Seventeen-year-old actress Chloë Grace Moretz ("Hit-Girl" in the Kick-Ass 2 movies) studied the cello for seven months to prepare for her latest role, a conflicted young musician in the film If I Stay. Since Moretz's superpowers don't include violoncello virtuosity, director R.J. Cutler and crew faced an issue that's as old as the movies: making an actor who's playing a musician look convincing in performance scenes.
In the new age of digital filmmaking, it seems the old tricks aren't good enough anymore. Shoot the performance from the back the concert hall so the figure is so small you can't tell it's an actual musician and not the actor? Cheap. Cutting as smoothly as possible between hand/body shots and facial close-ups? Better, but so 20th century.
WQXR's Brian Wise spotted no fewer than nine visual effects personnel in the cast and crew list for If I Stay. The story is about Mia Hall (Moretz), a girl who has an out-of-body experience while in a coma after a car accident. Will she go to Juilliard? Will she stay in Oregon with her rocker boyfriend? Based on the best-selling novel by Gayle Forman, If I Say wouldn't seem to be a film needing nine people manning the digital effects.
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