Directors Seek Better VFX and Costume Collaboration — SkimNews
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- Behind Their Lens brought together five directors—Sophy Romvari, Beth de Araújo, Josie Rourke, Steph Green and Kenna Harris—in a SCAD Savannah Film Festival program presented by IndieWire’s Future of Filmmaking team, covering entry into directing, location choices and crew communication.
- Josie Rourke recalled calling an architect friend into the edit of “Mary Queen of Scots” to examine digital castle assets; after he said the structure would not “stand up,” she worked to improve communication with VFX teams.
- Josie Rourke said directors know how to cut a costume, set, script or schedule when costs matter, but lack a practical vocabulary for managing visual-effects budgets, even though some VFX choices are driven by cost.
- Kenna Harris, co-director of “Toy Story 5,” said she wants to understand simulation better so she can collaborate more effectively, pointing to believable clothing folds as a problem still difficult at feature scale even at Pixar and reliant on physics-based engines.
- Sophy Romvari said her first work with costume designer Maria Katarina on “Blue Heron” showed that costume is integral to continuity, actor safety and comfort; in the film’s late-’90s and contemporary sections, clothing expresses what characters cannot say, though the craft is often undervalued.
Why it matters: For the five directors and their production teams, better communication with VFX, simulation and costume specialists bears directly on what reaches the screen. Rourke’s dropped digital castle, Harris’s unresolved sleeve folds and Romvari’s costume work show how specialist input affects believability, actor comfort and production choices.
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