Director's Notes by Denver Jackson
Death as a theme often lends itself to darker tones in film. However, with main characters like Martin and Chase, Voidwalker deals with the theme of death in a somewhat light-hearted and comedic way. I would like to portray the theme of death a little differently than is seen in most films. With that said, my approach to the tone of this film is as follows:
For the tone of the realm of the Living, I intend to make things vibrant and colorful, in spite of Martin's dull and boring lifestyle. This is because at the end of the story, Martin's attitude toward life changes for the better and I would rather avoid changing the colour palette of the Living. Any sense of boredom or drab will come from the actors in this sense, and not from the scenery.
For the tone of the Void, things become much darker. The entire realm is a black desert and I see most colors becoming desaturated in it. In order to avoid becoming too dull in the Void, I am playing around with different ideas for possible light sources in the realm. A few of these options include a stream of souls that lights the sky similar to the Northern Lights, making any cast shadows in the realm inverted (white shadows against black terrain), and the reflected light from the surrounding realms of Heaven, Hell, and Earth. The idea of the surrounding realms acting as light sources increases the diversity of colour in the Void, allowing us to see the desolate realm lit in fiery reds or elegant golds.
For effects in the Void I would like to avoid using CGI as much as possible. Instead I intend on using matted backdrops and miniatures to create the environment. Then I would film actors against a green screen. I believe that, with my experience in special effects, I can effectively accomplish even the most intense scenes that take place in the Void using this method. Miniatures and matted backgrounds would also help sell the effect of the often dark and lightless Void.
Keeping with the idea of minimal CGI, I want to make the creatures in the film all costumed actors, with a few digital effects added in post to give them that added unearthly feel. These effects might include offsetting and altering facial features or making prosthetic parts seem more lifelike (i.e. making a pair of fake eyes on a mask blink digitally). The goal is to balance practical and digital effects on the creature characters to make them truly believable.