COMIC-CON 2010: ‘Resident Evil: Afterlife’ uses 3-D to level up the franchise

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For some movies, 3-D is an afterthought, plastered on after the shooting is done in order to boost the box office results with premium-priced tickets. That wasn’t the case with “Resident Evil: Afterlife.” Director Paul W.S. Anderson told the Comic-Con audience in Hall H of the San Diego Convention Center that 3-D technology was baked into everything he did, from the cinematography and the set design to the editing and the action choreography.

Using the same cameras deployed by James Cameron to make “Avatar,” Anderson shot the entire film in 3-D. “3-D is revolutionizing cinema,” Anderson told the audience.

As an example, he described how actors previously could stage punches by swinging their fists about 6 inches from the other person’s face. By lining up the cameras a certain way, directors could make the punch look realistic.

“That doesn’t work anymore with 3-D, where there is greater depth,” Anderson said. “You had to block scenes where people actually got hit.”

Milla Jovovich, who plays Alice in the series, said the actors often ended their days with bruises that had to be covered with makeup the next day. Outdoing the action from the previous three movies for “Afterlife” was important to Anderson, who also directed the first movie, based on the video game of the same title from Japanese developer Capcom.

“If we had to make another [Resident Evil] movie, I wanted to make a conceptual jump,” he said. “And 3-D was part of that.”
Said Jovovich, “It’s like this grueling roller coaster ride. It’s wild.”

-- Alex Pham

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