FANTASIA 2012: CRAVE (2012)—The Evening Class Interview With Raleigh Stewart

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Charles de Lauzirika has anointed Raleigh Stewart the "hero" of his directorial debut Crave, not only for being the film's associate producer and digital effects supervisor but also the designer of the film's imaginative end titles. Following the Q&A session at Crave's Fantasia sold-out world premiere, Stewart and I took a moment in the lobby of the Salle J.A. de Sève to discuss his work on the end credits.

[This conversation is not for the spoiler-wary!]

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Michael Guillén: Raleigh, can you talk a bit about how you came up with the concept for your end titles and then linked them into the film?

Raleigh Stewart: It was a big challenge. I was looking for a hook, reading the script over and over again, and I actually had a whole other direction already designed, but then as I read the script again—specifically the scene where Aiden (Josh Lawson) was looking out the window and staring into the pinwheels reflecting in his eyes—I recalled that they were referred as whirligigs.

I'm the son of a couple of hippies and I remember going to folk art festivals and Mom always had these whirligigs at home, these rudimentary kinetic sculptures, and I always thought they were really cool. I thought, "Wouldn't that be an interesting, whimsical way to depict some of those horrible scenarios in the movie as whirligigs?" The prototype was Josh Lawson's bludgeoning. I modeled everything in 3D, rigged it, lit it and sent it to Charlie. He flipped out and absolutely loved it. He said, "If you can do this 15 more times, let's do it!" I was over the moon and thrilled and got right down and drew everyone out, figured out all the mechanics of all the riggings, and most of those could actually work practically. I'm actually going to make one now that it's all said and done.

Guillén: They are some of the most inventive end credits I've ever seen.

Stewart: Thank you. I had a lot of fun doing them and, hopefully, we'll see them on Art of the Title.