“All the characters in this book are fictitious, and anyone finding a resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, should proceed no further…†that’s the disclaimer from the novel The Number 23, the centerpiece of the movie from Director Joel Schumacher. We talk with Raymond Gieringer at Intelligent Creatures to discuss the film.
Spiraling into a dark obsession with the number 23, Walter Sparrow (Jim Carrey) twists his once idyllic life into an inferno of psychological torture that could possibly lead to his death as well as the deaths of his loved ones. Spurred on by a mysterious novel, The Number 23, which he doesn’t dare put down, Walter is forced to unlock the secrets of his past before he can continue his future with his wife, and teenage son.
The film is directed by Joel Schumacher and stars Jim Carrey. Schumacher made his feature film directorial debut on The Incredible Shrinking Woman in 1981. His career soon took off with such Teen faves as St. Elmo’s Fire and The Lost Boys, followed by more adult films such as Cousins, Flatliners, Dying Young, Falling Down, The Client and A Time to Kill. Most recently, he brought audiences the films 8MM, Flawless, Tigerland, Phone Booth, Bad Company and Veronica Guerin. Schumacher will soon begin shooting his next film, Town Creek, a horror film on location in Bucharest, Romania. The Number 23 marks Joel Schumacher’s 23rd film or television directorial assignment.
The novel in Number 23, a birthday gift, depicts a chilling murder mystery that seems to mirror Walter’s life in dark and uncontrollable ways. The life of the book’s main character, a brooding detective named Fingerling (also played by Carrey), is filled with moments that echo Walter’s own history. As the world of the book starts to come alive, Walter becomes infected by the most frightening and evocative part of it: Fingerling’s obsession with the hidden power of the number 23.
This obsession permeates the book and begins to control Walter. He sees the number everywhere in his own life and becomes convinced that he is damned to commit the same horrific crime as Fingerling – murder. Nightmarish fantasies come to haunt Walter, ones that portend terrible fates for his wife as well as family friend Isaac French, placing him on a desperate quest to understand the mysteries of the book.
To create the look of the film, Schumacher put together a talented production team that included cinematographer Matthew Libatique (The Fountain, Inside Man), and production designer Andrew Laws (The Break-Up, Derailed) Together, they created not only the stark look of a modern day thriller, but the dark and disturbing design of the literary nether world of The Number 23.
Intelligent Creatures was given the job to bring these nightmares behind the Number 23, to the big screen. Fxguide spoke to Raymond Gieringer, President and Senior Visual Effects Supervisor at Intelligent Creatures on “The Number 23”.
The Challenges of The Number 23
FXG: What previz did you have for the scenes and shots. Was the film closely prevized – or were the stylied sequences – such as the Children’s Book sequences designed more in post?
RG: We created complete storyboards and animatics for all of the larger shots, such as the Children’s book sequence. Once Schumacher approved these animatics, we prevized the shots using Maya. Rough 3D geometry was created and a virtual camera move through each environment was developed until we were all happy with the feel of the shot as a whole.
FXG: Was the design driven by a post production VFX Art director or the production designer?
RG: We certainly took cues for look from the art department and the Production Designer, but the overall design was created at Intelligent Creatures. A great deal of credit for the art direction of the Children’s book shot should be given to our two fabulous Matte Painters, Tim Warnock and Dan Wheaton.
FXG: Can you expand on how the Blackboard shot was done… please?
RG: We started with the A-side plate of Jim’s character posed looking at text on the wall up close. Additional writing elements were tracked on the wall to clutter it up more. We used the 1st frame of the live action plate after Jim is out of view as a still frame. We sent it down to our matte painters to clean up the wall and provide us with 2 things. (1) A clean wall with no text and
(2) The text alone.
A compositor then took those elements and created a new virtual camera move to pick up where the live action camera move ended. Now that we had the text layers on different planes in depth, it allowed it to move past the layers of writing as we go through the wall.
On the other side of the wall, we see Jim’s “Fingerling” character standing on a balcony. He was shot on a green screen and compositors added a Digital background environment with a cityscape Matte Painting designed and created in-house.
