On the set of THE INVISIBLE, David Goyer continued to be driven by character. He knew that each location, each shot, the look of each particular set would help to build the film’s dramatic tension—and unravel the mystery facing Nick Powell. To accomplish all this, he collaborated closely with an accomplished crew that included cinematographer Gabriel Beristain, production designer Carlos Barbosa and costume designer Tish Monaghan.

Goyer had worked with the prolific Beristain, one of Hollywood’s leading cinematographers, on “Blade II” and “Blade: Trinity,” and the two were already good friends with their own distinctive—and boisterous—creative relationship. “Gabby’s a great character,” Goyer confides. “He’s kind of bigger than life. We have this great symbiotic relationship together. We fight like husband and wife all the time, we’re very loud and bellicose—but the crew finds these antics pretty amusing, once they’ve figured out that we’re actually teasing each other.”

Beristain could not resist reuniting with Goyer. “Working with David always makes things interesting—it’s a very unique and creative process,” he laughs, “and I also thought the story was terrific.”

In developing the photographic look of the film, Goyer knew that he wanted an emphasis on intimate interiors and natural exteriors with strong lighting and a sense of stark realism. To find just the right look, Goyer and Beristain watched a number of films and flipped through art books together for inspiration. Recalls Goyer: “I started to veer towards the look of the Dutch masters, like Vermeer or Lievens, with that kind of strong unidirectional lighting. I was influenced by those paintings where you have figures standing in front of windows, and the only lighting comes from one side, washing over the people.”

He continues: “Gabby and I discussed shooting the film this way. I told him I wanted most of the shots in the film to be moving, but with very subtle, gentle moves—and that’s exactly what he replicated. We came up with a lot of shots where the actors are situated next to windows, with the only source of light coming from one direction, so that half of their face is lit and the other half dropping into darkness.”

Beristain was invigorated by the challenges of THE INVISIBLE, which involved switching between cramped interior rooms and expansive outdoor locales—all on location in Vancouver, British Columbia. Filming the exterior scenes during the Vancouver winter, under rainy, foggy and often changeable skies, frequently called for savvy technological solutions on the part of Beristain. “I had to pull out my bag of tricks on this film,” admits Beristain.

The cinematographer especially enjoyed shooting such new talents as Justin Chatwin and Margarita Levieva. “If I could describe them in a word, I’d say freshness. They have that capacity to surprise—to surprise the audience and themselves. They really get the idea of film storytelling, and they give you wonderful things for the camera,” he says. “Great filmmakers like David Goyer use the camera as a kind of character within the storytelling process.

Margarita and Justin saw that and embraced it and played with it.”

Equally key to the film’s atmosphere is the work of production designer Carlos Barbosa, who designed each individual location to mirror the personality and psychology of the film’s characters. He began with Nick Powell’s house. “We wanted to create this very beautiful, protected, high-class environment that would reflect that Nick seems to have it all—yet also reveals that he and his mother have had a breakdown in communication. So we created a super-modern house with everything in its place, not a dirty dish anywhere, but one that feels totally controlled and rigid. The only breathing room at all in the house is Nick’s bedroom. It begins to make sense that Nick would want to break out of this perfect, meticulous environment, to find his own voice,” he explains.

To stand in for the Powells’ house, Barbosa used a sleek, modernist home designed by one of Canada’s foremost architects, Arthur Erickson. A marvel of layered concrete and glass shrouded in spectacular landscaping, the house features a natural duck pond visible from all the rooms. “I loved the house and thought it was beautiful—and all the concrete, glass and wood provide a lot of visual texture,” adds Barbosa.

Meanwhile for Annie, Barbosa made a study in contrasts, recreating her living space in a cramped, cluttered apartment in a rundown building. “Annie is the very opposite of Nick, so we decided to set her in a housing project,” he says. “It’s still modern in terms of the ’60s-style architecture but it couldn’t be a more different environment from that of Justin’s character. She and her family live in a very chaotic, messy world.”

