Designing Imaginary Friends for John Krasinski's IF

Movie Coverages

Get ready to embark on an exclusive journey behind the scenes as we delve into the intricate designing process of the imaginary friends featured in the whimsical fantasy comedy movie "IF." This highly anticipated film, directed by the multi-talented John Krasinski, showcases the charismatic Ryan Reynolds in a starring role. In this captivating exploration, we'll uncover the creative magic and meticulous craftsmanship that brought these fantastical characters to life. From initial sketches and conceptual art to the final animations and special effects, discover the innovative techniques and artistic vision that transformed mere ideas into the enchanting imaginary companions!  IF Cast:  Ryan Reynolds, John Krasinski, Cailey Fleming, Steve Carell, Louis Gossett Jr., Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Bobby Moynihan, Alan Kim, Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Maya Rudolph, Vince Vaughn, Sam Rockwell, Sebastian Maniscalco, Christopher Meloni, Awkwafina, Jon Stewart and Richard Jenkins  Stream IF now on digital!

Transcript

00:00You sure you want to do this there's no telling who's behind that door today all the ifs there are so many of them

00:06We were lucky because there's so many characters are developed

00:08I was writing the ideas of these characters

00:10And then we had an incredible art team that was drawing these characters as fast as I could think them up or any of them

00:16scary worse

00:19Desperate

00:23Really bend those knees ladies

00:25What I liked about the story was definitely big ifs I like their imaginations like don't hold back

00:32There's something from John's imagination or his childhood reading

00:35They're all characters who have a historic relationship to anybody brought up in the 80s or 90s

00:41There's the core ifs you are the chosen one. Oh, no, let's not give her a complex

00:46There's some recurring ones that are eccentric and funny that show up from time to time

00:50Put some pants on you're freaking everyone out when I was doing research for the film

00:54It was really interesting to read up on the child psychology aspect to imaginary friends kids invent imaginary friends

01:00Not only as a playmate or something fun

01:03But it's also usually a projection of some trauma whether it's a move whether it's a new school whether it's losing a parent

01:09They actually create these characters as coping mechanisms. How do you make an imaginary friend specific to a kid?

01:16My job is to bring all the characters to life with the direction and the inspiration we get from John and from an animators

01:24Perspective they all very different. They all have unique quirks and

01:29performances, Oh

01:31Fancy see you here blue is really lovely

01:38My idea for blue came from experience with my daughter violet who used to tell me that my favorite color was purple even though

01:45My favorite color was clearly blue and after two years I buckled and now purple is my favorite color

01:50So I thought wouldn't it be fun to put that joke in the movie where this is a clearly purple character

01:55Whose name is blue all because his kid was colorblind

02:01I don't know blue is a purple pom-pom

02:06Essentially, he's the most huggable thing in the entire world. He's just full of joy

02:11Blue needs to feel furry and touchable and huggable, but it's very big

02:14We have tools to manipulate his body or get some funny gags of his head stuck in somewhere

02:20And that's the fun bit of it because sometimes he has to be like this

02:23His head is gonna hit the ceiling and needs to be compressed like that

02:27Well done blue

02:28Now let's start over, shall we?

02:31Blossom she's gorgeous devilish style adorable accent. She likes to make tea

02:37She's very calm and collected and she can dance

02:41plot twist

02:43Blossom is a homage to Flesher cartoons

02:45It needs to live in a contemporary world, but still keeping that appeal in those old cartoons

02:52The idea of blossom came to me because it was important to say that the people who create these imaginary friends were all kids

02:58At one point so blossom was invented by someone in the 50s

03:02We actually designed her to be kind of an old-school cartoon

03:06So even though you grow up that imaginary friend is still gonna be locked in that time frame

03:11Lewis is the head if he is the first imaginary friend to say I know you're all sad that your kids can't see you anymore

03:18So let's create a place where we can all live together and commiserate together. All kids need their imaginary friends

03:25Especially when they grow up

03:27So he creates an imaginary friend retirement community and that retirement community lives under Coney Island

03:34Which you will find out has a very special place in Lewis's heart

03:37My

03:40Kids are all over the movie my seven-year-old daughter

03:43Violet's imaginary friend is Allie who is a pink alligator that lives under the bed

03:47I said, are you scared of Allie and Violet said why would I be scared of Allie?

03:51She's under the bed to protect me from bad guys and I went

03:53Okay

03:53So Allie's in the movie all kids are scared of the dark cuz those nightlights don't do anything

04:00My daughter Hazel we were sitting around a campfire a long time ago

04:04And when you first are exploring the world of s'mores you realize very quickly that you can't leave the marshmallow in for too long

04:10Or it lights on fire and falls into the fire

04:13Hazel thought that was one of the funniest things ever

04:15So she invented an imaginary friend who was a marshmallow that the top of it is always on fire

04:23There are so many more ifs there's a unicorn magic mouse

04:29Guardian dog. All right, that's it. I got this

04:32There's a early 80s robot toy they get building me, but we never got lasers to shoot out of my eyes

04:40Octocat is a cat who dresses up as an octopus and is obsessed with being underwater

04:45There's Cosmo who's this film noir detective who just overreacts to everything. I can find anyone

04:53It was really fun to dive in of why kids come up with these ifs

04:56It's like trying to catch lightning in a bottle

04:58What are the right ingredients and when you put all of them together, it's just like it it worked pretty good

05:04It's been really fun playing around in that world

05:07Keith

05:10Kind of a kid creates an invisible if

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