‘Lost in the Woods’ is a feature film based on the videogame adaption of the popular Nintendo 64 videogame ‘The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask’. The feature film has been around the film festival circuit and has won numerous awards in 2021. We caught up with Adriano Forti with an interview on this feature film.
UniversalCinema Magazine (UM): What inspired you to create a film adaptation of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask?
“Majora’s Mask“ was the first game from The legend of Zelda series I ever played. When it was released on Nintendo 64 in 2000 I was just a 10 years old kid, but I remember that I was really amazed by the whimsical dark atmospheres, the characters design, the truly inspiring magical power of music, and uniqueness of the gameplay, but the most important aspect that really made me feel the need to create a film adaptation is the deep and multi-layered storytelling focused on the research of ones own identity, the process of growth, the elaboration of grief and the importance to feel empathy for others and help them to solve their problems and not turn away from them, maybe wearing the mask of indifference or prejudice, because in the end we are all connected and every live matter: the true value of mankind resides in our diversity, our uniqueness and in the true value of friendship, respect and forgiveness and to me Art should remind and inspire us to pursue and honor these ideals.
(UM): Did you ever worry about comparisons between the film and the videogame?
Honestly, I never thought “I’m making a film based on a videogame“, because I believe the most important aspect in both fields is Storytelling. Unfortunately, when we talk about film adaptation from videogame is easy to occur in bad examples of it: usually productions seem to worry too much about spectacular and fast-moving scenes and visual effects instead of focusing on the true meaning of the original materials and the message they ought to deliver and share with the audience. In “Lost in the Woods“ I tried to find a balance between what I reckon to be the most iconic elements from Majora’s Mask, that I treated with the maximum respect (such as the design of Majora’s Mask itself) and the topics that lie under the skin of this game, and my personal sensitivity and vision about these topics, trying to add depth to characters background and working on the “grey area“ of the story. I made several changes in terms of storytelling, but always having a clear vision of the plot foundations and meanings. I also had to pay attention to a series of circumstances that works great in the game, whereas translated to the cinematographic medium whould have been considered a bit too weird or inconsistent for this kind of visual storytelling. In the end, I think is a matter of balance, but the most important aspect is the quality of the story and the message, regardless of what the story came from or the budget of the production.
(UM): What challenges did you have in combining 3D animation with real-life characters in the film?
The story of Majora’s Mask, and consequentially of Lost in the Woods, is characterized by the presence of masks with the power to change the likeness of the protagonist, allowing him to transform into other creatures and achieve new perspectives about existance. This fact helped me a lot to motivate in terms of storytelling the changes of the protagonist from real-life actor to 3D characters. However the most difficult and tricky scene where I had to combine 3D characters and live action actors is represented by the swords duel between Link, the protagonist played by Aron Bucca, and the King of the dead, that was played by my friend and performer Paolo Lo Pumo, dressing a green screen suit and holding sword and shield props I made for the purpose of this scene. Then in post-production I had to combine the live action recordings of the two actors by removing from the plate Paolo (exept his sword and shield) and proceed with the matchmoving between him and the 3D skeletrical character I modeled, textured, rigged and animated for this scene. I used a pair of used xbox Kinect depth sensor connected to a software to record motion capture data that helped me not starting completely from scratch with the animation. Anyway, I had to make a lot of more “traditional“ rig and animation work on him, in order to polish and finalize the matchmoving of the character with the real props and Aron’s sword hits. I have also added a cloth simulation effect on the cloak of the King of the dead and other parts of this character that due to my hardware limitation made the whole process really grueling – Without any doubt, this scene represent the most difficult technical part of the film, but I’m pretty satisfied with the final result!
I also have to say a big thank you to Unreal Engine and Epic Games for this astonishing tool that really helped me a lot to produce most of the animation sequences of the film and really made the difference in terms of time and quality on the final result.
(UM): How long was the film in production?
I started working on a first 16 minutes short film version of Lost in the Woods for my graduation project in Set Design for Cinema and TV at Brera Academy of Fine Arts in 2017, but it took me 4 years to achieve this feature film definitive cut of 110 minutes.
