Disney’s The Lion King remake had a lot going for it, which helped give it the biggest animated movie opening weekend yet. While Jon Favreau’s direction and cutting-edge virtual reality were a part of that success, having six-time Oscar nominee Caleb Deschanel as the cinematographer didn’t hurt either.
Though his expertise up to now had been with live-action filming, Deschanel was able to provide his skillset in creating as realistic a filming environment as possible to the 360 volume Playa Vista stage which served as The Lion King’s primary setting. During an early visit to the movie’s headquarters, the cinematographer provided some insight as to how the two worlds collided during filming.
Computer glitches and other technological frustrations presented quite a setback to an artist who hasn’t encountered them before, but Deschanel was quick to point out the upside to The Lion King’s VR experience. “Because we’re able to get a lot done, we are able to experiment on a lot of levels,” he explained. “We can try things that, if you were on a real set, you’d be losing light.”
Without the limitations of time and weather, Deschanel and Favreau found they didn’t have to give up on big moments that they wanted to try. Thanks to the visual tools that allowed them to do things they’d never been able to do in live action, their control over the surroundings gave way to more creative freedom.
At the same time, the lack of constraints that come from filming in the real world proved to be a little disorienting at first. Deschanel compared his own situation to that of Brad Bird, director of animated classics such as Ratatouille and The Incredibles, when he first directed live action. While Bird had been stumped by no longer being able to accomplish the wild feats of his animated days, “we’re going in the opposite direction and taking the tools of normal filmmaking and bringing them into our world and using that as a method to create a reality."
One rule The Lion King crew instilled early on was to treat the lions and other animals of Pride Rock as if they were real creatures. Other than the fact that they can talk, of course. Therefore, “they don’t do physical things that they couldn’t do in real life,” Deschanel specified. Which winds up turning some musical numbers, such as “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King,” into very different entities when the lions don’t pick up other animals for fun or count their fingers.
Deschanel also agreed with production designer James Chinlund when it came to how much the reimagining relied on the animated Lion King film. Though certain iconic shots had to remain the same, such as the positioning and direction of Price Rock itself, the creation of the new film was more abstract. “We certainly looked at that and studied it and there’s certainly elements of the film that imitate it,” the cinematographer clarified. “But I think it’s going in a whole other direction because of the reality of the nature of these characters.”
In particular, he felt an emotional tie to the photorealistic animals that surpassed the feelings inspired by the animated one. Whether audiences agree that Scar’s duplicity and Simba’s tragedy or triumph are more keenly felt in the latest version of The Lion King, there’s no doubt Deschanel and Favreau have provided a way of experiencing those emotions in a whole new light.
More: How The Lion King’s Visual Effects Compare to Avatar
