Doug Jones is an actor that you rarely actually get to see. That’s because some of his most memorable roles, whether it be Abe Sapien in the Hellboy movies and games, Cochise in Syfy’s Falling Skies TV series, or the Silver Surfer in the Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer movie and game; require hours of practical make-up that hide his face. But Jones is happy to be transformed into these aliens and creatures because they provide excellent characters to explore.
That was also the case with Roddenberry Entertainment’s White Room: 02B3, the first narrative film shot with Immersive Media’s 360-degree camera rig. The cutting-edge technology captured the entire room, and all of the actors, at all times. The story, which stars Jones, Breckin Meyer, Tamlyn Tomita, David Blue, Rachel True, Tony Janning, and Milynn Sarley, focuses on a half-dozen people who have awakened in a white room with no idea why they’re there. Roddenberry actually shot both a traditional 2D version of the 15-minute story and a 360-degree version, both of which are available for download on August 3 on iTunes and Google Play.
“The filming process itself was a bit more tedious because you have a circle of cameras in the middle of the room facing outward, so the audience is sitting in the middle of the action instead of at the edge of it,” Jones said. “This eliminates the ability to cut and edit a scene together with another angle. It’s like you’re doing a play, which means a scene has to run from beginning to end seamlessly. If you mess up a five-minute scene at the 4:45 mark, you have to start back at the beginning.”
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Jones did luck out for this film in some ways. Since he plays an alien and only interacts with one other actor, he didn’t have to endure the painstaking process that the other actors locked inside the white room did. But he definitely underwent his own transformation, which required a lot of time.
“The alien for White Room was extensive,” Jones said. “I started the day with my shirt off and a shaved head ready to go. I was painted from the top of my head to my waistline with my bare skin. And they also glued on prosthetic pieces to reshape my face. To go through that much make-up, it’s quite a commitment. But in the end it is worth it because I get to play characters that I cannot play with my own human face. My own goofy, tall, skinny white guy look only goes so far. But when you’re playing aliens from other worlds and other planets and other ecosystems, it broadens things and you get to play in a bigger sandbox as an actor.”
Doug Jones as Fyn-Ke’al.
The 360-degree experience was also a draw, especially since Jones does so few short films any more. One of the cool things about the technology behind the 360-degree movie is that not only will it work with any mobile VR headset from Google Cardboard to MergeVR (and it’s coming soon to Samsung Gear VR and Oculus Rift), the film also works on any tablet or smartphone and can be rotated seamlessly (using the accelerometer and the new im360 app). Jones demonstrated this technology at San Diego Comic Con, moving the 2D perspective of the screen around the table to show one actor after another while the film played.
“I was able to watch the entire room as a spectator in the middle of that room,” said Jones. “I wasn’t watching a scene, I was in the scene. It’s a completely different experience. And it may require a second viewing because you might hear somebody talking off camera that you’re not aimed at. It’s just fascinating technology.”
Immersive Media, which has partnered with Roddenberry 360° to create narrative-driven entertainment for 360-degree viewing in VR and through tablets and smartphones, has a solid track record in tech. They’re the company behind Google’s Street View. And Roddenberry Entertainment also has a strong background in not only storytelling, but in forecasting the future. Gene Roddenberry imagined the very iPad that Jones used at Comic-Con long before Steve Jobs made it, and he also designed a Holodeck way before companies like Magic Leap and Oculus VR turned it into a reality.
“It’s interesting that not only are we using brand new technology to film this story, but we’re also using it to watch it,” said Jones. “That brings together a whole new world that makes geeks have what my director friend Guillermo del Toro calls “geekgasm”. There’s going to be geekgasms all over this 360 app, I can promise you.”
Behind the scenes at the filming of “White Room.”
Speaking of del Toro, Jones worked with the director on Pan’s Labyrinth and the Hellboy films. Hellboy, himself, Ron Perlman, stirred up the Internet in June with the “HellboyIII” Tweet, and Jones is ready to dedicate the time needed to apply all of that make-up for a third and final time to bring Abe Sapien to life.
“We all want to make this movie before we die – Ron and Guillermo and Selma Blair and Jeffrey Tambor,” said Jones. “We feel we owe it to the fans because you can’t leave a trilogy hanging with a Part 2 and we really need to finish it up with Part 3. So if we all want to make it creatively, and it’s not been made yet, that makes you think it must be a money/studio issue out there and that’s beyond my expertise. I don’t know what’s happening with that, but Ron was just making an attempt to say to the studio system, ‘Hey money people, look, the audience is there. They’re clamoring for it. The hashtag got trending. Everyone’s talking about it. There are millions of people out there holding money in their hands saying I’m ready to spend it on Hellboy 3.’ That message was broadcast quite wide and far, but did a studio pick it up and are they going to act on that? That’s the result we have not heard yet, but I certainly hope so.”
One reason Jones hopes so isn’t just for the fans. It’s more personal. Of all of the creatures and aliens and characters he’s played over his career, Abe Sapien is his favorite. He got to know Abe very well over the course of two Hellboy movies, two video games, and two animated movies.
“Abe Sapian is an innovative and beautiful design that made me a man/fish hybrid mutant, and how many people can say they’ve done that,” Jones asked, noting that the make-up team received an Oscar nomination for Hellboy 2. “Abe Sapien really charms me because of his intellectual wit, his capacity to read four books at a time, the very sound advice that he gives, but also his street innocence. He does not have street smarts. He’s a bumbling idiot when it comes to affairs of the heart or emotion, and I love that.”
As do millions of fans. And it’s not just Abe that they love, but many of the aliens and creatures that the actor has brought to life, and continues to conjure. It takes a lot of patience and dedication to spend so much time in the make-up chair before going through the long days of filming TV, movies, or 360-degree short films. But in the end, Jones said it’s all worth it when he meets with fans in person at conventions or reads about the reactions these characters receive.