(UM): Do you have any plans for future videogame adaptations?
There’s plenty of great videogame with intresting story, atmospheres and meanings that in my opinion deserve film adaptations (I’m thinking for example about Metroid, StarFox, Control, a re-reboot of Tomb Raider…), even if sometimes these are not up to par with the original materials on which they’re based in terms of storytelling and directing choices, and I would be glad to be part of this kind of productions. However at the moment I’m working on some original 3D animation film projects, a pirates theme videogame for kids developed in Unreal Engine and a steampunk-western graphic novel called “TimeRiders: Memories from the future“, but I’m always looking for new challenges and job opportunities.
(UM): Zelda has many stories to choose from in the series. Will there be any future installments?
Zelda series has really a lot of interesting stories and characters, most of them could be adapted with ease to the cinematographic medium: probably Majora’s Mask due to its uniqueness and non-linear storytelling, based on an eternal cycle of three days, was the most difficult to adapt, if we compare it for example to its most well known prequel “Ocarina of Time“. Anyway, the production of Lost in the Woods represented to me a truly grueling challenge, I had to manage and deal with most of the roles throughout the production pipeline and go beyond my limits to achieve this result, and honestly I hope this “mostly alone production“ was a one-of-a-kind experience to me!
(UM): What would you like to be best known for in your projects as a filmmaker?
Great question! I can manage different roles from pre to post-production and this could be considered as a gift or a curse, but I think whatever is your role in a production it is important to have a clear idea of what other departments and professional figures do, in order to ease the production process and achieve the best possible result in every circumstances. However I would be glad to be best known for my art direction and post production-visual effects skills along with my passion for storyboards, that I found really seful as director to better explain and figure out scenes and actions to actors and crew.
(UM): What did you think of the cast in this film?
As Steven Spielberg says “Casting sometimes is fate and destiny more than skill and talent, from a director’s point of view“ and I agree with him. I was really lucky to met a group of
passionate people that believed and supported me along with this creative journey and that I have the pleasure to call friends. I tried to give them enough room to express themselves and find their own way to play the characters of the film, and I’m really proud of all of them! In particular I have to congratulate with my friend Chao Chen who played the Mask Salesman and was really tuned-in with the character, with Aron Bucca who was a 10 year old kid when we started this project and was really professional and patient with me, with Floriana Setti who played the Great Fairy and assisted me with the costume design and making, with Sarah Caruso and Nadia Farruggia for their great energy and spirit and with my old time friends Vittorio Pugliese, Marco Carlo Moriggi, Francesco Zanchi, along with all the members of cast and crew who assited me during the production of Lost in the Woods.
(UM): How big of a budget was made for this production?
I produced this film with my own resources, without any kind of fundraising or external budget support: the main expense is represented by hardware and software licenses, while for the realization of the costumes, masks and props I tried to use inexpensive and recyclable materials, such as cardboard, papier-mâché, polystyrene panels.
Even for this aspect I’m really proud of the result achieved and I have to send all my love and gratitude to my parents and family.
(UM): Have you been reached out by Nintendo, or Shigeru Miyamoto about this film?
Not yet, I informed the Nintendo italian headquarter about my will to produce and promote Lost in the Woods, a film based on “The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask”, in the film festival circuit as a no-profit project and I honored this intention. However, due to the great recognitions and awards this feature film is gaining I would be really amazed and honored if Nintendo, Shigeru Miyamoto and other members of the incredible Nintendo staff involved in the production of “The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask“ would find the time to watch and evaluate it: This project is also a tribute to thank them for sharing with the world their legendary inspiring masterpiece! I really put all of myself and the passion I’m capable of into the making of this film, and I’m sure they know well what kind of effort, dedication and hard work is requested to make this kind of project – Maybe we could also find a way to collaborate… And last but not least, thank you Toronto Film Festival of Cyft for this great recognition for Lost in the Woods as Best International Feature Film!