Interview with Director Gary H. Lee on short Film Hector Corp.



Hello Gary, thanks for sparing out sometime from your busy schedule to answer the questions.

Please tell us what inspires you to create a short film Hector Corp, you got a story of the short film from the worldwide recession? 

Truth is, this film took around four years to make from its conceptual phase all the way until the final product. There are two main factors of why it took such a long time. First, I was creating Hector Corp while having a full-time job. The other factor is that the film is very effects heavy and there were only about 2 people, including myself, who were doing the visual effects. The story did not come from the worldwide recession because four years ago the economy hadn’t yet plummeted. The timing of the release of this short ended up being impeccable.  Many people have come up to me after seeing the film and said “ You must have a crystal ball!”. I wish I had a crystal ball but I really don’t and, in some ways, it is unfortunate this fiction walks in line so close to the reality that is happening today.

The inspiration of Hector Corp. came from many different places. Being someone who started working in a big corporate environment straight from school triggers thoughts of “Who are the real decision makers in this company?”, “What is the faceless boss doing behind the scenes?”. These were interesting things to contemplate at the time and I decided to make a short, fun, theatric story out of it. Some instances occur from my own personal experience but mostly from friends around me who had entered the corporate world.


Except money, what’s the main reason of shooting the live action on the green screen background and later composite on CG background?

 I really wanted Hector to take place in an environment that walked a thin line between fantasy and reality. I grew up loving Art Deco buildings. In my mind they are a statement of time but also very timeless. To secure a location that would bring the right tone to Hector required a much larger budget than what I had, so the obvious solution was to do it digitally. The great thing about this decision was that it allowed me to create a version of the Hector building from my own mind.  Obviously, the down side was that the film took much longer to make.

Prior to Dreamworks Animation I worked at Lucasfilm on Star Wars Ep. 2 and Ep. 3. There I learned a lot about CG background generation and compositing which came in handy when making my own project. I enjoy creating alternate reality, it is fun for me.


You have mentioned ghosting and artifacts problem when shooting from F900, why such problem arise, is this a camera fault? 

Yes, this is a perfect question and I was about to get to it. F900 did NOT help for a project that was shot green screen. F900 is pretty much the first gen of official digital HD film production quality camera. Don’t get me wrong, the image looks great but issues arise when you have to deal with the color of its footage. I had a lot of problems trying to pull good keys from the images it generated. There was a lot of pixellation around the characters. We ended up having to roto most of shots which was not fun and time consuming. I should have tested the camera before shooting the whole film. I truly understand now why people would want to shoot film for effects strong projects. Film is so much more forgiving than video. However, I have heard that digital cameras have gotten increasingly better in terms of managing its color. I'll be doing some tests with a few cameras for my next project and I'll get to know soon!



What is very unique in this short film and who are the target audience?

The unique thing about Hector, I believe, is the fact that it has a lot of CG in the film but is not only about its CG. The usage of CG is only to support the story but not about showing something flashy or shouting to the audience “ Hey look what we can do!” The majority of viewers tell me the film has a very unique look and ask what inspired me to tell this story. Which is the exact response I wanted from people instead of “How did you do it?”, “What software did you use to make the movie?”

After being able to step away from Hector for some time I can honestly say I'm pretty happy with the fact that it’s not trying too hard to fit into a specific category. It has some humor, dark elements, action, and just a little bit of everything. It’s fun to make this kind of short.

I would say the specific target audience is the average working adult. However, it actually seems to have reached a broad range of grownups. Unfortunately, Hector is not for little kids. There is actually an interesting story behind how I found that out. My sound designer, Jamey Scott, was working on the mix of the film one day when his little boy walked in. He showed the film to him thinking the boy would like the animated penguins, that very night his boy had a terrible nightmare! No matter how cute the penguin was apparently the idea of toys coming alive is still a scary concept for little children.


How the CG Filmmaking is different from Live filmmaking and what’s the basic process of creating an animated/live-action/hybrid feature?

Hector is the first hybrid project I attempted. Prior to this short, I’ve done pure live action and pure animation CG projects. The beauty of pure CG project is that you can do whatever you want. Character and camera can exist in any shape or form and you get to control everything, which is great. The downside of it is the fact that you have to create everything from scratch.

Live action projects are in some ways more limiting especially when you don’t have a big budget.  It is a very organic process because you are working with flesh and blood instead of only a computer. The audience gets more surprises with live action because not everything is predictable, something which I really enjoy.

I think a good basic process of creating a hybrid project is to plan everything out. Only because there are so many additional elements one is going to add to the movie after you begin shooting. I did animatic/ previz (animated storyboards) as a way to plan the effects heavy shots out, especially with all the shots that required digital penguin interacting with a human. Having a visual representation is also great when you are directing actors who will eventually act to “nothing”. In Hector it helped the actors know where the penguin was meant to be and how they should interact with it. I have to say, it is funny to watch the raw footage before the CGI penguin is added to them. You see your actor hopping around and fighting as if he is fighting with a ghost.


How can the worldwide audience able to watch your full short film?

Film festivals. Hector Corp. is currently doing its festival run right now. It has gotten into quite a bit of festival including international ones. In the near future, after it is done with festivals, I would like to put it online for people to view.


What advice would you like to give to the students of CG when they think about shooting  a short film with live action + CG?

Planning is key. Also, lots of tests before going full steam and actually shooting it. Test your equipment and your post pipeline. Don’t rush into it until you have a story you are happy with. Every film I’ve done this with has taught me a lesson, which is that a film will have a life of its own once its started. You’ll always run into things you didn’t plan and the solution is usually throwing more money into it or it will cost you a lot of time. I wish I had tested out keying raw plates from F900 before actually renting that camera. At the time I thought “Hey if a major studio was able to do a full feature with it then that must mean the camera is perfect for post”. What I didn’t take in account was that there are a ton of artists at a studio whose full time job is to generate clean mattes for compositors to work with. And just that slight oversight cost me a good chunk of post time I wish I didn’t have to waste.

Bottom line, don’t assume anything just because you’ve read it in a magazine or seen it from a behind the scenes “making of” DVD. If you would like to incorporate any sort of CG working method make sure to test the process out yourself, then commit.



On which other projects you are currently working, and when are we getting a chance to watch your next film?

I’m developing a few stories at the moment. Some are further along than others. The furthest one is actually a feature length project. I’m not sure how I’m going to be able to make it from a budget stand point, but I really believe in it. I usually give myself a new specific challenge with every project I do. This next one is no exception. It will give me some opportunity to explore some uncharted territory and it’s always exciting when that happens. Forgive me for not revealing what it is right now. When I do reveal it, you’ll see it in the way it’s meant to be seen. Not just through words.

Thanks a lot for taking out sometime for us from your busy schedule.

Thank you so very much, it’s especially an honor to be able to talk about Hector Corp. on CGArena. The promotion of this film has mainly been word to mouth so again thank you, and please take some time to check out the film’s website www.hectorthemovie.com

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