Tsirbas Takes Flight

Terra Director Flips the Scrip for 3D Debut

The concept behind the new movie The Battle for Terra is one of those ideas that can easily overwhelm a person’s like. Just ask the director of the independently produced animated adventure, Aristomenis Tsirbas. After all, he’s the guy that thought it up. “It did take quite some time,” he laughs heartily. “If you wanna really do the math it’s [been] about fifteen years since the idea came up. It’s certainly been a long road.”

A world at peace in Roadside Attractions/Lionsgate Films' The Battle for Terra

I was speaking with the filmmaker via phone about his labor of love, our 20-minute conversation seemingly over just as it had begun. Tsirbas came up with the plot for his movie after reading H.G. Wells War of the Worlds, the idea of doing some sort of alien invasion spectacular sitting in the back of his mind for quite some time afterwards.

But there was a twist. The former visual effects wizard (he’s hand a behind-the-scenes hand in films as varied as Titanic, Hellboy and Conspiracy Theory) started wondering, why do the aliens have to be the bad guys? “When flushing out what the motivations for the [invaders] were I realized that humans very much parallel what that aliens do in regards to imperialistic conquest,” stated Tsirbas. “It gave me the idea to flip the script and I thought that could make for an interesting reversal.”

Yet the idea remained just that, an idea, until finally in 2002 the young director felt he had the wherewithal to craft a 7-minute live action short film, Terra, inspired by the concept. Four years later, producers ultimately gave him the okay to proceed with a feature length picture born from both his original idea and this award-winning short film. The only caveats? It was going to be produced independently. Additionally, it was going to be animated.

“Everyone told us this was going to be impossible to do,” Tsirbas admits candidly. “If you look at our crew, which was only about twenty people, maybe 1/100^th what a Hollywood studio production would have, it is amazing we accomplished this. I think we used our experience in films and television to our advantage, getting some of the pre-visualization stuff done ahead of time to make things easier in the long run.”

“Because of the emergence of digital technology, because I knew what our limitations were, we knew what our strengths and what our limitations were and this helped immensely. We were able to highlight and build upon our strengths while at the same time finding ways to work around our weaknesses. Case in point, many of the creatures in our film don’t have any hair. Hair is very expensive and is very difficult to animate. Thus, the aliens were conveniently balled. Also, the majority of the humans were soldiers. Because it was a military culture, soldiers typically shave their heads. Thus, no hair.”

We discuss the follicle challenges presented by animation and chuckle heartily about them for a few more minutes before it suddenly strikes me that one of things I liked most about The Battle for Terra is its intense commitment to creating a fully-formed and highly believable milieu for its characters. Unlike so many other films Tsirbas and his team didn’t step back from their limitations, they embraced them, finding creative ways to get things done while still not sacrificing story and character in the process.

“Everything we did had to be done in order to serve the film,” Tsirbas states bluntly. “The hair thing is a funny anecdote, but at the same time it works with the story. We’re not cutting away something which might cause you to think a piece is lacking.”

Hairless friendships are formed in Roadside Attractions/Lionsgate Films' The Battle for Terra

“I mean, think about it. If realistically we were to make the film with a much larger budget I think a lot of the character development, along with their lack of hair, would have been the same. This is a military society. More than that, it is a society that has been stuck in space on a crumbling ship for who knows how long, generations. Having long hair would probably be the last thing on anyone’s mind.”

“Listen, when we designed the film we had a certain budget already in mind, so we had to be very intelligent on how to cut corners without it ever appearing that we cut corners. The aliens therefore don’t have feet, both because they float and use what little helium that there is in the environment to move upon and filter, but also because feet and the ability to have characters walk is actual a very complex and time consuming process of animation. By having the aliens not have feet it was A) cheaper and faster to animate and, B) we ended up having a more interesting creature design.”

Backtracking a little, I admit to Tsirbas that I couldn’t help but wonder if his difficulties obtaining financing for the project were in direct correlation to the fact human beings are, in many ways, the bad guys. Some of their leaders are clearly committed to destroying an entire civilization in order to protect their own, an idea – while totally realistic and believable – that could conceivably strike those in the position of giving the go-ahead pause considering the current state of our own global affairs.

“I think there was resistance only to the idea,” he answers quickly, “and I think that resistance was born before [people] read the script and had the preconception that the humans were going to be uniformly evil. After they read the script that’s when they realized, no, that is not the case at all. The humans are shown as people who clearly have no choice [about colonization], while at the same time half our race clearly disagrees with the idea of the invasion and feel there must be alternatives. That where the major themes grew out of from, the idea that there are alternatives.”

“Now, [humans] are initially presented as the evil aggressors because this is how the format sort of works in regards to alien invasion dramas. Also, I wanted to make a film where I presented things in a certain simplistic light, but then as you peel away the layers you realize there is depth, nuance and complexity.”

