How Pro Machina Creates Practical Movie Magic With Miniatures

Could you please introduce yourself and your team? How did the story of Pro Machina begin?

Reid Collums, Co-Founder at Pro Machina: My name is Reid Collums. I am a Filmmaker from New Orleans who does a little bit of everything (writing, building, acting, producing, etc.). Camille [Camille Balsamo-Gillis] and I started Pro Machina as the production company that works hand in hand with Studio Gillis to make independent features.

We both had the pleasure of working with Ian on miniature jobs prior to the formation of the company. We were asked to make a 1:5 scale model of Disney's Main Street, U.S.A., for a private collector, so we approached Ian about the job and have been working with him ever since. While Pro Machina is still focused on in-house productions, we have made a name for ourselves with our miniature work on studio films. 

We'd love to hear about some of the miniatures you've made before. Which ones do you find most memorable? Are there any that you particularly enjoyed or found especially challenging?

Reid Collums: Pro Machina's highest profile miniatures, that we can talk about at this point, are the Echo Probe, the Corbellan, and the Excelsior. Even though this is a bit of a non-answer, each miniature we make is especially challenging and particularly enjoyable. The back and forth between feelings of frustration and elation is par for the course until the job is delivered, and then the sense of accomplishment and pride sets in.

Ian Hunter, Miniatures Supervisor at Pro Machina: I worked for some time before Pro Machina, within my own company, with two partners, New Deal Studios, and previously with Stetson Visual Services. When I began, I fell backwards into miniatures and visual effects for film and commercials, and worked on The Abyss (1989). Following The Abyss came Stetson Visual, founded by Mark Stetson and Robert Spurlock, and I worked on Dick Tracy (1990), Total Recall (1990), The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), a personal favorite, and culminated my time with Stetson with Waterworld (1995).

After Stetson came Hunter Gratzner Industries, later known as New Deal Studios, with Matthew Gratzner and Shannon Blake Gans. We started with Broken Arrow (1996) and then went on to create many memorable scenes and shots for films such as Pitch Black (2000), End of Days (1999), The Dark Knight (2008), Inception (2010), Dark Knight Rises (2012), and Interstellar (2014).

Inception, by the way, was a very difficult job to pull off. In fact, almost all of Christopher Nolan's projects had their specific challenges, but ultimately, the difficult parts enhanced the effect and made the creative results better.

Do you have a specific work that usually surprises people when they find out it's not CGI?

Reid Collums: This is a funny question because it is not the standard we are trying to reach. This is not meant as a knock on CGI and the incredible things being done by the artists that work in that arena, but we are trying to surprise people when they find out it wasn't something full-scale in camera. There are a few movies we have worked on that surprise people to find out that miniatures were used at all. Once Upon A Time in Hollywood springs to mind. 

Ian Hunter: Hah! There is a scene in The X-Files movie (1998) where we blow up a federal building miniature, and it rains down floating government papers. Most people thought it was CG, but it was actually phone books cut up into the right scale size paper and pushed off the roof of the model by me and two production assistants. What too many people these days don't realize is that films have been using visual effects for decades before CG even existed, and there were practical, real, analog ways of doing things. CG can make integrating practical effects into live action easier, combining the best aspects of both methods.

Focusing more on the Excelsior, practical effects play a key role in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, shaping its retrofuturistic style and adding authenticity to the scenes. What materials and techniques were used to build and paint the Excelsior miniature to achieve the right feel?

Reid Collums: The Excelsior had a number of design specifications that made it challenging to pull off. It is a very long, slick ship, which meant we would need a lightweight custom metal frame to support everything. The ship, in its launch position, rested on the razor-thin fins of three booster engines that needed to be removable. We needed to be able to grab the model from several different positions to get all the necessary shots, which meant several hatches in a pristine metallic body.

One thing to know about a metallic finish is that it is very unforgiving. Every flaw is highlighted. This is what we were up against, and to get there, we used the tried and true techniques. Sculpting, 3D printing, molding and casting, welding, laser cutting, and lots and lots of body shopping.

