Talk:Janet Muswell Hamilton

Fred posted about today's "Disney Insider" blog post: "Going Places No Muppet Has Gone Before". It's a nice, detailed interview with Janet Muswell Hamilton, the visual effects producer for The Muppets. There's a ton in here that's relevant on a bunch of pages -- Hamilton's for one, but also some articles on puppetry techniques (showing hand puppet characters as full body, remote control puppetry), and specific scenes like "Muppet Man", Mount Rushmore, Piggy walking in Paris, driving out of the ocean, the Hollywood Boulevard finale and the portraits. Tons of good stuff!

I'm at work right now so I can't do the heavy lifting :) -- but I'll post it here so it's easy to find. Please feel free to start cherry-picking the good info! -- Danny (talk ) 21:15, April 9, 2012 (UTC)

The ref to use is:


 * They drove out of the ocean and onto a beach (with neither a feather nor fur out of place!), blew up Mount Rushmore, and caused havoc on Hollywood Boulevard -- literally. So, after nearly 50 years of zany antics, is there anything the Muppets can't do? Evidently not, thanks to the magic of visual effects. Viz effects producer Janet Muswell Hamilton, who supervised the wizards at Los Angeles-based LOOK FX, gave us a first-hand look at the creative process, mob scene-stealing secrets, and why blue is the new green.


 * WHAT INTERESTED YOU ABOUT THE PROJECT?
 * When I got the call from Disney, I jumped at it. I was like, "Yes. Absolutely, I want to do it!" One of the reasons is that this is something your children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren can watch. I have a 12-year-old and she was very excited. Most of the movies I work on are R-rated, so it was really nice doing something that my daughter and her friends could enjoy, and that I know her kids will enjoy. It's a lasting legacy.


 * WAS THIS YOUR FIRST MUPPETS FILM?
 * Yes.


 * WHERE DID YOU START?
 * About three months before shooting began, I realized that I needed an education on all things Muppets, because we really didn't want to cheat and use computer-generated puppets. We wanted the original puppets to do more than they've ever been able to do before... and it was very interesting.


 * I spent lots of time with the puppeteers (and the director, of course) discussing ways to achieve our ideas. We needed cool concepts that no one's seen before -- all while maintaining the integrity of the Muppets, the Muppet franchise, the Muppet name, the Muppet feeling. The puppeteers were very intent on keeping everything, as they said, very "Muppet-y."


 * It's a lot harder working with the fluffy characters than it is working with their computer-generated counterparts. You must always keep in mind where the puppeteers will stand (because they're there even though the audience doesn't see them), how they hold the puppets, and if they're able to move in certain positions. How can we help them achieve something new and exciting without undermining the creative presence of the Muppets? So we thought of things they hadn't done before, like driving out of the ocean -- there was no one in the car, obviously. There were no Muppets in the car. There were no people in the car -- we just pulled the car out of the water and added them in later.


 * WHAT WERE SOME OF THE PUPPETS' LIMITATIONS?
 * Well, it's very hard for a full-body Muppet to look right in your mind. Thanks to technology, we had more opportunities to show them head to toe. Still, it was important to maintain the puppets' integrity without making them look odd -- we didn't want them in situations where they appeared too tall or too tiny. We worked out the camera angles very carefully so they looked more interesting without taking viewers out of the story. And I think we were quite successful.


 * I learned how the Muppets move and all the different techniques used to move them. One of the most interesting is called Bunraku, where puppeteers dress in black against a black background. It was used for "Inside the Labyrinth," when large puppets danced around. The dancing looked fantastic, but the digital key looked terrible -- the technology really wasn't there back then. So while we were able to incorporate more of those techniques, we had the ability to make it look pristine. Also, I learned how many people it takes to move a puppet's mouth, body, arms, and legs simultaneously -- and how the puppets' height matters. The puppeteers really tied themselves up into pretzels to get the shot... they're incredible.


 * Another thing we did was test the colors of the puppets because they're every color under the sun. Normally, it's traditional to shoot green screen, but it turned out that blue (an alternate technique) was definitely the way to go because Kermit's green. There were a few scenes where the puppets were purely blue and I chose green screen, but we mostly used blue. Then there's Dr. Teeth -- he's green, blue, and red!


 * HOW TALL ARE THEY IN COMPARISON TO JASON SEGEL?
 * Well, Jason is 6'4" and Kermit's, maybe, two feet tall. So knowing what height to present them at was a creative challenge. Like Walter, who's Jason's sidekick -- he's less than three feet tall, so that's pretty small. It's actually surprising how small they are. Generally they're hand puppets, but we also used remote-controlled puppets. In the opening sequence when everyone's dancing around, Walter's sitting on a bench, looking at his watch, and waiting for the bus -- that's actually a remote-controlled puppet.


 * WHEN WERE REMOTE-CONTROLLED PUPPETS USED?
 * Not often, but we incorporated them in the scene outside Gonzo's plumbing business where they're standing full body. I had to clean up the wires and plates they stood on, so we really did everything we could to use the original hand puppets.


 * WHAT ARE SOME OF THE ADVANTAGES?
 * For example, when Walter's on the bench, we built it big enough so a puppeteer could fit inside. But because he [Walter] slides along the ground on a suitcase, it was easier to film by moving him via remote control. If there was a puppeteer behind him, I'd have to remove him and then the shot becomes very complicated. It takes longer to shoot, which slows us down. So it's all about speed and ease -- we went with the easiest option that provided the most creative freedom.


