Movie Reviews
A Look at the Making of Battle for Terra with Director Aristomenis Tsirbas
By Michael Montroy |
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 Battle for Terra, now in theaters, is a 3-D animated space picture about humans who invade a peace-loving planet after having destroyed their own planet. It’s a reverse War of the Worlds. The battle sequences look impressive in 3-D, and the voice cast has some big names, among them Brian Cox, Luke Wilson, Justin Long, Amanda Peet, James Garner, Danny Glover, Ron Perlman, Mark Hamill, Dennis Quaid and Evan Rachel Wood. Behind the creation of this film is director Aristomenis Tsirbas (Meni for short).
“The concept originated several years before I made 'Terra,' a short film in 2003,” stated Meni. “I was watching an alien invasion film (The War of the Worlds) in which the aliens arrive on Earth as the bad guys, pitting ourselves as good guys against them. Because of my fascination with the potential for alien life in the universe, I decided to reverse the point of view and have us invading another planet.”
One doesn’t have to wonder too long about the other influences in Meni’s life, as he quickly revealed his passion for wanting to be involved in making films.
“When I was a kid, I saw this little film released in the ’70s, Star Wars,” he laughed. “Well, it was actually one of the first films I saw and it left a really strong impression on me. I mean, it showed me how powerful cinema really is. From that moment on, I wanted to be part of that experience.”
In order to follow his passion, Meni, a Greek Canadian who moved to Los Angeles in 1996 to take his filmmaking aspirations to the next level, had to learn about the industry.
 “I got into film school in Montreal, Canada at Concordia University,” he recalled, “and while I was there I discovered a computer called the Amiga in 1990, and in the media lab I discovered a program called LightWave and I was immediately taken with it. I started immediately doing 3-D and did small jobs for music videos and got employment while still attending the university. The idea of computer graphics freed me up to make my own films and actually in many ways was more cost-effective than shooting live-action. Now, live-action is still my original and kind of ultimate goal, so when I started designing 'Terra,' I tried to bring back a lot of live-action sensibilities to CGI, which I think is appropriate because it’s a film of a darker tone than what we’re used to seeing in today’s more family-oriented CG comedies.”
Meni started his renowned career in film and television. His first major project was working as a visual effects artist on Titanic as well as national advertising spots for Nike, 7up and Coca-Cola. He also worked as a digital effects supervisor on such projects as 2004’s A Wrinkle in Time.
Now, Meni has taken the seven-minute animated short he created in 2003 with a budget that basically didn’t register much above zero to the big screen thanks to an independent studio that gave him a budget somewhere under $20 million. It’s a journey that many other filmmakers would like to duplicate.
“When I made the short film,” started Meni, “I specifically wrote a story which would represent the concept of the feature film, but would also work as a short so it would get some plays and some notoriety in the festival circuit. It became a calling card. Because of this, it got programmed and through the programming there was one production company, Snoot Entertainment, which took notice of the film. They decided to try and see if this could work as a feature film, so I drafted a 33-page treatment for the entire movie. Soon, it was a 100-page script. In the meantime, it was my responsibility to also design the entire film--we started with almost nothing. It was up to me to come up not only with the initial story, but also the look and feel of the film. So, that took several more months. Once that was all approved and the producers loved where it was going, we generated models and lighting and so on. I created the models in their basic form from my sketches, and created the film in a very low-quality version. We went in stages and started really small. I just had to basically commit a lot of my time, resources, energy and even my health to a certain degree just to get this film into its first stage.”
 “As far as 3-D software goes, we used two packages,” continued Meni. “For character animation, we used Maya and for rendering, modeling and texturing we used LightWave. We used these packages for several reasons. We felt that Maya presented the best character animation feature set and also had the largest base of character animators and support infrastructure in terms of users all over the world. Pragmatically, it’s easier to find a Maya animator than any other kind of animator.”
Out of this creation came some very deliberate choices in regard to color.
“I usually try to think of a dominant color for each scene that stems from what emotional impact I hope to achieve,” stated Meni. “For example, I used artificial, warm greens to lend an imposing quality that dominated 'Terra,' which leant a sense of comfort and safety.”
Battle for Terra features an impressive cast, and their voices are a strong factor for this production. Of course, in animation, the actors simply go into a recording studio and deliver their lines there so they have very little contact with one another. However, Meni had to spend numerous hours with them.
 “Although I’ve been working towards making a feature film for the past 20 years,” Meni began, “I never consciously thought about working with actual A-list actors. I was just so busy trying to get to a position where one of my ideas would be ready for a green light. So, when these extraordinarily talented actors--Brian Cox was first--responded to the material, I just made sure I was prepared by knowing my material and brushing up on my understanding of the craft of acting. This meant taking acting workshops and reading books. I found that working with someone like Danny Glover was an absolute delight. He makes things very easy because of his considerable talent and experience. Working with great actors turned out be far less daunting and a lot more fun than I had anticipated, and I’m looking forward to the process even more for the next film. I hope to be doing the exact same thing in five, 10 years, which is writing and directing films with a major 3-D component.”
And, if Battle for Terra proves to be a hit with audiences, Meni will have his wish come true.
Battle for Terra is now playing in theaters.
For more information on the film, visit Battle for Terra’s official Web site.
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