Garrett Warren, Tintin's stuntman

Stunt choreagrapher of the year Garrett Warren discusses Tintin film

Garrett Warren, who is the recipient of the 2009 Hamilton Behind the Camera Awards for Stunt Choreographer of the Year, discussed his role in the upcoming Tintin movies directed by Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson with Movieline.com. Besides answering the basic question of what a stunt man is doing in a motion-capture animated film, he has some really interesting things to say about the Tintin film and how it looks. Here is a brief quote:

Can you describe the look of it at all?
It looks an awful lot like the cartoon. They really wanted to bring the cartoon to life. So if you know the cartoon, or have seen the books, that’s what it looks like. It’s beautiful. You would have thought to yourself that they would have tried to go for a more realistic look, but they’re actually trying to preserve the look and essence of the original Tintin characters.

I’m wondering how coordinating stunts for a live-action film differs from motion capture?
The difference is that you have to have just a little bit more imagination when you have motion capture. You have to make believe you’re in an elevator, or something is a dragon, or a house. In live action, we’d actually have the horse, or build a mock-up of a dragon, or put the actors in an elevator. We still perform an awful lot of hard action sequences, but they don’t necessarily take place at an actual location. We just put down a box, and have the person jump off of that, and that can be jumping off the roof of a building.