Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever : Action


Action, Action, and more Action

There is so much action in Ecks vs. Sever that the concept of "peaceful" only exists at the far end of the spectrum. Orchestrating a lot of that action is Second Unit Director and Stunt Coordinator Joel Kramer, a man who has worked on some of the biggest action films of the past decade, including Eraser, Terminator II, True Lies, Last Action Hero and Total Recall. Veteran special effects coordinator Bruce Steinheimer (Mission Impossible II, Face/Off) was responsible for building the equipment to execute the director's vision. "Kaos came up with most of the major set pieces and then worked with Joel and Bruce to figure out how to film them live and on location rather than through CGI or green screen technology," says Lee. "Together they designed some fantastic-looking stunts that we haven't seen before on film.
Because he's worked on so many of the signature action pictures ofour time, he knows what's been done before and what can be done better and in a more interesting fashion. "

While Lee's first film, Final Fantasy, has the distinction of being the first all-CGI feature, Ecks vs. Sever is remarkable in this new age of regular CGI enhancement in that it uses mostly all practical effects. What the wide-angle camera lens sees is largely what the audience will see. Consequently, as Kaos describes it, the look is "grounded and realistic. Stylized certainly, but realistic enough so that when you watch these two fighting it's plausible and you feel it on a visceral level. " Audiences will also see the cast doing most of their own remarkable stunt work.
Lucy Liu trained with fight choreographer Philip Tan (Batman, Tango and Cash) for three months to perfect the spectacular precision martial arts/commando techniques for which Sever is known. Tan also worked with Antonio Banderas on Ecks' raw, street-fighting style, and with world-class martial artist Ray Park, on the military-trained maneuvers of his character, Ross, which resemble Sever's similar DIA methods.

Author : © Warner Bros.