CREATING A MYTHICAL AMERICA: ABOUT THE INNOVATIVE LOOK OF PATHFINDER
Right from the start, director Marcus Nispel knew that he had an opportunity to create his own unique visual style with PATHFINDER that would set it apart from other tales of adventure and survival. Since the story unfolds in a time that is beyond historical reach, Nispel felt he had unlimited creative freedom.
To begin, Nispel collaborated with artist and illustrator Christopher Shy on a set of vividly-detailed storyboards. Shy is one of the hottest artists working in graphic novels today and is renowned for drawings so rich and textural they look like they might jump off the page. Rather than just illustrating a few key sequences, they created gorgeous depictions of every single frame in the film. "We decided we would paint the entire movie before shooting it," explains the director. "Christopher and I had a great collaboration. We both love heroes, we both love the same kinds of movies, and we had a fantastic time working together."
The resulting images - by turns brutal, ethereal and emotional - impressed everyone who saw them. "We could see that PATHFINDER was going to be like a graphic novel come to life," says executive producer Bradley J. Fischer. "Marcus is such an amazing visual stylist, and he was able to create a world that is very different from reality, yet which operates by its own clear rules."
The details began with how to bring to life the two clashing cultures of the Wampanoag Indians and the Vikings. The Wampanoag were the original inhabitants of the area that today is Massachusetts and Rhode Island, where they lived for at least 10,000 years as fishers, hunters and warriors who fostered a harmonious way of life with the natural environment. They are also the same tribe who would later, in the 1600s, famously befriend the Pilgrims before succumbing to a wave of disease and violence that the British brought with them.
Although there is considerable research on the colonial-era history of the Wampanoag, much of life in the 9th century will forever remain an enigma. This gave Nispel a chance to take some creative liberties. "We're talking about life a thousand years ago, so there's very little proof of anything," he notes. "And when you talk to Native Americans or historians, everyone has a different idea of what it was like. Did they really have tree houses? Well, maybe if they originally came from Asia, they did. I went to every department head and asked them to think about what things might have been like and let the look sort of come together as a hybrid of many different theories and ideas."
When it came to creating the Vikings, Nispel was determined to overcome centuries of comical clichés. "As we were doing research, we realized that in America, 9 out of 10 books about Vikings have these cute little guys with horns," he laughs. "Here, they have mostly been seen as cartoons, whereas in Europe we still remember them as pillagers! In Europe they are still seen as a major historical force."
The reality of the Vikings is that they were a complex society which thrived on aggressive warfare, yet were also masters of the sea, as well as farmers, traders and skilled craftsmen with a unique way of life. In a quest to increase their worldly influence, the Vikings began raiding towns and villages across Europe, earning a reputation for heathen slaughter and evil that has stuck with them ever since.
Nispel wanted to emphasize the latter and avoid any kind of dry, strictly historical interpretation. He envisioned his Vikings as men raised to believe in the glory of violence and conquest, which ultimately led to their society's collapse. He also developed a unique look for them, avoiding the standard clichés and the less intriguing suggestions of recent historians that Vikings never wore the famous horned helmets with which they are usually associated.
"We weren't creating a history lesson, so we were willing to create a certain amount of contrivance with the Vikings," says the director. "The important thing is they are our own contrivances. They're not any sort of depiction you've seen before."
In bringing his vision to life, Nispel worked closely with production designer Greg Blair, who previously collaborated with Nispel on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. "From a production designer's standpoint working with Marcus is always a dream mission," Blair says, "because the man is a visual genius. He has such care and love for the art of film and the look of everything. From my point of view, he's just a constant inspiration."
Like Nispel, Blair began with intensive research, supplemented with imagination. Blair notes: "We wanted to remain faithful and respectful to Native American culture but at the same time give the film a great look. We did a lot of research and one thing we knew is that we did not want to continue the stereotypical depiction of American Indians where they all live in tipis. These are Wampanoag people that live on the East Coast, not on the Great Plains, so the audience is going to see different images of American Indians than what they usually see."
After long nights flipping through Native American history books, Blair found himself building entire villages of Wetus, the unique, woven grass mat structures that the Wampanoag used for homes. "American Indians had all kinds of different structures," says Blair. "The Wampanoag lived in two types of buildings: one that was called the long house and was a long, rectangular structure and then smaller, domed family units. And what we did for the film is similar to those real historical designs, but we added a bit to it, building them more in sections - like the Sydney Opera House! We also constructed them out of steel and foam, rather than wood, for speed and stability, and then covered them in moss and bark later."
One of Blair's favorite creations was the Pathfinder's tree house, which soars above the forest, giving the Pathfinder a broad view of the world he oversees. "After talking with Marcus, we wanted to give the Pathfinder something very special, something that really sets him apart from the tribe, so we decided to put him in a tree," Blair explains. "We can't be sure if that would be historically accurate or not, but it was an amazing and fun design, and it felt like something that could have happened. Once we found the location, the design emerged with a really organic feeling. Then, for the interior, we filled it with an assortment of dream catchers and wind chimes and all kinds of fantastic shamanic symbols."
When it came to the Vikings, Blair faced the task of constructing a realistic "dragon ship," in which they crossed the Atlantic. Also known as "longships" or "drakkars," these foreboding, carved wooden vessels were driven by as many as 60 oarsmen and could carry as many as 400 warriors to distant shores.
"The dragon ship was a really a blast to design," Blair comments, "and it was based on historical depictions of what the Viking ships really looked like. Since the ship was wrecked, we had to build this forty foot high structure and then flip it upside down. Then we craned the whole thing into the middle of Buntzen Lake."
To depict the carnage of the Viking campaigns, Blair created another chilling set. This time the production used the expertise of a prosthetics department to display such gruesome sights as massacred bodies splayed across spears, decapitated remains, crows pecking out the eyes of a dying corpse and dogs feasting on a disemboweled man.
Throughout, Blair worked in tandem with costume designer Renée April, a two-time Genie Award winner whose credits include The Day After Tomorrow and Confessions of A Dangerous Mind. April created a new look to cinematic Vikings. "We wanted to find a line between the cartoon barbarian with fur, the actual complex and mythic culture, and the sheer, beastly evil they've come to represent," she explains. "But we definitely wanted them to look huge, tough, metallic and bad, bad, bad."
The costumes began with chain-mail and were layered with leather, fur and sharp metal until they had grown truly imposing. "I went very much by instinct," explains April. "We weren't doing a documentary so I asked myself what looks cool and what looks fun. For the Native Americans I used a more historical approach, but with the Vikings we just went as far as we could."
The costumes might be spectacular to the eye but they were definitely burdensome to the actors. Notes Clancy Brown: "The toughest part of playing Gunnar had to be wearing the costume, because it's very, very heavy. We have steel breast plates, shoulder pads and bear cloaks that have to weigh at least thirty pounds. By the end of each day I felt an inch shorter!"
For Karl Urban's outfits as Ghost, Renée April started out with typical Wampanaog outfits but slowly began to shift him towards his own blend of Viking and Native American styles. Urban was impressed with the way the outfits worked in sync with his character's development. "The hybrid look he adopts becomes a kind of metaphor for who this character is," says Urban.
Arnold Messer was especially impressed by the costumes. "The American Indian costumes are fabulous; they have authentic touches and are very functional. And with the Vikings, Renée accomplished two very important things at the same time. She shows the great bulk and strength of the Norse civilization and also the roughness and aggression that is so much a part of the story."
The significant task of capturing Nispel's carefully elaborated designs and visuals on film fell to cinematographer Daniel C. Pearl, ASC, who adds his own stamp to the film's mythic look. Pearl previously collaborated with Nispel on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and also shot the classic 1973 original. For this film, he worked under the most extreme and shifting light conditions, with the Canadian weather often forcing him to change his lighting strategies mid-stream. Nispel credits Pearl for giving PATHFINDER the edgy and foreboding atmosphere he sought. "Daniel Pearl did the most amazing job," says Nispel. "When you watch the film you'll never appreciate just how great the challenges were of getting shots at night, at day, in the rain, sunshine and overcast sky, and yet making it look like one completely integrated story."