As we pull around the curtain, compositors lined up a similarly motion controlled camera move of Jim’s “Walter” character so that as the curtain wipes past camera, it reveals an entirely different character on the balcony.
Finally, a Digital Set Extension was created on the outside wall of the hotel to aid in composition.
FXG: Can you discuss the grade – use of diffusion- what was the look of the final plates from IC – were they treated or clean for DI elsewhere?
RG: The look of the film was certainly driven by Joel and Matty Libatique, the DP. Early in pre-production we discussed various possible looks for the different sequences. Generally speaking, we matched into the lighting styles that Matty established, such as “Color Noirâ€.
An excellent example of this is the Suicide Blonde sequence. The plates surrounding our shots were shot with a bleach bypass look, giving them a very high contrast look. We shot our stunt double on Green Screen and to finalize the sequence, we gave the shots an extreme color correction to match into the bleach look.
FXG: The children’s book is so beautiful…can you expand on achieving that look? Were the Blurred children just stills long exposure – or was there more too them than I am seeing? You say 2D but I am guessing stills photography?
RG: From early pre-production we discussed designing a 2.5D world that would have a real yet painterly feel. The concept was to mix Hi resolution 2D stills and key live action elements shot on green screen to create our shot. A two dimensional book world style seemed appropriate, since the metaphor of a book is central to the film, in which Carrey plays a man obsessed with a book that seems to tell his life story, and this opening shot reveals his back-story.
In terms of the creating the blurred children look for the schoolhouse section, we utilized a series of frames for each character. The individual children were shot on green screen and we then created a very specific frozen motion look by interpolating between a handful of frames from each child. The idea for this section of the shot was for it to feel as though time had stopped or frozen.
Other key members of the Intelligent Creatures team included Clancy Silver, Greg Astles, Scott Riopelle, Dominic Cheung, Dan Wheaton, Tim Warnock, Laurence Lok and Jamie Hallett.
Quicktime Movies
We’ve got some nice shot breakdowns — click on the following links to view:
1 A breakdown clip showing the effects for the fairybook sequence
2 The final shot as it went to the director
3 This clip shows how the falling shot was done
4 The shot that follows the falling shot
5 This clip shows the neck knife shot broken down
6 A breakdown clip of the blackboard shot
7 Many shots are blended into one seamless impossible shot in this breakdown clip
23 facts about 23
1. Each parent contributes 23 chromosomes to the DNA of a child.
2. It takes 23 seconds for blood to circulate throughout the entire body.
3. In humans, the 23rd chromosome determines gender.
4. There are 23 letters in the Latin alphabet.
5. Julius Caesar was stabbed 23 times when he was assassinated.
6. Earth’s axis is off by 23.5 degrees.
7. Intelligentcreatures.com has 23 letters.
8. The Number 23 marks Joel Schumacher’s 23rd film or television directorial assignment.
9. There are 23 points here.
10. The ancient Egyptian and Sumerian calendars begin on July 23.
11. The Titanic sank the morning of April 15th, 1912 (4 1 5 1 9 1 2 = 23)
12. The Mayans believed the world will end on December 23, 2012 (20 1 2 = 23)
13. Jim Carrey’s production company is JC23 Entertainment.
14. John Dillinger robbed 26 banks, but only 23 for money.
15. The distance from the center of Mars to its nearest moon is 23,500 km.
16. 230 people died on TWA Flight 800.
17. Kurt Cobain was born in 1967: 1 9 6 7 = 23.
18. Kurt Cobain died in 1994: 1 9 9 4 = 23.
19. The Number 23 began filming on January 23, 2006.
20. The letters in Joel Schumacher and Jim Carrey’s names add up to 23.
21. The letters in Virginia Madsen and Jim Carrey’s names add up to 23.
22. Charles Manson was born on November 12th (11 12 = 23)
23. The Number 23 opened in theaters on February 23rd, 2007.
Special thanks to Naomi King for helping with this story.