Creating worlds from scratch

An international production filmed in Malta, Saul: The Journey to Damascus tells the story of Saul of Tarsus. As a dedicated leader, Saul fights to defend his faith and traditions – his fanatical behaviour reaching its climax when he organises a brutal scheme to rid Judea of anyone who follows Christ, earning him the title Butcher of Tarsus.

While on a mission, Saul is blinded, forced to re-evaluate his beliefs and transformed by the forgiveness of a woman. But joining the Christian ranks has deadly consequences, as Saul must escape his former allies who want him to pay the ultimate price for his “betrayal” – death.

With Rhys-Davies – beloved by audiences for his roles as Gimil in The Lord of the Rings trilogy as well as Sallah in the Indiana Jones films – taking on the role of Jewish High Priest Caiphas, the titular role is played by Canadian actor Kyle Schmid (Being Human, Copper), while Emmanuelle Vaugier (Saw II, Two and a Half Men) will be playing Mary Magdalene.

Being shot on location in Malta, Saul will have a familiar feel and texture for local audiences. However, the production still required some sprucing up to create a fully immersive, period-specific world.

Enter Stargate Studios. The international network of visual effects companies has an active Malta division – led by Managing Director Matthew Pullicino – which was eager to step in to provide visuals for Saul, after coming into contact with Mario Philip Azzopardi through mutual Canadian partners.

“Saul is a pilot episode essentially – it is hoped that it would go to series, depending on how well it does – and it was worked on a humble budget, so we had to figure out how to work with what was allocated to us,” Pullicino says.

“But the fact is – you’re always under budgetary limitations. Nobody comes to you with a blank cheque… or if they do, we haven’t encountered them yet! But although people might think that visual effects are an ‘extra’, they’re actually there to save you money…”

On reflection, this makes perfect logical sense. Visual effects are digital solutions to analogue problems; since it’s cheaper to construct structures and backgrounds on a computer than it is to physically make them.

Pullicino mentions a couple of examples pertinent to Saul itself: the chief of which was the Temple of Solomon. Though it only appears in a couple of shots, Pullicino says that it was important for the team to get this particular structure right, given that it represents “the pride and joy of Jewish culture and tradition”.

Another obvious plus to having a fully-fledged visual effects team on board is that it allows you to reduce man power, particularly with crowd scenes.

“Obviously, being able to just replicate crowds digitally, instead of hiring more people, cuts costs substantially… not to mention the fact that digital models tend to be cooperative actors – they nail the shot each time,” Pullicino says with a smile.

Explaining that Saul culminated in a total of 37 effects shots, Pullicino confesses that there were moments of panic for his team during the production – and he singles out special effects supervisor James Spiteri and visual effects artist Jonathan Caruana, praising their professionalism throughout.

“The fact is, though, that you’ll always have moments of panic. The thing with visual effects is that you really have to know what your client wants, and then deliver on what you promise to the letter.

“This can sometimes get tricky because there might be contingent factors along the way that change things. But if you don’t have what they need by the time they wraps set and all the actors pack up and go home, you’re in trouble…”

The greatest visual challenge for Saul, was creating a scene involving ‘intelligent smoke’ which would envelop a crowd and the surrounding landscape during one particular scene.

“Until you start developing it, you’re not sure what you’re going to get. Luckily, it turned out okay in the end,” Pullicino says.

Asked to describe the ultimate role of visual effects as part of a film’s overall make up, Pullicino says that it’s there to provide “scope to the movie”.

“Think of the way The Count of Monte Cristo and Gladiator used Malta as a backdrop – Maltese viewers will recognise the places but crucially, visual effects provide a necessary enhancement to make it feel like a coherent part of the film’s world.”

Actress Larissa Bonaci, who plays the role of Ester – wife of Stephen, said to be Christianity’s first martyr – also comments on how she made an effort to blend into the New Testament world that the film strives to replicate.

“I prepared myself by researching the era and the way people lived, dressed, talked and communicated at the time. It’s important to know the character’s history in order to really immerse myself into the role. Even though I could not relate to the story in my everyday life, as an actress I delved into the character through this research and immersed myself fully for the role,” Bonaci said.