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Production
Blog # 2 - April 17th: Howard Berger
Howard Berger of KNB EFX discusses how the Prince Caspian design team
have developed the creatures seen in the first film.
A
LOOK INTO THE CREATURE OF
NARNIA
BY HOWARD BERGER, MAKEUP EFFECTS AND CREATURE DESIGNER
Once in a lifetime, something so amazing happens and you are so
grateful for it. But, to have it happen twice in a lifetime is unheard
of. I am talking about the privilege of another journey into Narnia
that the creative team at KNB EFX Group, Inc. gets to take for Prince
Caspian.
 The first film was a challenge, as we had never
tackled a project so huge in scope and with so many creatures playing
at once. It was important to bring all the Narnians to life and make it
completely believable that they could believably live in this magical
land. And here we are again, ready to meet up with the new Narnians
that inhabit the land 1,500 years later.
The first step took partner Greg Nicotero and I back to the drawing
board, as we wanted to mix things up a bit. We wanted to take another
pass at what the Narnians would be like if they had become more wild in
their appearance, seeing how they have been living in hiding within the
forests all these centuries. What if they were all different age
groups, sizes and races? We felt that the Narnians in the first film
were all in their thirties, so we designed some study sculptures to
demonstrate our concepts and approached director Andrew Adamson with
the ideas. He liked our take and felt this could give Narnia an even
more real existence.
In Prince Caspian, we have heavy set fauns, old age fauns, female
dwarves, centaurs and their families. The minotaurs are now on the side
of good. A new hag, a werewolf and the satyrs are back, but all newly
redesigned to be more animal-like than the prior movie.
I think in every film there is one character you fall in love with. The
first movie had Mr. Tumnus, played by the great James McAvoy. This time
it is Peter Dinklage who plays Trumpkin the Dwarf. The character is so
wonderfully written, and once you see Peter as Trumpkin, he becomes
alive and real. We gave Trumpkin his look, but Peter gave him his
heart, and the collaboration brings to life a new and interesting
addition to this rich world.
A lot of the same crew from the first film have joined us, including my
co-winner for the Best Makeup Oscar last year, Tami Lane (with key
support from our third team member, Sarah Rubano). We are all excited
and thrilled as there is an evolution that has occurred in Narnia and
we are all privileged to be here to experience another wonderful
adventure.
[ Read the rest of this article at Narnia.com
]
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Narnia
- The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The
Chronicles of Narnia - Prince Caspian
The
Chronicles of Narnia - LWW
