Q. Can you tell us your background as a professional in the visual fx industry?

[Everett Burrell]  I started in creature effects in 1983 but I have been obsessed with effects stuff since I was 6 or 7 years old. I worked for Rick Baker, Stan Winston and then started my own company called Optic Nerve Studios in 1989. We did all the creature effects stuff for Babylon 5 for which I won an Emmy award in 1994. I had slowly been moving away from make-up effects since 1989 and was fascinated by the NewTek Video Toaster and Lightwave. I wanted to control the entire shot not just be one part of it. So I left Optic Nerve and help form Flat Earth productions where we did 7 seasons of Hercules and Xena. We also did the first Blade film and several other feature films.

[Rodney Brunet]  I have a traditional art and animation background with several years in the post and television industry. (Commercial | Agency world) Looking back, this could not have been a better training ground in preparing my skill-set to work for Robert Rodriguez. In the commercial world, the teams are small and everyone has to wear many hats to complete any given project. That is exactly how we work here at Troublemaker.
I came to Austin, Texas and met Robert Rodriguez while working in games. His project at the time was “The Faculty”. One night time freelance project led to another and when he created Troublemaker I jumped at the chance to work for him full-time.


Q. So how was working on the really first comic transcription to digital cinema?

[Everett Burrell]  Its was an  exciting challenge to bring to life such a cool and stylish graphic novel. Robert and Frank are amazing to work with and they really gave us a lot of freedom to bring in our own ideas.

[Rodney Brunet]  Sin City was an outstanding experience; fun and challenging. I am a big fan of Frank Miller’s Graphic Novels and found it an honor to be part of the project.
            Early on, Robert Rodriguez shot a sequence which he used to pitch the idea to Frank Miller. I think we established a lot of the look and feel from that initial sequence which carried over throughout the movie. I’m referring to the opening sequence, “The Customer is always right” with Josh Hartnett.
            Once we were in production on Sin City Robert would pick particular panels from the comic. Mostly shots that he knew would be difficult transitioning from page to motion. He wanted to remain as true to the comic as possible. We ran the gambit in detail. Also, he asked us to work through the action sequences as much as possible along with most of the environments.
Each of us here at Troublemaker had to learn how to work in this environment. It is a very unconventional way of working; we all multi-task with several shots in the mix at any given time. Robert will often ask for art on his next project before the current one is complete. The overlap is crazy at times but it is really creative.
            Our work is in constant flux and evolves throughout the production. Once the camera is locked he usually wants a render to get a feel for the end result. Also, this gives vendors a strong visual jumping off point and helps Robert keep costs down.

Q. How do you like this new cg cinema wave?

[Everett Burrell] It is a great time right now as we truly are on the cutting edge of technology and we have bought a giant surf board as this is the biggest wave I have ever seen in the business.

[Rodney Brunet]  I can not image working any other way now that I am used to the pace. It really makes financial sense in the long term and helps everyone involved visualize the end result while improving communication.From the artist perspective it is a great creative outlet. Although most of what we do rarely goes beyond the testing level, it is really fun developing the ideas.


Q. Do you think classical directors and audiences will accept it as a good way to go for some projects like comic adaptations and stylish movies?

[Everett Burrell] I hope so as long as we do our job and help tell the story. We will see more and more comic book type of films be done as the technology has final caught up with what was drawn by all the great comic artists.

[Rodney Brunet]  I truly hope this helps break all traditional stereotypes when it comes to mixing visual media. As a movie fan, I was ready to see something new and Sin City is just the beginning; at least for us. It’s great working for Robert Rodriguez in that he has the freedom and is willing to take chances on his projects.

Technology will allow Directors to take those types of chances more often and present their stories in more visual ways. If you follow what is going on around the world in various web-sites you can already see amazing quality. It’s very inspiring!


Q. What are your personal opinion about this "almost all cg" comic adaptations?

[Everett Burrell] As long as it helps bring to life a vision that could not be done any other way.

[Rodney Brunet]  Personally, I think it is our best work and Robert was very successful in bringing Frank Miller’s vision to life on the big screen. I do not think other comic to movie adaptations are as innovative or true to the original source. In my opinion, Sin City is the first movie to successfully take cinema and make it in to a book.  





Q. Would you like working on Elektra Assasin or Batman: Dark Knight versions done by Frank Miller?

[Everett Burrell]  I would love to work on Batman: Dark Knight as it had a huge impact on me when it came out in the 80's.

[Rodney Brunet]  Absolutely! In fact, Arkham Asylum and Dark Knight Returns are my favorite Batman stories written by Frank Miller. 300 is a really cool story as well…
Those are stories someone should put up on the big screen!


Q. There is enough room on big projects like this one for a cg artist to inprint his own art and style?

[Everett Burrell]   Yes and no. Meaning you can suggest ideas but SinCity had such an amazing style we could not stray to much from that. Our job was to fill in the blank areas but keep the intent of the concept artist.

[Rodney Brunet]  In small ways each artist put a little of themselves in their shots. Mostly in the details; textures and lighting! We simply expanded the frame by moving the camera to show more of the Sin City world.  
We used the Graphic Novel as our Bible and it took a lot of time to get the final look Robert was after. Our input came mostly through technique on how to best translate Frank Millers art in to CG.

Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4