postPerspective Update

Marvel’s Shang-Chi: Destin Daniel
Cretton on VFX and Directing

By Iain Blair

Director Destin Daniel Cretton is best known for his work on Just Mercy and The Glass Castle, emotionally powerful, low-budget dramas that focused on characters and behavior, not spectacle and visual effects. So it was a big surprise to many when the indie director was tapped by Marvel to helm its VFX-heavy new tentpole Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, an action-packed origin story featuring Marvel’s first Asian superhero.

But the gamble has paid off, with Cretton combining intricate, cross-generational family dynamics with dazzling action, martial arts, monsters and VFX in a mega-budget epic blockbuster.

Cretton’s creative team included DP Bill Pope, ASC; VFX supervisor Christopher Townsend; and composer Joel P. West. The editors were Nat Sanders, ACE; Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir, ACE; and Harry Yoon, ACE.

I spoke with Cretton about making the film, his workflow, editing and handling the visual effects.

You’ve never directed a VFX–heavy movie like this before. How steep was the learning curve?
It was pretty steep. I was constantly learning; I felt like I was in film school every day. It was stimulating and exhilarating, and it’s a unique creative environment, particularly with someone like VFX supervisor Chris Townsend, who’s been doing this for so long and has been on the forefront of some pretty amazing technology.

Chris has no ego, so it’s very collaborative. He was constantly asking me what we needed and wanted, and letting me know what was possible — which in most cases was almost anything. I had a blast, and that was my goal from the very start — to have fun, and I did.