Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters Used Smartphones To Test Drive Giant Monsters [Exclusive]
If there's any one rule that good monster movies (or shows) need, it's this: They need to effectively convey a sense of scale. Guillermo del Toro's "Pacific Rim," as silly as it became at times, was pretty effective at capturing the full weight and sheer size of the combatants during the film's many knock-down, drag-out tussles. And in a similar (though much more grounded) way, Gareth Edwards' "Godzilla" accomplished much the same thing — just with a far grander and more mythic tonal approach. The new Apple TV+ spin-off series "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" is very much taking its cues from that 2014 movie.
Although the show hails from the main creative trio of Chris Black, Matt Fraction, and Matt Shakman, the production also counts a few holdovers from "Godzilla" among its crew, as well. One of them is VFX supervisor Sean Konrad, whom /Film's Ryan Scott recently interviewed. Of the many gloriously nerdy details uncovered throughout the course of their conversation, one tidbit had to do with the intricacies of making sure that even a CGI-heavy shot still made perfect compositional sense. Pulling this off involved, of all things, an iPhone. According to Konrad:
"One of the little tricks that we did when we were working on 'Godzilla' (2014), we would do this thing called the iPhone test, where we would shrink down the image while we were doing the rough versions of the shot initially. We'd be like, 'Do you understand the composition? Do you understand what's going on in the shot, while it's shrunk down and it's nighttime?' If you do, that means it's a good successful composition. If you don't, that means you've got some more work to do before you can go and finish it off."
'Bringing things down to the small screen'
Size matters, sure, but experience oftentimes counts for even more. Konrad counts several major blockbuster productions under his credits, from "Tron: Legacy" to several recent DC Universe movies to shows like "For All Mankind," "Loki," and even "Ms. Marvel." Along the way, he also made stops with "Godzilla" and the sequel "Godzilla: King of the Monsters," so it's safe to say that the "Monarch" team knew exactly what they were doing when they brought him on board.
In fact, his past experiences bringing Godzilla and various other Titans to life came in handy during production of "Monarch." Although audiences have been conditioned to largely ignore VFX when it's done exceptionally well, Konrad's work undoubtedly helped make these projects look as spectacular as possible. That's what makes it all the more interesting to hear about the unusual methods that VFX artists resorted to in order to get the perfect shot. He went on to say:
"You're bringing things down to the small screen, and so the iPhone test is something I still do. Am I able to understand what creatively is happening with these giant monsters, and these night scenes or in these day scenes? Making sure that those silhouettes are really strong, and compositions are really strong."
Spoiler warning: True to its subtitle, there are quite a few moments of monster mayhem in "Legacy of Monsters." Although there's still quite a bit of human drama to get through (/Film's Chris Evangelista expounded on that in his review here), viewers won't be disappointed by the high-flying action. The first two episodes of "Monarch" are now streaming on Apple TV+.