That complexity doesn’t just go for the humans. The Terrians aren’t all they initially appear to be, either, and making sure their duality worked in vivid contrast to their invaders was very important to the director. “Yes, you’re very right,” responds Tsirbas. “The [Terrians] are initially seen as idyllic, naive and perfect little race, but underneath they’ve got quite a dark past, too.”

“But that’s what we’re trying to do here; we’re tying to advance the notion of what animation can be. Here we have a film which, yes, satisfies commercial tastes in that it’s got good adventure, it’s got lots of action and hopefully appealing. At the same time, we’re presenting ideas and we’re presenting themes that are maybe a little more [intricate] than what you’re used to seeing. For me, I feel kids are very sophisticated and that there is an appetite for something a little meatier where it comes to animation.”

In some ways what Tsirbas is talking about reminds me of what Pixar somehow is able to accomplish time in and time out in their animated productions. On paper, films like Ratatouille, Cars, Finding Nemo and the marginally similar WALL•E don’t sound like they should work in the slightest. In reality, all of them end up doing so all the same, many times brilliantly.

“Pixar is at the forefront of animation,” states the filmmaker without equivocation. “Instead of sitting on their laurels and making the same film over and over they’re pushing the boundaries, or at least the North American perception, of what animation can be. It’s impressive what they’re able to accomplish and as a filmmaking platform I can’t imagine where animation would be without them.”

As our discussion continues, all this talk about Pixar gets the both of us thinking about last year’s Oscar-winning animated picture WALL•E. I wonder if its massive success and acclaim gave Tsirbas pause, and while the tone between his picture and that one couldn’t be more different many of the ecologically minded themes at the center of both are admittedly eerily similar.

“There are certainly some parallels,” he admits, “but when WALL•E came out we were still finishing our film so by that point we really had no choice but to continue. I remember when it came out and we were in the final stages of Terra I was curious if it would work for or against us. Ultimately, I believe [WALL•E] works with us because what is happening in this sort of movement where animation is maturing and it is expanding and I feel as if we’re part of that. I think we’re working in concert with one another; there isn’t any competition there.”

As our conversation nears its end, I can’t let Tsirbas go without discussing the film’s 3D aspect. As a process, 3D is suddenly all the rage. Monsters vs. Aliens was given a makeover to allow for the process, while My Blood Valentine went completely retro and actually used it as its number one gimmick to get people into the audience. More, Disney has recently announced all its subsequent films will be shown in 3D, while Titanic king of the world James Cameron has already proclaimed he’s revolutionized the medium with his forthcoming science fiction epic Avatar hitting screens this December.

But I have to wonder what the point of all this is. Sure 3D can look fairly fantastic nowadays, but you still have to wear the bulky glasses, and even if doesn’t necessarily give you a headache you still pretty much have to sit in the center of the theater to not be distracted by blinking aisle lights. To me, it still feels like a gimmick, and while Tsirbas’ film uses it terrifically I still can’t admit to being on this particular band wagon.

“My opinion is that 3D is here to stay and we are in the middle of a technological incremental step to get perfect 3D incorporated into the film going experience,” he states plainly. “The thing that needs to change is the glasses. They’re better than they used to be, but you still have to put them on, you still are required to put something artificial over your eyes. In about a decade or so I don’t think that will be the case and that’s why I think 3D is here to stay.”

“Film as an art form has constantly [evolved]. It tries to emulate human experience, so black and white silent films went on to incorporate sound. When sound first started it was crude and overdone but it got better over time, and eventually it started being transmitted in three-dimensional stereo.”

“Same thing with color. When color first came out it was overdone, overly vibrant, so much so that some filmmakers and some critics felt it was a gimmick. But than the quality of the quality got better and better until the point it, too, became an integral part of the filmmaking process, both sound and color basically emulating human experience.”

The conflict begins in Roadside Attractions/Lionsgate Films' The Battle for Terra

And what does this have to do with modern 3D technology? “We have two eyes,” continues Tsirbas. “We actually see in 3D. However, we don’t think of seeing three-dimensionally as a gimmick. We don’t look at people walking by us and think it’s some sort of [trick]. It’s just the way things are naturally.”

“With that in mind, I think 3D is another technological step in filmmaking that can help reproduce human experience in order to tell more immersive stories. If you can imagine that, sometime in the future, you’ll walk into the theater and you won’t put on glasses, but you’ll still see a film with beautiful sound, magnificent color and true, immersive 3D you’ll totally forget you’re watching a film.”

“I think what DreamWorks is trying to do with Monsters vs. Aliens, what Pixar is going to try and do with Up and what we’re trying to do here is show a world of 3D that is not annoying, that is not distracting, that is organic to the film itself. While it isn’t the future I’m alluding to [optimistically] it’s an incremental step in that direction, and I hope audiences respond favorably.”

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