Director
Michel Gondry is primarily known for his movies
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and
Be Kind Rewind, so he may seem an unusual choice to direct the superhero movie
The Green Hornet. But
The Green Hornet was actually one of the first projects he ever worked on in Hollywood, way back in 1997 when the movie was being developed by Universal.
Gondry brings his unique vision to a genre that he feels is too "sleek" and has too much "attitude" in many ways, but one technique that is sure to stand out is "Kato Vision," his process of showing a fight scene in split screen, with the action being shown at different speeds. Gondry described the process during an interview with
JoBlo:
"Well I was trying to find a way to enhance the fight and use a technique that has not been used before. So basically we shoot at a higher rate. We shoot with one camera and then we separate and sometimes one guy is going faster and the other guy's going slower and then the guy who gets slower gets faster and etc. It’s sort of like you buy a time from the future and then you have to reimburse it. So what it does is it really makes the transfer of energy when somebody hits somebody else so the guy who hits the next guy goes very fast and then the guy when he receives the hit he goes faster. It’s like if I hit you.. BAM! First, you're slow and I’m fast and then when I hit you I become slow and you become fast so I can give you my energy. I can transfer like electricity in some ways. And all that with the camera moving, which makes it quite hard to shoot but it is pretty spectacular."
The technique has been dubbed "Kato Vision" because it is primarily used by the Green Hornet's (
Seth Rogen) partner, Kato (
Jay Chou), but Gondry said that the Green Hornet will also get to use it as his skills improve.
The Green Hornet opens January 14, 2011!
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