One would think that producing a teen oriented sci-fi movie would be both a daunting and yet exhilarating task. After all, who's to say what today's teens are interested in seeing up on the big screen?
But none of that fazes Gale Anne Hurd. With such high-profile genre films like TERMINATOR, TERMINATOR 2, ALIENS and THE ABYSS under her belt, Hurd approached CLOCKSTOPPERS as she would any of her big budget projects.
"In many respects, you still want to tell a good story," says Hurd. "You want to have characters you are interested in. You want to have ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, so that the audience can relate. But in this case, we had teenagers as opposed to adults."
Producer Gale Anne Hurd on the set of CLOCKSTOPPERS
© 2002 Paramount Pictures
Following the above-mentioned formula of dropping normal characters into extraordinary situations, Hurd found it necessary to introduce some sort of dramatic conflict, instead of just making a movie about the zany adventures of teens with a time stopping watch.
"In this case, it seemed natural that if you had a device that was able to essentially stop time and you had the power to do anything you wanted, there [were] going to be people who [would] want to use that for evil purposes," says Hurd. "So, it seemed natural to the technology we created for the movie as opposed to something that was foisted upon it that was inorganic."
The special effects that were used in CLOCKSTOPPERS ranged from cutting edge digital effects, a la THE MATRIX, to something much more low budget the use of mimes.
"We used so many different types of effects to accomplish what you see on the screen," explains Hurd. "We did everything. We used the bullet time from THE MATRIX; in some of it, you see mimes in the movie. That was the cheap [way to do it]. We literally [had] people freezing when they needed to. And in other instances, we used the bullet-time and a camera array of 90 different cameras, and an actor in front of a green screen. That way we were able to go around and in between the actor."
Jesse Bradford and Paula Garces experience the wonders of frozen time in CLOCKSTOPPERS
© 2002 Paramount Pictures
Another impressive display of special effects was the incorporation of slow-motion effects with regular action. Hurd relates that there were a couple of techniques used to create the illusion of time almost coming to a complete stop.
"One technique we used [was] a photosonics camera, where it actually shoots about a thousand frames per second. Another thing that we used was motion control. You know the scene in the kitchen? When she is frozen with the water spray and we go around her? That was a motion control shot with digital water. All of the water in the film was digitally created."
But Hurd refuses to rely solely on special effects to make a successful movie.
"I think the biggest problem is not just relying on the visual effects and assuming that if you show people something they've never seen before that they will go to your movie in droves," says Hurd. "Luckily, audiences are demanding that we tell compelling stories, that we have characters whose journeys we identify with. And that just raises the bar for us as filmmakers."
Genre producer Gale Anne Hurd with her husband at the premiere of CLOCKSTOPPERS
© Sue Schneider
There were two writing teams that worked on CLOCKSTOPPERS and each added its own flare to the story. The genesis of the script carries with it a bit of history, dating back to the day it first came across Hurd's desk several years ago.
"Interestingly enough, the script came across my desk six or seven years ago," says Hurd. The first writing team was Rob and Andy Hedden. They wrote the original script and the original idea took place with much younger children. We realized that given the concept, it was a different movie if you had nine or 10 year olds starring in it than if you had high school students. We thought we could do much more interesting relationships between kids in high school and what their conflicts are. So we aged it up and David Stem and Dave Weiss came on board and did the version that we shot."
The "aging up" of the film as well as the inclusion of two writers who have had substantial success at Nickelodeon Movies was a vital move, according to Hurd, in broadening the movie's appeal.
"You know, Nickelodeon is absolutely the expert on this," says Hurd. "I think what they have discovered is that kids are aspirational. If you have a movie starring eight or nine year olds, anyone over eight or nine is really going to feel like it is too young for them. If you have older teens, you are able to expand your audience to include younger kids as well as the kids who are the same age as the kids in the movie."
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