ABOUT THE SHOOT: 53 DAYS OF RAIN, ROCKS AND ADVENTURE
To immerse the audience in the environment of PATHFINDER, Marcus Nispel chose to shoot the film almost entirely outdoors in and around the craggy, forested beauty of Vancouver, British Columbia. Working at his trademark lightning pace - "I just like momentum" says Nispel - the shoot was a blistering 53 days, many of which involved an astonishing 40 to 60 set-ups in a single day. With only two days of shooting inside sound stages, the production found itself in near constant motion - shooting in the middle of waterfalls, while hanging off perilous escarpments and on the run through dense woods. For Nispel, the whole point was creating a hardcore, realistic environment that would be completely believable and truly visceral to the audience - rather than relying on technology.
"I liked the actors to do their own stunts whenever possible and when it says on the script 'eighty people fall off the mountain' - they are not digitized in this film, they are real," he states. "We painstakingly tried to make every scene as authentic as possible, because I believe that when people watch a movie, subliminally they register it is something that is painted in. I don't want the audience to feel cheated be distracted by some CGI effect. As good as effects are, I think you still realize that, well, this didn't really happen. But if you've got actors and crew hanging on a rock wall getting banged around and the camera can actually move - then it's true, authentic experience for the bottling."
Authenticity often comes with a heavy price tag - namely constant danger and discomfort. Drenching rains, ankle-turning terrain and bone-chilling temperatures were just some of the hardships that the team faced. Some of the most difficult days on the set came at the mighty Stawawmus Chief Mountain, a sheer, granite rock face in Squamish National Park. "The Chief was especially dangerous because there were a lot of mossy rocks that got wet and it is pitch black there even in the middle of the day because the trees are so big," says Nispel. "It proved to be brutal terrain for shooting."
Yet Nispel felt there was no other choice of terrain if he was to capture the raw nature of life amid the elements in a Pre-Columbian America of 1000 years ago. "I warned everyone in advance that there was going to be wind and weather, rocks and stones at all times," recalls Nispel. "The great thing was that everyone rose to the occasion and got into the grit of it. We were lucky because we found a tough cast and crew who were ready to work in rain and water and mud with no complaints."
On the contrary, the rain, wind and risky mountainous terrain only seemed to amp up the atmosphere and dare the performers to push even harder.
Sums up Nispel: "The climate became another participant in the film. I think when actors are sweating or shivering, when the adrenaline is truly flowing, they stop acting and they start being real. They start to become Vikings and Native Americans and everything about the story starts to fall into place."

