F&V: How does being a couple affect your working relationship?
MM: I feel our success is that we have a great deal of respect for each other, since we met at Digital Domain and worked together on a purely professional level. We support each other in our expertise, at the same time that we both have a good eye and we both have a good knowledge of producing.
GM: We know each other really well, and have a good understanding of each other’s strengths and weaknesses. We yin and yang well together - we balance each other out very well, and that helps tremendously both in our personal and business lives. Margaux handles most of the creative decisions and I handle most of the accounting part of it.
"We yin and yang well together—we balance each other out very well, and that helps tremendously in our personal and business lives."
F&V: Do you have a different way of working with lower-budget films?
MM: One of the reasons we started Gray Matter was to do indie films, although it’s hard for us to take on films that don’t have distribution. For indie films, we get on board earlier and have a very one-on-one relationship with the director. We’re often the only VFX house on board, so it’s more creative for us. We have a lot of input. And because we have such an extensive live-action background, we can help plan out their shoots and decide what they can do in camera and what we can do with VFX. We prefer it, frankly, because we do get so involved in that aspect. We get to know all the players and work with them.
F&V: You seem to work frequently with quirky directors. What gives?
GM: They’re great to work with. We want to have a reason to get out of bed in the morning and for us it’s working with creative, interesting people, who can be found at all levels of the industry, not just the indies. We get them involved — Wes [Anderson] came over and ended up staying for three hours. He was thrilled to see how we were doing it and interact with everyone and have input into the process.
The smaller indie directors are used to handling many aspects of the production and make films that are very much a reflection of them as artists. They want VFX that bond with their vision and reflect their points of view, and not feel that they’ve been hijacked creatively. That’s what we try to provide.
F&V: You worked on Six Feet Under and The West Wing. Do you notice an increase in the number and types of VFX on TV?
MM: We don’t do much TV work, but we’ve been lucky to get a few clients. TV people are almost the opposite of our film people. They say,‘Make it look great, thank you.’ They don’t have a lot of money, so a lot of time you have to know their shot, budget and get creative with what will work within that situation.
F&V: What is your ideal relationship with a director?
GM: I’ll point to Spike for this one. For Adaptation, when we were doing the performance of a bee on the flower, he started directing us like it was an actor. He’d say things like,‘That performance showed too much thought, can you be more instinctual?’ Just the kind of feedback you’d expect if you were an actor performing the part of a bee. That resonated very well with us— not getting directions like technicians but like an actor in the film. It was a very special moment.
F&V: Are you the only couple team working in VFX?
GM: No, we’re not. There is something about this business and couples that make a good match. There’s a natural relationship between creative director and producer that carries over very well into life.
MM: Otherwise, I’d never see Gray. There are a lot of hurdles and it can be challenging to a relationship.
GM: It’s not the easiest thing I’ve ever done, but it’s rewarding and it works well. The fun of this is that every day is different. Every day is a new challenge.‘Nice to work with’ would be a great epitaph.
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