Matt Drummond: Exploring The Secret Kingdom | FilmInk

Matt Drummond has been at the cutting of animation and visual effects in Australia for over thirty years, working in various capacities before finding great success as a Visual Effects Supervisor on TV projects like Attack Of The Sabretooth, Life After People, Supernova, Prehistoric Predators and more. With his production company Hive, Drummond has been right at the pivot point when it comes to not just advances in CGI, but also how new technologies can be employed to create international-level productions right here in Australia. Drummond turned writer/director in 2014 with the fantastical family film Dinosaur Island, and followed that up with the equally impressive My Pet Dinosaur in 2017. Now, Drummond delivers his most ambitious work yet with The Secret Kingdom, a stunning piece of world-building in which two youngsters (beautifully played by Sam Everingham and Alyla Browne) are whisked away to a strange underworld land populated by unusual creatures and powerful, evil forces. While the visual effects are truly stunning, Drummond’s greatest feat with The Secret Kingdom is creating a family film resonant with emotion, meaning and quiet power.

What were your inspirations for The Secret Kingdom? Did you have any narrative touchpoints?

“With this film, I tried to stay away from being influenced too much by anything, and focus on the story. But I’m a child of the 1980s, and classic family adventures such as Labyrinth and The Never Ending Story planted seeds deep in my young, impressionable mind that seem to flower in my work. Those films had such a sense of wonder infused throughout their world-building. The Secret Kingdom is a literal landscape of the mind that explores some important psychological concepts.”

The visual effects on The Secret Kingdom are truly impressive. Can you give us (if it’s possible!) a quick picture of how many people-hours and what kind of effort it takes to create something like this?

“I’ve been fortunate enough to have enjoyed a 30+ year career in VFX and I’m always looking for new and better ways to bring my ideas to the screen. I adopted Unreal Engine as the core of the VFX pipeline. Its real-time architecture allowed me to dispense with the need for the traditional departmentalised approach to VFX. I was able to do look dev, lighting, cinematography and rendering all in real-time. I was the lead Animator and FX artist on the film and I was able to complete the 1,248 VFX shots with only myself and a handful of modelling and layout artists. Of course, nothing good comes without sacrifice, and it did cost me almost three years of very long hours seven days a week.”

You obviously have a history with VFX, but how do you enjoy the other aspects of filmmaking – casting, working with actors etc?

“To be honest, the shoot is the hardest, most gruelling and least enjoyable part of the process for me. I know some people thrive on it, but it is where I have the most amount to juggle and the least amount of time. The casting process is actually the most important. Finding the right talent is so key to making movies, and in particular movies of this nature.”

Can you tell us about your young stars Sam Everingham and Alyla Browne? Was it a long process to find them? And how did you enjoy working with them? Can working with youngsters be difficult?

“Sam and Alyla were an absolute joy to work with, and they both had craft beyond their years. I was lucky to have found them. Alyla in particular has gone on to do some really big things and her star is rapidly rising. We cast a wide net across Australia to find the kids. The roles not only demanded the technical skill to play to the creatures that weren’t there on set, but also the depth of performance to convey the deeper narrative of the film.”

What was your biggest challenge on the film, and your biggest surprise?

“The biggest challenges came with the new technology. Some of the technology didn’t exist. Real-time raytraced rendering was still a dream when I first penned the script and only became a reality a few months before the shoot. Things like facial capture with iPhones were brand new, and for the voice actors, it was invaluable during the pandemic. The advancement of graphics technology over the past two years alone has been absolutely astounding, but it is the ease with which I was able to put that technology into production that surprised me the most.”

How did you enter the world of VFX? Were you into art, computers and creating as a child/adolescent? Was it always an interest of yours?

“I grew up painting and drawing, and I was always fascinated with the artistry behind films like Star Wars and those aforementioned 80s classics. My dad brought home the first Apple Macintosh in 1984, so computers were part of my formative years. I got my hands on a copy of some 3D animation early in my career and put together a pretty crude animation showreel. I showed this to some people at the science department of the ABC and got a job working on the science program Quantum. I must have done a pretty good job because word got around and I found myself imagining worlds and creatures for clients including Discovery Channel, History Channel and National Geographic.”

From the outside, the world of VFX creation seems to be a constantly growing and rapidly changing one, with new methods of production created almost daily? Is that the case? And if so, is it difficult to stay ahead of the curve?

“The rate of change is certainly rapid, and the emergence of AI has posed challenges to established workflows. Like all technology, there is the initial breakthrough by one or two companies, then the inevitable jumping on the bandwagon by the masses trying to monetise the new platform. At the moment, there is a lot of noise and a lot of junk or ‘me too’ tech in that space. Ultimately the established players will work out ways to integrate AI into their products and this will then extend current workflows. Blackmagic are adding new AI tools to Davinci and Fusion in every new release. Epic are working on some big things. Unfortunately, there still isn’t a ‘make look good’ button. It’s coming but it’s not here yet.”

While you were doing all of your earlier VFX work, was it always your intention and ambition to write and direct?

“Many artists find expression in multiple mediums. Film is the amalgam of so many creative disciplines and I know that many animators are either frustrated filmmakers or actors. I got into animation as a way to create imagined worlds. Filmmaking was a natural extension to that desire.”

Are you still doing a lot of outside VFX with Hive, or are you principally focusing on your own directorial projects?

“I’m focussed on my own film projects at the moment. Hive is the vehicle for that but we do work with select clients where we see I can add value or push the technology into new areas.”

You’ve got a local release date fixed, but are there plans for an international release?

“The Secret Kingdom is being release theatrically in the UK on May 24 and theatrically through Paramount in the US on June 9.”

What’s next for you in terms of projects? Is there anything that you can tell us about? Do you see The Secret Kingdom as something that could potentially grow narratively in terms of sequels?

“I’m definitely exploring the idea of developing additional long-form or episodic productions based in this world. Pling is fast becoming a favourite character with a lot of potential.”

The Secret Kingdom is released in cinemas on April 27. Click here for our review.