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Elena Nola's interview, Nov. 8, 2010:
"Gareth Edwards is not what you probably picture when you think of a special effects artist turned science fiction director: he’s personable and energetic, as charming to look at as he is to listen to, and utterly enthusiastic about his new movie, Monsters. If you haven’t heard about it, it’s a near-future in which a NASA probe brought back life from one of Jupiter’s moons, and the creatures have taken over half of Mexico. The U.S. and Mexican militaries cannot eradicate them, so they just blocked off the “Infected Zone.” The story follows two people who have to travel through the zone to get home. I attended Edwards’ (solo) NY Comic Con panel about making a special effects movie on a tiny budget and had the delightful opportunity to sit down for a chat with him afterwards. If you love science fiction movies or truly independent movies, then make a point to see this one. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
Neither does Gareth Edwards. When asked by one of the attendees at his panel whether he was nervous about his film now that it was getting seen, he blandly replied, “No.”
And with good reason; he is a self-proclaimed fan of science fiction, and he has been planning to make a movie in the genre for what sounded like half his life. He’s had a lot of time to consider what other productions got wrong so that he could get it right, and he is confident that his film did. What he wanted, he went on to say to explain his confidence in his movie, was to create a reality where the monsters felt real and believable, and to tell a story that was driven not by special effects and not by the action, but by the characters.
Part of how he ensured that was by getting the best performances possible from all his cast, which, other than the two leads, was made up of extras. Several times he referred to his approach to film-making as “guerilla,” and when you understand how he went about creating the footage for this movie, you’ll probably agree.
They worked without a formal script, and without too many pre-scouted locations. Once they were on the ground in Central America, he explained, someone would go out and find something really cool to use as a location for a particular scene. And while they were going to that location, if they passed something else interesting, they’d hop out and pick a scene to film there, something within a few scenes in either direction in the script. They had them coded based on whether they were event scenes or emotion/character development scenes, and if the script called for people other than the two leads, they would just ask anyone who happened to be around if they wanted to join in...."
read the full interview:
http://www.bscreview.com/2010/11/gareth-edwards-monsters-interview/
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