When Derrick Borte first read the novel 'Strip', it wasn't the action that hooked him—it was the characters. Specifically, a protagonist forced to reinvent himself as the world around him changes, a theme that remains at the heart of Borte's adaptation, 'The Get Out.'
Borte spoke with Metro about adapting the novel for the screen, building the film's interconnected ensemble, and his continued commitment to practical effects.
I think it started with the Manco character, Russell's (Crowe) character, and the forced reinvention that he's dealing with: What happens when the life that you've built no longer works with the current surroundings or what's happening in the world? I think he’s a character that a lot of people would identify with and he’s a likable character. But, he’s also a character that lives in, let's say — the gray area of the world in terms of legality. I think morally, he's a good guy. But he's someone that doesn't entirely walk the straight and narrow as it relates to the law.
It's definitely challenging — it's fun when you get it right, but leading up to that point, it's frustrating and challenging. What we really grappled with in this particular project was just trying to make sure each character had a unique voice and also their [own] storyline and trajectory. Because in the book, the Joe Carver character (Luke Evans) and the Carrie character (Nina Dobrev), even the Jeff character (Aaron Paul) didn't have the same kind of connection to the overall story. We wanted them all to collide in the third act, in this inevitable meeting, in a way we thought would really just build momentum towards the end of the film. So there was a lot of work, a lot of time spent trying to figure that out. But once you start finding pieces that work, it is a lot of fun to do those things.
Hopefully, in an ensemble, each character really believes that they're the hero of the story—I think that really is the case in this film. I think each character is dealing with their own “A Story”, let's call it. And the fact that they are all connected in some way that starts to reveal itself as we go forward towards this inevitable conclusion, I think that's what I love about it. That's what I love about it, just from a story perspective and a character perspective—and that's what works so well with this film.
This film is probably 75% practical effects and 25% visual effects, I'd say. 90% of the muzzle flares on the guns are all digital — just as a safety thing and the laws in Queensland, but we tried to use squibs whenever we could. The timing is very challenging when you're using squibs, you blow a hole in someone's wardrobe with fake blood and the reset time is a lot longer. And sometimes with squibs, you still have to offset them with visual effects digitally later if they don't read quite right in the light because it's nighttime.
The car stuff, same thing. I try to use practical effects wherever possible. When the car flips over the side of the road, that's 75% to 80% practical effects with a couple of visual effect shots thrown in there. I always try to go practical whenever possible, just because I feel like it does look better. And that's some of the fun of filmmaking to me, figuring out how to achieve some of these things on the day on camera.
There's a shot where it's probably a minute long, and it's all done in one shot with no cuts. We only had one take to get it right with the explosion and everything else, because of the time we had to be out of this location. So trying to get that right and having two guys carrying a pole that had the camera mounted to it and walking up the hill backwards with lights and everything… I mean really, it was incredibly stressful, but hugely gratifying that we were able to get it.
A lot of it is that the comedy is very grounded in this film. It’s also about getting options for the edit room, where you get different takes on things and then you have flexibility in the edit room to pick which one tonally might work the best. But I think it comes from situations, it comes from reality and it comes from these characters getting themselves into these predicaments. You think, what would someone really do to try to get themselves out? And a lot of times it's funny. Sometimes it's very dark and funny at the same time. So I think that it's about just trying to keep a filter of what would really happen here and how would it happen in a way that could be believable but also funny.
‘The Get Out’ hits select theaters on June 26, and will be available on digital and On Demand on June 30.
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