Director Morgan Neville in ‘Piece By Piece, a Focus Features launch. Photo: Courtesy of Focus Features / © 2024 Focus Features LLC.
Opening in theaters on October eleventh is the brand new documentary/biopic concerning the life and profession of Pharrell Williams known as ‘Piece By Piece’, which was fully animated with LEGO.
Directed by Morgan Neville (‘Won’t You Be My Neighbor?’), the movie options LEGO animated interviews with Pharrell, Gwen Stefani, Kendrick Lamar, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Busta Rhymes, Jay-Z, and Snoop Dogg.
ECinema News lately had the pleasure of talking with filmmaker Morgan Neville about his work on ‘Piece By Piece’, collaborating with Pharrell and LEGO on the groundbreaking mission, making an animated movie for the primary time, whether or not the movie is a documentary or a biopic, conducting the interviews, turning into a LEGO determine himself, and the emotional connection the viewers has with the characters within the movie.
Related Article: Marisa Abela and Director Sam Taylor-Johnson Talk ‘Back to Black’
Director Morgan Neville discusses ‘Piece By Piece’.
ECinema News: To start with, are you able to speak about how this distinctive mission got here collectively and what it was like working with Pharrell Williams to inform his story on display screen?
Morgan Neville: This loopy concept got here from Pharrell, the place he apparently had the concept if he was ever going to do something like a documentary, it might be in LEGO. Apparently, all people he instructed this to mentioned, “That’s a horrible concept,” or “It’s a loopy concept. It’s an unattainable concept.” Fortunately, he was an enormous fan of my movies, and he mentioned, “I would like Morgan to do it.” I met him, and the best way he pitched me was, “It could be attention-grabbing in the event you made a documentary about my life, and while you have been finished with it, you threw out all the pictures and simply changed it with LEGO.” When he mentioned that, I bought excited. I did not assume it was loopy. Well, perhaps I did assume it was loopy. But the craziness of it’s what I assumed was attention-grabbing as a result of it was so uncommon. I did not even know what it might imply, and we simply spent years in manufacturing determining what it might imply. But it felt prefer it opened so many inventive doorways. From that, we simply had this unbelievable burst of inventive freedom, which is what you need. I felt like that was Pharrell producing me, like, “Here are the components. Now you go make it.”
Pharrell Williams stars in director Morgan Neville’s ‘Piece By Piece’, a Focus Features launch. Photo: Courtesy of Focus Features / © 2024 Focus Features LLC.
MF: Before making this movie you have been primarily a documentary filmmaker, what was it like so that you can direct an animated movie and work with LEGO on this mission?
MN: The documentary course of and the animation course of are opposites. The documentary course of is revision and looseness. You do not have lots of management. You’re simply making an attempt to type of sew collectively the messiness of actuality into one thing. In animation, you are God. You get to construct the world. You get to place all people wherever you need them and make all people say no matter you need them to say. So, there was a stress between these two issues that I actually needed to maintain. I feel it was attention-grabbing. Rather than erasing the imperfections, I needed to embrace the imperfections and hold the grammar of documentary going. There have been many times in engaged on the movie with my animation director, who’s unbelievable, and our studios, that they’d say, “Well, you do not do it that means in animation.” I used to be like, “Oh, however we’re. We are. We’re going to strive.” Whenever they mentioned, “Oh, you do not do it that means,” I’m like, “Why not? Why cannot we do it that means?” So, there was an attention-grabbing stress there that I feel bore unbelievable fruit. It was the type of factor the place I knew my ignorance could possibly be a little bit of an asset, like let me insist on doing issues this fashion simply to see what it brings, and on the identical time, additionally embracing the liberty of animation the place, notably when songs are available within the movie, something can occur. So, me saying, “Well, we’re not in a documentary anymore. We’re in his head and in his head, something can occur. We may be underwater, and we may be floating. Let’s embrace that too.” That, for me, having finished this for an extended time, was so extremely liberating.
(L to R) Jay-Z and Pharrell Williams in director Morgan Neville’s ‘Piece By Piece’, a Focus Features launch. Photo: Courtesy of Focus Features / © 2024 Focus Features LLC.
MF: While the movie is an animated documentary, it’s additionally an animated biopic about Pharrell’s life. Was that the objective or one thing you discovered naturally by the method of creating this movie?
MN: It’s a pure course of and I really feel like that is true of lots of my filmmaking storytelling in documentary, is that it isn’t a lot that I need to provide you with all of the achievements of Pharrell Williams, as a result of that’s an eight-hour movie. It’s extra like, how do I inform a narrative a couple of Black nerd from the initiatives who would not slot in, after which out of the blue he fully suits in, and what does that imply to his personal inventive voice, and the way does he keep in contact with it? It’s a narrative of a inventive particular person on this journey. That will get me excited, and that could be a story that I determine with as a inventive particular person. So that a part of it, I type of totally embraced, that we have been making a movie that means. The different layer to it’s that it is a musical in that I actually listened to all of the music he did. In my Spotify, I’ve 10 playlists of Pharrell songs he sang, songs he wrote, songs impressed by, songs along with his solo albums, and songs with N.E.R.D. and The Neptunes. I spent lots of time listening to every thing and looking for songs that spoke to me or felt like they have been telling a narrative about Pharrell’s life after which making an attempt to actually use the music to inform the story as a lot as we might too, which is nice. Then on high of that, with the ability to then present the movie to Pharrell and say, “Okay, Pharrell, why do not you write some new songs based mostly on my view of your story?” He mentioned to me that as a result of he was taking a look at himself by my eyes, it made it means simpler for him to write down music versus if someone simply mentioned, “Hey, why do not you write a music about your life?” But the truth that he was in a position to see it by my eyes gave him a spotlight that allowed him to do it. I like all that. I like that inventive suggestions loop that we created.