THE FILMMAKERS

German-born MARCUS NISPEL (Director/Producer) made his feature film directorial debut with the remake of the cult classic film, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre produced by Michael Bay. He started his career in advertising as an art director for Young & Rubicam in Frankfurt, Germany. Nispel came to America on a Fulbright scholarship in 1984 at the age of 20 and made his directing debut in 1989 with a series of music videos for C&C Music Factory. While living in New York, Nispel founded and operated his own production company, Portfolio Artists Network, before merging with RSA-USA, and then joining MJZ in 2000.
Nispel has directed over 1000 commercials and music videos. His commercial clients include: AT&T, Audi, Canon, Chase, Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper, Fidelity, Kodak, Levi's, L'Oreal, Marlboro, Mercedes, Motorola, Nike, Panasonic, Pepsi, RCA, Showtime, Sprint, Sprite, Unisys, UPS, US Postal Service, VISA Gold as well as MTV, ABC, CBS
and NBC.
Nispel's music videos include over fifteen #1 songs and several breakthrough videos for artists such as the Spice Girls, Simply Red, Puff Daddy, Bush, No Doubt, the Fugees, George Michael, Janet Jackson, Elton John, Billy Joel, Aretha Franklin, Cher, Mariah Carey, k.d. Lang, Tony Bennett, C&C Music Factory, Bette Midler, LL Cool J, Bryan Adams and Gloria Estefan.
Nispel has been awarded numerous international advertising accolades including several Clio Awards, the Moebius Award, the Grand Prix at the BDA Awards, honors from the New York, Houston and Chicago Film Festivals and the Art Directors Club. His work has garnered 12 MTV Music Video Award nominations resulting in four MTV Music Video Awards, including a 1993 MTV Best European Video Award for "Killer/Papa was a Rolling Stone" by George Michael. Nispel has won two Billboard awards and Music Video Filmmaker Association Awards as well as the MVPA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001.
The director has also been the subject of two documentaries and was featured in Time Magazine's year-end issue "Best of 1996" for his Fidelity Investments campaign, "A Time Has Come Today." In 1997, Nispel was featured as a speaker at the AICP MOMA Show. The AICP has honored him with several awards and his work is now part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art. His work has also been highlighted and screened at the New York Film Festival, the Art Director's Club and at the Film and Broadcast Museum in Frankfurt.
In 1996 he was honored at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's "Cross Cultural Dreams" retrospective of his music videos. He was featured in a chapter of Armond White's book on the pop revolution and was a recipient of the Black Achievement Award for the positive portrayal of African Americans in mass media.

LAETA KALOGRIDIS' (Screenplay) previous screenwriting credits include Oliver Stones's Alexander and the fantasy thriller Night Watch (Nochnoi Dozor). Her forthcoming films include Battle Angel with James Cameron directing.


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