Godz and Monsters: the making of Godzilla

Having come from the world of no budgets, Edwards did have some advice about how to tackle a film of Godzilla's magnitude and that is to spin everything you learn as a low-budget filmmaker on its head.

"If you wrote a list of all the pros and cons when making a low budget movie, when you make a high budget movie just swap that list over," he explains.

"Everything that is easy to do when there is three of you is really hard to do when there is 400 of you. Everything that is really hard to do when you have only got £10 is really easy when you have millions."

For some, Godzilla will always be known as being portrayed by a man in a suit, though, and while the franchise's humble beginnings simply wouldn't work in a Hollywood movie today, Edwards tried to retain some of the original's passion in the filmmaking process.

One way we will see this is, according to Empire magazine, in the motion capture of Godzilla. Andy Serkis - he of King Kong and Gollum fame - will be the man in the digital suit for certain scenes. This will help to "control the soul" of his creation, according to Edwards.

Getting more from the roar

Another way is with the sound. Or, more importantly, how Godzilla's famous roar was recreated.
"We decided that we wanted to embrace the original roar but obviously do it in Dolby 7.1 and Atmos," says Edwards.

"So we got the original recording of the roar but it just doesn't do justice in the cinemas of today so our little brief was the same as with the design of Godzilla: imagine Godzilla was this real animal in the 60s and somebody from Toho Studios in Japan saw this animal and recorded its roar."

It is this quest for realism that is threaded throughout both Monsters and Godzilla. Regardless of budget, Edwards wants to make sure that storytelling entwines with the visual effects so that Godzilla isn't just another dumb blockbuster movie.

In the footage we saw, Edwards has managed just that. While Godzilla looked breathtaking, his slow movements offering up both excitement and terror, there was real empathy in the human characters, showing that it wasn't just buildings and forests being devastated but lives too.

In the four years since Monsters it's clear that Edwards career has catapulted him to blockbuster status but the emotional resonance in his storytelling thankfully remains in tact.

"The last three years have been the hardest, most exhausting, most intense, most exciting years I think anyone could ever have.

"But somehow we have created a film that I am really proud of," said Edwards at the end of the Godzilla sneak peak.

After witnessing what we did, we have every feeling that he has done just that.

Godzilla is out on May 16, courtesy of Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures.

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