How “Rogue One” director Gareth Edwards created ‘The Creator’ using indie filmmaking techniques

Gareth Edwards (director of Star Wars’ “Rogue One“) says that the process of making his newest film “The Creator” was everything but conventional, including his inspiration.

“I was on a road trip a few years back and was driving through the midwest (United States). I had my headphones on and looked out the window to see a giant warehouse in the middle of this vast cornfield. It had Japanese lettering on it, and my creative spark went off,” he said during the film’s virtual press conference. 

He added that he couldn’t get that image out of his mind, and decided to write to that as a reference. “I wondered what type of robots were being made in the middle of nowhere by this Japanese company.”

His writing eventually led to a sci-fi film that centered around artificial intelligence, robots, and humans in our world in the not-too-distant future. In other words, it was a big-budget original film that happened to enter our world that was increasingly afraid of AI and was only funding pictures that have proven IP in them.

“By itself, there really wasn’t anything going for it,” Edwards said until a few producers at a production company heard the pitch and realized the value in an original picture and Edwards himself. “They quickly made me think otherwise and ended up funding the picture with a healthy budget.”

He did say that he and his producing team still needed to creatively work out the budget so they could make a high-quality film that would be believable. To do that, the team took on an “indie” filmmaking mindset that focused on using cheaper cameras, a lighter crew, and focused opportunities to shoot on-location.

Edwards added, “I knew right away that since our story is set in our real world, we needed to shoot in the real world. I’m so glad that we were able to allocate our resources to doing just that. It helped lift everyone and everything.” By shooting on location, the production team didn’t have to use monies to build sets; and by having a smaller crew to film in the eight Southeast Asian countries they shot in, it allowed for the team to hire local crews and talent from those places to be a part of a Hollywood movie.

Hollywood power and resources still came in to help with making the picture complete. Industrial Light & Magic aided with creating the numerous stunning visual effects in the movie, including creating the AI-powered humanoid robots that play a central role. Composer Hans Zimmer also created a sweeping and yet intimate score that blended both the western and eastern worlds portrayed in the film.

Altogether, “The Creator” stands as a testament to people believing in creativity and originality, and science fiction storytelling weaving it all into one with the best and brightest minds. “Both real and artificial,” said Edwards laughingly. “If AI ever destroys us, I know they wouldn’t destroy me because I made a film that honors them- I think.”

“The Creator” is now playing in theaters.