After wowing a crowd of LA journalists with about 25 minutes of footage from Watchmen, Zack Snyder (and production designer Alex McDowell and costume designer Michael Wilkinson) did a Q&A session that lasted about 40 minutes. I was sitting up front with my shitty Flip Video camera and I captured the whole thing on shaky, low-quality digital video. Which I am now sharing with you.
I’ve split this sucker up into seven pieces to make watching it a little bit easier. The first video is especially shaky at the beginning, as I was paying too much attention to my audio recorder.
Be aware that there are spoilers throughout for those who have (for some reason) not read the comic.
Part 1
Zack talks Black Freighter and Under the Hood mock documentary; temp music; Dr. Manhattan’s voice; straddling the line between being an artist and being faithful to the source material
Untitled from devincf on Vimeo.
Part 2
Sound design; the current run time; fight choreography; what they had to leave out; philosophy behind costumes and designs; the graphic novel and movie in pop culture
Untitled from devincf on Vimeo.
Part 3
Mixing real history with fictional history; end chapter quotes and music use; first post-modern superhero movie
Untitled from devincf on Vimeo.
Part 4
Keeping the ending; spoiling the ending; reaction from people who have not read the book; yet another Alan Moore question (enough people); the film’s rating; Rorschach’s story not being watered down
Untitled from devincf on Vimeo.
Part 5
Zack doesn’t want to talk about the ‘monster’ at the end; the studio’s reaction to the film and running time; superhero movies as the main Hollywood commodity; Watchmen’s darkness versus The Dark Knight’s darkness
Untitled from devincf on Vimeo.
Part 6
Watchmen as a franchise; Watchmen on IMAX; guy who won the Veidt commercial contest; why it was important to set the film in 1985; who cares what Zack Snyder has to say about politics and the War on Terror; more on the importance of keeping it period; 99 Luftballons
Untitled from devincf on Vimeo.
Part 7
Costumes as references to other superhero films; the choice of a Batman and Robin song for the trailer; which character was their favorite to bring to life