design in Animatronics (though its the insides). You will have a good idea of what you have got to achieve for the shots, but then it is down to you to work out the best way of doing it.

Serious pressure!!! Especially on set in front of the director and actors – it don’t wanna break!!

So your job is split between the workshop and the set? That’s some amount of pressure when everyone’s looking at you for something to work as it should. When you’re on set, do you work as an actor would? By that I mean, are you reacting to the other actors? And when there’s an actor voicing your creatures, how does that work?

It depends on the puppet you have. Some puppets are simple things with only a single movement. Others are actual characters with loads of stuff going on and several puppeteers operating them.

When you have a character like this then, yes to a degree you act as an actor would – you think about the next scene and how you are going to approach it. You rehearse before and between takes. You don’t have your own trailer though!

If there is a voice used then it is usually played back on a speaker, and then dubbed in later.

You have to span a lot of different disciplines… I wanted to get on to Where The Wild Things Are. We’re all big fans of Spike Jonze over here. Were you in Australia for it – what was your time on the film like? What were you doing on it?

‘Where the Wild things are’ was awesome. Its one of the things I’m most proud to be associated with. Can’t wait to see it. Check the new official trailer. Sweet.

I was out there (Melbourne – Australia) for nearly 6 months with my best buddy, John Nolan , who also does creatures [see more John Nolan here: www.johnnolanfilms.com – Ed]. We were flown out and put up in accommodation for the whole time.

Jim Hensons creature shop in LA built the suits and it was our job at first to go over the animatronic heads and make sure nothing was broken during shipping etc. We then went about setting them up with new control systems that would make life easier for the puppeteers. All the ‘Wild Things’ also needed new hands so me and John designed and built some sick new animatronic ‘super’ hands for the performers to use.

There were also some whole new puppets to build but I’m going to have to be careful with what I say.

We were on set too. Taking care of the creature suits and puppeteering and just hanging out with the cast and crew. Good stuff. One of the best sets I have had the fortune of being on. Jonze is a true lord.

Me and John were rocking it out there.

So Spike was really ‘hands on’ involved? That’d great to hear – I think he has a flair for getting good work out of people, and involving them in his vision. It’s been so long in post-production – does what we have seen in the trailer (which looks utterly amazing by the way) bear much relationship to what you were working towards back in 2006(!!)? And do you know anything about the delays? One rumour the internet told me about was that after test screenings it was deemed too scary for very young children and it had to be heartlessly recut… was the script scary particularly?

It all looks exactly how I have hoped it would. We saw a quick sort of ‘trailer’ that Spike had cut together while we were there and it just blew everyone away. Its just so sensitive and beautifully shot. Spike knows what he’s doing.

And yes, he does get the best out of you. He has some unusual directing techniques that we can go into some other time.

As for the delays, I think there is some truth in what people have read, but there is also a lot of post production to do. Its a lot of work to get all of that CG to blend seamlessly with live action.

Spike is a true film maker too. He won’t just churn out a film to make producers happy – its ready when HE says its ready. I’m sure I had heard that he had been working on that film for 6 years prior to filming. Thats a long time!!

That’s amazing! So this is basically a decade of work on and off for him… wow – he’s going to want to make sure it’s right! I’m intrigued by these ‘interesting directing techniques’… was working on this a complete departure from other films?

No, not really. There were just a few things that he did that I hadn’t seen before – stuff to get the performance he wanted out of people. He’s a smart bloke.

He tends to work with the same people and you notice this on set. People really enjoying what they are doing – almost like making a movie with your mates.

On the subject of CGI, that’s the area you’re working on right now isn’t it? What made you make the changeover? And is learning that side of the business like starting from scratch, or are there applicable skills that crossover?

In the time i have been doing it creature crews are getting smaller by the year. Live action creatures just can’t compete with CGI. Is it better? – thats a whole new argument that we won’t get into now.

Producers and directors are not willing to chance it with live action nowadays. CGI gives film-makers so much more flexibilty and when it comes to filming a 20 foot monster, that is exactly what they want. With live action, once its in the can – thats it. I have worked on films where a 300,000 pound (money not weight) creature, that took 6 months to build, has been totally cut from the film because it wasn’t good enough. That is insane.

Also audiences now expect high end CGI. Rubber monsters just can’t cut it with todays audiences. Having said that, I know some very talented people (me included) who could do an amazing job. Thing is, you would need some one to invest the time and money into it and that just won’t happen.

For me getting into CGI, it has been a totally new learning curve, however it was because of my previous experience that the company I now work for took me on. Its all the same really – CGI is just another tool. I am doing the same thing but now its on a computer.

You can do some mind blowing things with CGI though. It is just so powerful as a tool. You cannot deny it. It is the future.

And yet, people like Aardman, who make models, light them and shoot them, make movies that are in demand and that people love aesthetically. Does that feel like a contradiction for you, or are you happy to move with the times and carry on making robots and monsters (albeit in computers rather than out of rubber and clay and mechanics)?

Aardman has its own style. People can recognize that and they like that but Aardman now have their own CG dept. Its creeping in slowly.

Just look at Disney. Pretty much all CG now. But thats animation anyway. A different kettle of fish. We are talking about live action films and making characters that can fit into that environment.

I’m happy to make wicked stuff – be it rubber or CG. I want to work on the best projects with the best people, live-action or CGI. I want to do it all!!

I’m actually taking a bit of a sabbatical from CG, starting next week. I’m off to work on the re-make of Clash of The Titans. I think its destiny!!

With Aardman, I meant the physical fact of having a physical, modelled, lit object on a set rather than specifically their house style – I think people still really respond to physical ‘actors’ in any form, knowingly or not.

Clash of the Titans!? Wow – is that going to be live action? Who’s working on it? When’s it out?

I agree with the reference to physical actors. That is something that they need to nail in CG – the interaction between physical objects and CGI.

Clash of the Titans is live action. Its very early days so I dont know too much about who is in it etc, etc. Its planned for 2010 release. Louis Leterrier directs.

Thanks for taking the time to talk to us Tom – it’s been great! Is there anything else that I’ve forgotten to mention that you think I should have? Do you see yourself making models in 10 years time? Or do you want to get out of films all together? Your sculpture work is staggering – is that something you’d like to do more of?

As for me in 10 years time………retired!!

Just kidding. I am starting to get into animation and I want to press that – the moving image. The second you start to produce interesting film work, whole new worlds of possibilities open up. I would love to do a music video like my pal Spike. Watch this space!!!

It has been a joy talking to you. Thankyou.

PS…..for anyone who hasn’t seen it – check out my website………………www.tomblakedesign.com.

Well, if that wasn’t just the best fun ever. Hope you all like the interview – check out Tom’s website if you haven’t already, and keep yer peepers open for Where the Wild Things Are, Clash of the Titans and who knows… a music video or two!?