Short clip from Extra TV: http://www.mediafire.com/?bkmcetxdit4

Found this on-line. Thought it interesting. I like what Ioan had to say.... FF2: Playing to an empty room email print By Rob M. Worley May 31, 2007 While visiting the set of 'Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer', Comics2Film was part of a press conference hosted by the film's four principal actors Ioan Gruffudd (Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic), Jessica Alba (Susan Storm/The Invisible Woman), Chris Evans (Johnny Storm/The Human Torch), Michael Chiklis (Ben Grimm/The Thing) and Julian McMahon (Victor Von Doom/Dr. Doom). In this segment the actors discuss the difficulties of filming in an imaginary world that's bounded by a green screen and populated by tennis balls. Q: So, I noticed there's no actor here representing Silver Surfer, and his name is in the titles so I assume some of you have interactions with Silver Surfer. Could you talk about how that invisible actor works on set... Julian McMahon (JM): We can't talk too much about the Silver Surfer, but he does look really good. Check out the Fantastic Four 2 photo gallery Q: But the way you work on set, obviously, with no one there... Chris Evans (CE): There's somebody there. Doug Jones. Doug Jones wears the green suit... Ioan Gruffudd (IG): It's the same essentially what Andy Sirkis did for the character of Gollum. He was there for the off-camera work and Doug is there for our off-camera, work. So we have a physical presence there to work with. He has dialogue and it's good to bounce off a real person rather than a tennis ball with an "X" on it, you know. JM: I've done some scenes where he hasn't been there... IG: Really? JM: And I like the tennis ball. I do. It's so good having no other actors. There's no arguments. You can do what you want. Jessica Alba (JA): You get to be the center of attention, Julian. JM: With all of our fight scenes, you guys have no idea what I did. There's one tennis ball there. There's another tennis ball over there. That's Ioan, that little tennis ball down there...I'm gonna burn that one. Q: Kind of piggy-backing on that question: Has it gotten easier to work with effects the second time around or is it just as challenging? Michael Chiklis (MC): Are you talking about the suit again? Q: Just the visual effects in general. MC: Well I think we've all gotten better at it. It's moving more smoothly. There's more of that then there was in the first one. Don't you think? IG: Yeah, there's certainly a lot more green screen this time around. To be perfectly honest, the preparation for that sort of process is; get yourself a lot of DVDs and a lot of PlayStation games because you're gonna spend a lot of time in your trailer. That's just the nature of green screen images. It's so precise and it's such an art in that sense. It takes so long for them to set up just for one particular shot. Then you come onto the set and you find that you're working two, three takes, which took about ten minutes, and they've been setting up for the last hour and a half. My hat goes off to those guys who did all the Star Wars movies totally against a green screen. At least we have the organic nature of working with sets and tangible things, compared to a green canvas. MC: It's a different type of performance. This isn't what I would refer to as an actor's piece. You know what I mean - JM: Speak for yourself, buddy. I've done some of my best work being evil. MC: It requires skill as an actor, absolutely. That's not what I'm saying. CE: I think it's a different type of skill. To have to work on green screen is a different type of skill as to be able to work in a house, in a kitchen, with other people. Actually, I think it's very developmental in regards to the way you starty to think about things. Once you're working on green screen you are looking at tennis balls, you are looking at "X" marks. You have to create it all in your heads. Like he said, take your hats off to these "Star Wars"...Harrison Ford flying down that thing with Chewbacca behind him...that's pretty good effort. I definitely creates another part of your brain... MC: Sure. You have to be in touch with your inner child. CE: And your imagination. You're flying through space or flying through the air or whatever in a car like this and you have an imagination that goes long with it that I think's very cool. IG: It heightens your concentration. I think that's what it does, because you are searching for things that aren't phiscially there. It really somehow, weirdly gives you a real focus because you have to focus on things that aren't there. It really concentrates your mind and I think it will add to all theses sequences when you see us so concentrated and so involved, we belive that we are flying this car and being tossed around by Doom. If we don't believe then the audience won't believe it. Tune in for continuing coverage of our 'Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer' set visit. ******************************************************************* Lavinia :cool:

Great find Lavinia!!!!! Thanks!!!!

Thanks Lavinia. I do like that they take notice of Doug Jones' work and how it made their work easier. I've been at blue or green screen shoots on the camera side and they have got to be difficult for an actor especially when there is no one to interact with. GG

Thanks, Lavinia. Interesting interview, indeed. I liked it, too, how they took notice of Doug Jones and their elaborating on what it means for an actor to work with effects.