Using AI in A24’s fantasy-adventure film The Legend of Ochi would have been impractical for director Isaiah Saxon … despite what some people on social media initially suspected. At the Vulture Spot at Sundance, Saxon explained why he chose to bring the furry creatures in the movie to life with practical effects alone. “The goal from the beginning was always to make something that kids might think is completely real, and that informed the design of the world, the setting, making the creatures seem like they were a real species,” he said, adding that he drew inspiration from the golden snub-nosed monkey and various tarsiers and lemurs. When you see an Ochi move, you’re seeing puppeteers and animatronics, not generative AI. “I wanted to really have it feel like a kid could be like … maybe they hadn’t seen the BBC nature documentary yet, and this was a real thing,” Saxon added. “And so to do that could only be done practically. I would have never made the movie if we weren’t doing it practically.”
Saxon’s approach had some added benefits for his actors, too. For Helena Zengel, it was helpful to be able to act with something she could look at. “He almost became like a friend, he looked so real, and those puppeteers made it come alive,” she said. Meanwhile, Finn Wolfhard — who will make his feature directorial debut for Neon with horror-comedy Hell of a Summer — said he learned a lot about directing from watching “a handmade guy” like Saxon work. While referencing a documentary about the visual-effects company ILM, the Stranger Things star pointed out that Jurassic Park was going to use computer-generated graphics for the dinosaurs that Phil Tippett was originally supposed to create practically. “In the end, they ended up doing computers, but they needed Phil Tippett’s designs and his sculptures in order to inform the dinosaurs,” Wolfhard said. “And so you need each other to make these things.”
We’re back at Sundance in the Vulture Spot, where we’re interviewing the casts and creators of the year’s buzziest films. Check out the rest of our coverage from the film fest here.
