David F. Sandberg Talks About Ongoing Evolution Of The SHAZAM Suit

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I’m quite excited to see David F. Sandberg’s Shazam! next spring. The teaser trailer from San Diego Comic Con this year was second only to the Godzilla: King of the Monsters trailer, which to be fair, had the brilliant idea of using ‘Claire de Lune’ as a score against glorious footage of kaiju destruction going for it. The idea that the Shazam! teaser might have struck a stronger chord for me than the first trailer for James Wan’s Aquaman was not something I anticipated happening.

As with practically any other modern blockbuster made in Hollywood today, footage seen in the Shazam! teaser isn’t final. Color correcting and various bits of digital “fixer-uppers” incorporated into shots occur all of the time as a movie goes through its post-production phase. So with that in mind, it isn’t surprising that the most recent images of Shazam! depict the titular hero’s costume as looking a bit different from the previous rounds of official images and from the teaser footage.

When fans asked about the change to Sandberg himself on Reddit, the director answered:

“Making suits is hard. Like painting a room you can look at little swatches all day but you won’t really see the effect until it’s done. The color of the finished suit didn’t look quite as expected in some lights (particularly daylight) which is on me since I decided to change fabric very late in prep and there wasn’t time for as many tests. I figured we’d just have to tweak it in post. The first image released though unfortunately didn’t have any post production done to it. That was right as we were putting the trailer together. I figured since that image was out there perhaps we shouldn’t stray too far from it in the trailer. Might be confusing.

This image is closer to what I’m going for, but it’s all still a work in progress and we’ll see where we end up. No images (or the trailer) have the finished bolt effect either (it’s not going to be an extreme effect or anything but it’s not just a simple glow).“

As Sandberg said himself, expect to see other minor adjustments to the costume as more and more images and footage of Shazam! gets closer to its release date next year. While it’s all just part of the filmmaking process, this is always a fun little element to observe along the way to recognize the hard work that goes into the craft.

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SOURCE: Reddit