To create some of the film’s key sets in Nick’s high school, where a significant part of the action takes place, Barbosa wanted a location that would avoid the cliché 1950s school look with institutional, locker-lined hallways. “We wanted to present a totally different-looking world for the film,” he notes, “one that’s a lot more modern with interesting spaces and minimalist architecture.”

A wide search turned up a rare example of a newly constructed, modernist high school located in nearby Burnaby, a Vancouver suburb. “We found this very state-of-the-art school with super-edgy, clean architecture and a beautiful surrounding environment,” says Barbosa. “It gives the impression that this is primarily a very wealthy school, where many of the kids would have the money to buy Nick’s essays and Annie’s stolen goods.”

Another vital visual element of the film are the many high-wire stunts which are woven into the fabric of the story, which include a jump into the frigid and dangerously turbulent waters under a dam, a leap off a 15-story building and a visceral car accident. Goyer likes his actors to do as many of their own stunts as they are able, and he found Justin Chatwin and Margarita Levieva more than willing.

The scenes shot at the Ruskin Dam in Mission, British Columbia, about an hour outside of Vancouver, involved some especially tricky maneuvering. The main location, a small patch of rocky land jutting into the river under the powerful dam, was accessible only by boat. Not only that, but safety concerns by the hydrological authority in charge of the area meant that only a minimal crew, actors, stunt and safety people could be ferried across the water, along with camera and equipment. Once there, both Justin Chatwin and the stunt divers had to spend many chilly hours in the icy river.

As Justin explains, it was not his favorite part of the filming process, and for good reason. “I’m allergic to wetsuit material, so I couldn’t wear one,” he says. “It was pretty cold out there but the shots turned out great, so ultimately, I was happy. There was a lot of hard physical stuff in this movie, all the running to find my body, all the freezing in the water—but it was also fun. Ironically, it made me feel very alive.”

Another key sequence in the story has Nick getting hit by a car. For this scene, Chatwin had to fall repeatedly on a green-screen mat in front of the vehicle—but he did have some previous experience in this unusual art. “This is the third film where I’ve been involved in a car crash,” Chatwin notes. “Maybe it’s my destiny.”

There was also considerable strenuous physical activity involved for Margarita Levieva’s character, Annie, including fight sequences, leaping over tables, attacking a jewelry store window and plenty of all-out running. Levieva, in excellent condition thanks to her former training as a competitive gymnast in Communist Russia, was keen to try all her own stunts.

“When I first read the script, I didn’t even realize how demanding the role was going to be, but the physical action turned out to be very fun to do. I got to use a lot of the stuff that I learned as a gymnast on the set,” says Levieva.

For David Goyer, there was one more final element he’d always felt was central to his vision of THE INVISIBLE: the musical soundtrack, which Goyer uses as a non-visual mode to further deepen and enrich the film’s atmosphere and sense of the characters. Goyer knew he wanted a soundtrack that would stand out with a collection of mood-generating songs from today’s newest indie and alternative bands. Ultimately, he chose songs from a wide variety of artists, including British rockers Oceansize, the American genre busters Mellowdrone, New York City’s avant-garde vocal band TV On The Radio, Chicago’s Kill Hannah, the Canadian supergroup Broken Social Scene, the alt-metal band A Perfect Circle, the lush emo rockers Death Cab for Cutie and the poetic Birmingham, Alabama-based Remy Zero.

Also featured on the soundtrack is the rock quartet headed by actor Jared Leto, 30 Seconds to Mars, with their hit single “The Kill.” Their recent album, “Beautiful Lie,” went platinum and rocketed to #1 on the modern-rock charts.

Ultimately, the music, the stunts, the visual effects, the photography and design of the film would all be put in service of the story—helping to bring Nick Powell’s quest to get beyond the haunting secrets held by everyone around him fully to life. Sums up Mike Macari: “Between the screenplay, David Goyer, Spyglass, this amazing cast and our very creative crew, it was the perfect chemistry for telling this story.”

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LIFE, DEATH, AND SOMETHING IN BETWEEN
From the producers of “The Sixth Sense” and the co-writer of “Batman Begins” comes THE INVISIBLE, a chilling supernatural thriller about a teenager who finds himself trapped between two worlds—invisible to the living and all too close to the dead.