 * WHAT OTHER CHALLENGES WERE THERE?
 * I really wanted to give the puppeteers more freedom to move around. There was a scene with a five-foot-tall Muppet man -- that's a big puppet operated by four people. To move around it while holding it up and moving its head and mouth, I used a very simple motion-controlled head, which provided continuous and consistent camera movements. This way we could capture the background without encumbering the puppeteers' movements. They wore blue-screen suits and could move freely without being concerned about hiding themselves. So that was really great ... well, they didn't have to hide as much. Of course, every time we put them in blue-screen suits, they imagined that they were completely invisible, which sometimes made my job difficult.


 * CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE MOUNT RUSHMORE SCENE?
 * Mount Rushmore was actually a fun idea. We wanted Crazy Harry to blow something up, and after trying quarries and other things, we thought of Mount Rushmore. We applied a real-life explosion on top of a photo of Mount Rushmore, enhanced it digitally, and used Photoshop to incorporate a picture of Crazy Harry's face into Mount Rushmore. We played with different ideas, but wanted something funny. I think the director came up with that ... well, he obviously came up with a lot of the ideas! It wasn't a difficult shot -- LOOK FX produced the background of the explosion, and then we put it all together.


 * IS THERE ANYTHING THAT YOU COULDN'T DO?
 * There's nothing we can't do! We ended up shooting Miss Piggy twice as she walked away from Kermit in Paris. We thought it would be quite dramatic to have them walking down a Paris street while talking about whether she'd return to help him with the show. Eventually she says she can't be replaced and walks away, tossing her head back in a very "Miss Piggy fashion." We really wanted to see her walking away from us, but just couldn't get her walk right the first time. So we made a treadmill for her, which was literally a piece of blue screen material. We pulled it along the puppeteers' tabletop, which was custom made at the correct height. Thanks to that, her movements were flowing rather than jerky -- it took six or seven people to operate, but worked really well.


 * Because we needed different ways to move the puppets, we ended up building lots of rigs -- mainly to avoid doing anything computer-generated because the puppets are moving in a three-dimensional space. On film they become a two-dimensional image, so we wanted them to look like they have perspective when moving away from and toward you.


 * WHAT KIND OF RIGS?
 * As the blue screen's attached to the background, we had to figure out where they [the Muppets] would be positioned in the shot and used elaborate rigs to move them accordingly. We built a ginormous lazy susan that fit three puppeteers in a row, and could move fast, slow, forward, or backward. That's how we shot Beaker running around on the ground before Bunsen picks him up and pops him in his pocket. I really wanted him to look like he was scared and confused while running in circles, backwards and forwards. This enormous lazy susan allowed him to move away from and towards the camera while moving his legs, something a full-body puppet couldn't do otherwise. And kudos to the puppeteers because they're brilliant at making puppets walk on the spot -- they're just incredible artists.


 * So yeah, we were always building rigs. When the car comes out of the ocean, we built a wheeled vehicle that was on rails against blue screen. It looked like the Flintstones' car because it had a canopy over the top -- we didn't want lights shining down on them because they were supposed to be inside the car. Everyone thought I was insane, but it worked out beautifully. There's a method to the madness -- it was a very odd-looking shoot. I have to say that shoot was one of my favorites -- lots of laughter. I was pretty convinced about what I was doing, as were the people directly working with me, but everyone else said, "What is she doing?" It was really fun.


 * CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE HELICOPTER SHOT ON HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD?
 * During the day, the helicopter did some test runs. Then I sat with the director and the helicopter pilot, looked at the tests, and decided what we liked. After discussing the angles we wanted and how to achieve them, we knew what would happen that night. We used about 300 extras to fill up the immediate area outside of El Capitan Theatre, which was actually the Muppet Theater in the film. It was pretty late at night and the street was shut down. When the helicopter came in, we knew exactly what he was going to shoot.


 * WHAT CHALLENGES DID YOU FACE WITH THAT SCENE?
 * Removing the cleat lights and putting them back in. Plus, we had to change the whole front of the theatre and remove our base camp, which was behind the Theatre -- you could see it as the helicopter blew in. We even changed the posters that lined the street to "Cars 2" because it was being released on DVD when the movie was coming out. That shot took a lot longer than we expected, but it was really fun getting all those people in there and making it look so effortless.


 * TELL US ABOUT THE SCENE WHERE THE PORTRAITS COME TO LIFE ...
 * Right from the beginning, that scene was planned out very carefully with the puppeteers, our director, and LOOK FX. We discussed it in length because I wanted to achieve a sense of transitioning from two dimensions to three -- a sort of extrusion -- which isn't easy. I worked on the stills with the art director and LOOK FX so, as a visual effects company, they had all the information necessary to recreate what we hung on the set. The fact that they were real pictures, not visual effects, really helped us in the long run. When we took the pictures down, there were holes in the set -- like a diorama. The puppets were behind those holes (with blue screen behind them) in the same configuration as the stills, and began moving on cue which, I think, worked pretty well.


 * We were able to reapply the exact texture and shine because we were involved from the beginning. Planning is very important for any shot. If you plan things, it comes together quite nicely. There were no major problems or obstacles because of in-depth planning.


 * HOW LONG DOES THAT PHASE USUALLY TAKE?
 * I worked on pre-production for 12 weeks. During that time, you do everything -- plan the shots, work out the budget, place orders, talk to the different departments, scout all the locations, and just get everything ready to shoot.


 * The puppeteers had to look at the locations to make sure that they could do what was needed. I was quite involved with certain aspects of the build so I could get what I wanted without encumbering anyone else -- all the departments worked together.


 * ANY FINAL THOUGHTS ...?
 * It was an exciting project to work on. The puppeteers are so together and talented -- they always knew what they were doing, and it was fun working with them. The director was wonderful, and everyone was into it. We had an A-class crew who all wanted to be there, which makes working very nice. It's a feel-good movie, and you walk out of the theater thinking, "That was great." I was very lucky to be on it.