Snoop Dogg in director Morgan Neville’s ‘Piece By Piece’, a Focus Features launch. Photo: Courtesy of Focus Features / © 2024 Focus Features LLC.
MF: Can you discuss concerning the interviews you probably did for this movie and the way did folks react while you instructed them they’d be depicted as LEGO collectible figurines?
MN: Well, we did not inform anyone to start with that it was going to be LEGO. It was type of a secret. It’s not that we have been making an attempt to deceive folks, however we instructed folks it was going to be a documentary and we have been going to animate it. Five years in the past, we began these interviews, and we did not need it getting out, however we additionally did not need folks essentially performing or pondering, “Oh, I’m speaking as a LEGO minifigure.” So, we simply tried to maintain it natural like I usually would on a documentary. Then over years of animation, we began to inform folks. I began to indicate a few of the folks within the movie their character designs. I’ve to say, each single particular person was excited. Who would not need to be a minifigure in LEGO? So, lots of people, even individuals who have been type of like, “What? Really? Is this going to work,” each a type of folks now needs their very own minifigure. So, I feel it was one thing that simply clicked so nicely that turned out higher than I might have anticipated. It was thrilling.
(L to R) Pharrell Williams and director Morgan Neville of their movie ‘Piece By Piece’, a Focus Features launch. Photo: Courtesy of Focus Features / © 2024 Focus Features LLC.
MF: You are additionally featured within the movie. What was that like for you as a filmmaker to be a personality within the movie and what did you concentrate on your personal LEGO illustration?
MN: Yeah, I’m not usually a personality in my movies, however this was such an uncommon movie that I felt like if I used to be sincere about my function within the movie, it helped the viewers perceive how we bought right here. So actually it was a means of me fixing a narrative level, but it surely’s actual. That’s actually me making an attempt to determine what this movie is. So, in that means, regardless that the movie is a documentary, it additionally performs like a movie a couple of man making an attempt to make a documentary about Pharrell too. All these completely different gears, the strains of what is documentary and what’s musical and what’s a biopic, to me, you might have lots of these questions getting in, however hopefully while you come out, it simply is smart.
(L to R) Director Morgan Neville and Pharrell Williams of their movie ‘Piece By Piece’, a Focus Features launch. Photo: Courtesy of Focus Features / © 2024 Focus Features LLC.
MF: Finally, have you ever been shocked by the emotional connection audiences are having with these plastic characters?
MN: Yeah. I used to be anxious as a result of a LEGO minifigure could be very reductive. Characters don’t have any nostril; they don’t have any ears. You cannot see them cry or sweat. There’s lots of restrictions. The query was, if I’m displaying close-ups of a minifigure in an interview, is that compelling? Is it going to be emotional? Is it going to attach? Right after we began doing assessments, it began to work. Kind of my very own principle on it’s that you just mission lots of your self into LEGO as a result of it is low decision in that means, which you can see your self in characters extra. Now lots of people who see the movie say, “I forgot I used to be watching a LEGO movie,” and I like that. There are lots of people saying that they get emotional watching it, and I felt emotional about making it, however you by no means know if that is going to translate. So that is been among the finest issues to come back out of lastly with the ability to present folks this movie is simply seeing the way it connects so deeply with people.
“Turn up the quantity in your creativeness.”
PIECE BY PIECE is a singular cinematic expertise that invitations audiences on a vibrant journey by the lifetime of cultural icon Pharrell Williams. Told by the… Read the Plot
What is the plot of ‘Piece By Piece’?
The movie paperwork Pharrell Williams’s life and musical profession, incorporating Williams’s religion and expressing his artistry by way of LEGO.
Who is within the forged of ‘Piece By Piece’?
- Pharrell Williams as himself
- Morgan Neville as himself
- Gwen Stefani as herself
- Kendrick Lamar as himself
- Timbaland as himself
- Justin Timberlake as himself
- Busta Rhymes as himself
- Jay-Z as himself
- Snoop Dogg as himself
(L to R) Daft Punk and Pharrell Williams in director Morgan Neville’s ‘Piece By Piece’, a Focus Features launch. Photo: Courtesy of Focus Features / © 2024 Focus Features LLC.
Other Movies Similar to ‘Piece By Piece’:
Buy Pharrell Williams Music on Amazon
Content Source: www.moviefone.com