But honestly, none of that was as hard for me as being in the middle of Covid and wearing goggles with goggles and a mask and visor. I didn’t quite realize how much I communicate through my face – a lot of director-actor relationships aren’t about giving a line, but by the way you interact and the non-verbal cues. The pandemic equipment got in the way of all that.
How much input did you have on the visual design? Was there an illustrator or director you were looking for inspiration?
Tim and Blur had been working on the story for a long time, and they had a lot of production art that felt “Thief of Baghdad” adjacent. I thought the world itself should be a little less phantasmagoric and a little more “Deadliest Catch”. My whole thing was I wanted the people to risk being flushed off the deck at any moment. They will either be chewed apart by these blunt nose sharks, or they will be torn apart by the pincers of these giant crustaceans.
It should be easier to tear characters apart and show their guts when you’re working in animation.
Yes, and on the water! As Jim Cameron and Kevin Costner will tell you, things like forces of nature exist. If you ever do a story set on the high seas, do it in CG, because you won’t chase the sun, and you won’t worry about people getting crushed or drowned between boats. And you never wait for the wave machine.
Is there anyone you’d like to bring in if you get to make a season 4?
There are many, but look, this show is taking a while. This episode lasted about 18 months. Originally we wanted to do this with Ridley Scott, Jim Cameron, Zack Snyder, Gore Verbinski. I went to so many friends of mine and asked, “Would you like to do something like that?”, and they said, “Yes!” But the reality is that this show is only affordable if the people making it don’t mind losing the money they could make doing something else.
Do we hope the world embraces this show on a level previously unseen, making it a good idea to increase the subsidy for it? Yeah that would be great. Until that happens, it’s hard to get the director of “Avatar” or the director of “Pirates of the Caribbean” to drop everything and come play with us.