Ian Hunter: We started with a digital model from the art department, but it did not have the fine surface details, engine section, etc., finalized, so our in-house designer worked with the art department to develop those areas. Once we had a more or less complete design, we first 3D printed the patterns on our printers and then added that surface detail. Molds were made of these patterns, and then epoxy fiberglass parts were made to create a strong, durable finished model. The epoxy parts were wrapped around a water-cut, welded-up aluminum armature, which made sure the over 4-meter-long spaceship model was rigid and strong enough to stand up and fly horizontally for photography. It was painted in different-toned auto paints to impart a metallic finish, which photographed well.

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Are there any hidden details on the Excelsior miniature that aren't obvious at first glance? Can you tell us how functional the Excelsior is? And what was your favorite, or perhaps least favorite, part about working on it?

Reid Collums: A trademark of Ian's work is that he always hides something on every job. You will have to pry the specifics about what is hidden from him, but I can say that we made tiny versions of the Fantastic Four to sit in the cockpit.

As far as functionality, it flies pretty well, but it could never make it out of Earth's atmosphere on its own. Just kidding, functionality. It stands on its own in the upright position, we can grab it with a speed rail from the back, the front, the bottom, the left side, or the right side so that we can shoot it from almost any angle. It also has functional lights from head to toe.

I keep giving politician answers, but my favorite part about working on this one was creating the ship on the night of the last day before the crate needed to go out early the next morning. There was a handful of our crew who had already been burning the candle at both ends, who stayed until the early morning hours to make sure everything was perfect. It was such a good reminder of the passion and commitment to perfection that the artists who work with us bring to each project. They make this work fun for me. That and getting to casually mention at a social event that I make spaceships.

Ian Hunter: I used to hide things in miniature, dating back to Total Recall. In the case of the Excelsior... Well, let's say, I'm a big fan of the movie Silent Running (1972).

What was on the agenda for your talk at the VIEW Conference? Anything you’re especially proud to share following the event?

Reid Collums: We introduced ourselves as a company, showed off some of our past work, did a deep dive on making the Excelsior, and teased some of our future plans. We connected and had conversations with other artists. 

Ian Hubert: It's an honor and a privilege to be invited to the VIEW Conference and to be asked to talk. My subject matter was a retrospective of my work in visual effects, obviously emphasizing miniatures. Talking about yourself can be, uh, uncomfortable, so I'm hoping the work spoke for itself.

With digital VFX and AI everywhere, what makes practical effects still matter, and what motivates you to keep at it? What's the future for them?

Reid Collums: I don't believe VFX and practical effects are at odds. I think in a perfect world, they work to support each other. That said, "real" is the standard. Shooting something as-is, in-camera, is the best way to tell a story. Miniatures are a way to cheat something too big or too costly to shoot at full scale, still in-camera. As long as there are storytellers who want to use these techniques, we will be around to keep providing them. As far as AI, that's a whole different story. If AI gets to the point where we can't tell or value the difference between real vs. artificially created, then I think we're all in trouble. But that's a conversation for a different day.

Ian Hunter: When CGI started taking over, we were asked if practical effects would continue and survive. Now, AI CG imagery is here. There are fewer and fewer folks who do practical effects and create miniatures, but there are also a few filmmakers who want to have practical effects mixed in with their CG effects, so as long as there is this desire to combine the real and the synthetic, there will be a space for miniatures. We've recently found ourselves building and photographing minutes as texture maps and reference for CG Artists to create CG versions of the models. An interesting way to combine the different disciplines into final images.

Do you have any creative advice or words of inspiration for our artist audience?

Reid Collums: Always be doing something. If it can be somewhat related to your ultimate artistic goals, great. If not, tell yourself it is. Everything you do will be part of your journey if you keep your sights set on where you're going. I could probably go toe to toe with most people talking about the random, remedial jobs I've done to get where I am, and as far as I'm concerned, I'm still on my way to where I'm going.

Ian Hunter: In addition to learning 3D modeling and animation, please, please, please go build something: a miniature set, make a clay motion puppet, and hand-animate a character, or create a waterfall by dumping some salt over black velvet and shooting it to composite into your Photoshop matte painting. In other words, get your hands dirty doing things practically and see how the real world looks and feels and acts, because these exercises will make you strive to improve your work and keep you're creativity rooted in reality. And creating art by humans is always worth it.

Reid Collums & Ian Hunter, Pro Machina

Interview conducted by Amber Rutherford