Ben Snow (‘Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ VFX): ‘The jokes are going to land if the suspension of disbelief is there’ [Exclusive Video Interview]
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“We were conscious of setting up the universe,” reveals Ben Snow about “Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.” For our recent webchat he adds, “We had a lot of illustrations from decades of ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ lore, but we also had the freedom to make something that was unique to our project. ” He says an example of this was “the giant red dragon. It was something that played homage to the ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ characters but is special to the film.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.
“Dungeons and Dragons” is the 2023 blockbuster Paramount film based on the popular table-top role playing game of the same name. The fantasy adventure comedy follows the affable thief Edgin (Chris Pine) on a quest to retrieve a lost relic and be reunited with his daughter. Snow explains, “It’s transportive in terms of showing you another world. It’s a chocolate box stuffed with all sorts of treats. And the characters make a great team.”
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Snow was the visual effects supervisor on the film. He says, “Even though the film is funny, it does take the world it’s creating very seriously. You end up struggling a bit harder so the effects are not what people are laughing at. It’s gotta be the jokes. And the jokes are going to land if the suspension of disbelief is there.”
Snow’s team was tasked with bringing corpses back to life, creating dragons and constructing gelatinous cubes. For the cube he explains, “We were actually able to take our actors and suspend them off wires and scrunch these silicon membranes over there faces. All to get their real face squashed.”
The film also saw Snow return to playing the game. He admits, “I used to play it in college. It’s years since I played. But the whole visual effects department had a ‘D&D’ game running when we got here. It was great to get back into it.”
The effects wizard has previously scored four Oscar nominations for Visual Effects (“Pearl Harbor” – 2001; “Star Wars: Episode II” – 2002; “Iron Man” – 2008; “Iron Man 2” – 2010). Snow reflects, “I’m very story orientated. I look for how the visual effects support the story of the film. Would the film be the same if you didn’t have the visual effects?”
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