TORONTO (AP) — When Pharrell Williams and Morgan Neville determined to embark on a film about Williams’ life however animated in Lego items, they knew there could be tradition shocks. However making “Piece by Piece” nonetheless led to some locations that neither Williams, Neville or Lego may foresee.
“We did have intensive conversations about how broad a again of a bikini backside could be on a minifig in a ‘Rump Shaker’ video,” says Neville, chuckling. “We had many discussions about issues I assumed I might by no means be speaking about as a filmmaker.”
“Piece by Piece” didn’t include any easy-to-assemble directions. It’s half music biopic, half documentary, half household movie. It’s, like many issues about Williams’ hit-making life, radiant with uplift, beats and idiosyncrasy.
“Society likes to place us in containers, pun supposed,” Williams says, talking alongside Neville. “Right here was a second the place this man’s view of my life and the best way he noticed it strung collectively was extremely liberating for me. Whereas I’ve by no means seen myself in a field, this helps different folks now to, as effectively.”
“Piece by Piece,” which Focus Options releases in theaters Friday, begins, like many documentaries, with the director, Neville, sitting down with a digital camera crew targeted on their topic, Williams. However on this case, Williams — and the whole lot else, together with a bearded, bespectacled Neville — are Lego.
“What if we advised my life with Legos?” Williams asks within the movie. “That’ll by no means occur,” replies Neville.
What follows is one thing like a conventional documentary full with colourful recounting of previous struggles and triumphs, from his upbringing in Virginia Seashore to his string of chart-topping hits, advised via Williams’ voiceover and numerous speaking heads. It was recorded that means in interviews, both on digital camera, Zoom or telephone, after which animated into Lego kind. Right here, lastly, is an opportunity to see Busta Rhymes as a Lego, together with many others, together with Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg and Missy Elliott.
“The primary assembly we had was with Lego as a result of if they’d mentioned no, there would have been no movie,” says Neville, the director of documentaries together with “20 Toes From Stardom,” “Received’t You Be My Neighbor” and “Steve!” “To their credit score, they not solely mentioned sure, however I believe understood the type of development it will drive them into.”
For Lego, the Danish toy firm, making “Piece by Piece” was its greatest gamble since entering into function movies with 2014’s “The Lego Film.” Neville approached the corporate’s head of world leisure, Jill Wilfert with a pitch for what could be Lego’s first foray right into a documentary not about itself. Wilfert was instantly responsive.
“The entire thought behind Lego is its countless creativity and limitless chance, and Pharrell actually type of embodies that,” she says.
As proof of idea, Neville put collectively a 90-second video of Williams reflecting on his upbringing and the inspiration of artists like Stevie Surprise. (A vinyl of “Songs within the Key of Life” is one other a type of stuff you by no means anticipated to see as a Lego.)
Beneficial Tales
“I got here away from that saying, ‘That is completely going to work,’” Neville says. “And everyone we confirmed it to obtained it. They had been like: I need to see this film.”
Nonetheless, Neville and Williams knew the Lego strategy would imply working inside PG parameters. Some issues about Williams’ life — like being younger and well-known whereas working within the higher echelons of pop and hip-hop — wouldn’t slot in a family-friendly film. Williams says the film “paraphrases” his life.
“There have been undoubtedly some areas that weren’t inside my expectations of the place we would go,” Wilfert says. “We had a number of good dialogue all through the entire course of. Morgan and Pharrell, there was mutual respect as a result of we’re a model that folks have excessive expectations of and anticipate sure issues of. So we did work with them on areas that we felt did make sense and didn’t make sense.”
It additionally pushed Lego in different methods. Williams is especially proud that the film led to Lego increasing its obtainable pores and skin tones and hair textures. Williams’ Lego self — which he carried proudly to the Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant premiere of “Piece by Piece” — was particularly designed to match his personal pores and skin tone.
“You title the kind of human being, we fought arduous for his or her existence and acknowledgement,” says Williams. “Lego obliged and I believe the model is best due to it.”
One of many film’s most intelligent designs is illustrating tracks that Williams crafts himself or in collaboration, like Snoop Dogg’s “Drop It Like It’s Scorching,” Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Woman,” Nelly’s “Scorching in Herre” or Pharrell’s personal “Pleased.” Every is rendered as a singular little glowing set of Legos pieced collectively.
Different, much less completely happy features of Williams’ life don’t make the reduce. You received’t see something about the “Blurred Strains” lawsuit, by which Marvin Gaye’s property sued for copyright infringement and received. Neither is there something within the movie about Williams’ latest authorized squabbles together with his Neptunes co-founder Chad Hugo. Earlier this yr, Hugo filed a trademark opposition over the duo’s title, claiming Williams’ “fraudulently” sought management of it. Representatives for Williams have disagreed, saying Williams “reached out on a number of events to share within the possession.”
“Piece By Piece,” although, does embrace a optimistic portrayal of Hugo, significantly in Williams’ early days in Virginia Seashore, when the 2 started making music collectively.
“There’s nothing bittersweet. I’m so grateful for my experiences. Chad is an integral a part of the start, the genesis of my pursuit in music and being there,” Williams says. “I met him within the second grade in band class, and the recollections that we now have of creating music collectively, I might not be sitting right here if it weren’t for us assembly.”
Williams, who’s Males’s Artistic Director for Louis Vuitton, is proficient with regards to model administration. He launched his debut solo album, “In My Thoughts,” in 2006 and way back stepped into the highlight, himself. However he has, by his personal acknowledgement, remained a producer at coronary heart. Not the whole lot about “Piece by Piece” was simple for him.
“Loads of that was weak for me,” Williams says. “I’m, like, crying two occasions within the story. I hadn’t thought-about he would possibly ask questions that might set off emotion. I’m such a produced individual. I’ve produced myself a lot.”
It’s a sentiment that Neville, as a protean documentarian used to adapting to the fashion and perspective of his topics, can relate to.
“Pharrell as a producer is usually holding up a mirror to artists to get them to see themselves. My job is to carry up a mirror to him to get him to see himself,” Neville says. “I really feel like, in an odd means, we now have the identical job.”
When Neville interviewed different musicians for the movie, he advised them that they’d be animated. However he didn’t say how. It was solely later they came upon they’d be Lego minifigs.
“Everybody was so shocked and so elated,” says Williams. “I really feel prefer it launched the internal youngster in all of them. A few of them have a look at life that means, anyhow. Different ones, even the robust guys, had been like, ‘Oh, man, that is so cool.’”
Capturing Williams’ life in a playful, even childlike means will certainly assist some youthful viewers connect with his story. Changing into a world-famous multi-hyphenate may appear out of attain to most, however “Piece by Piece” makes it look, virtually, like a snap.
“There’s a universality that Lego brings out,” Neville says. “I really feel like this complete movie is an experiment within the pressure between the specificity of actual life and documentary and the creativeness and universality of creativeness.”
