Death and 3-D among discussion topics for ‘The Final Destination’ team

Kieran Layton

When an actor is shooting a movie about death, it’s hard not to constantly… Kieran Layton

When an actor is shooting a movie about death, it’s hard not to constantly imagine different ways to die on set.

“When you’re shooting and thinking about death every day, there’s always mousetrap-type things that make you think, “If the back of the truck fell and hit that, that would shoot up to the power line and I’d get electrocuted and die,” actress Shantel VanSanten said.

If what she is describing sounds suspiciously like a scene in a “Final Destination” movie, that’s because it is. VanSanten recently discussed her new film, “The Final Destination,” which is the fourth installment in the successful horror franchise.

“The Final Destination” is being touted as the last entry in the series, and while advertisements claim “Death saved the best for last,” it is also notable that this is the first entry to use 3-D technology to ensure every blood splatter, rogue tire and roaring flame is experienced by the audience.

David Ellis, director of this and the second film, talked about the challenges that accompany production on a 3-D film.

“There’s a lot more going on. There’s a lot more involving setting up for the day to get your shots. You have to think the cameras are a lot heavier, so you need some pretty big guys,” Ellis said.

He said that where a normal camera would require anywhere from one to four people, the cameras used for production on this film usually required eight to nine people. Also, Ellis joked that their film was a guinea pig for the James Cameron-created 3-D cameras used for his upcoming epic, “Avatar.” He went on to say that using 3-D is about more than creating cooler special effects.

“We were one of the first full-length live 3-D movies being made. The most exciting things are not in-your-face stuff — if we were doing a scene just here in this room, that scene would have so much more depth than if we were doing it in 2-D. I, as an audience member, would feel like I was part of the conversation.

“For me, it’s all about throwing stuff in the kids’ faces, scaring them and making them duck and all that. The reason I took this film was to learn — not only to keep working and make some money and work with New Line again — but most importantly was to understand 3-D technology,” he said.

Craig Perry, producer for all four “Final Destination” films, talked about taking on the task of keeping the elaborate death scene premise fresh, and making the final film the best yet.

“The challenge actually isn’t scope and size — it’s accessibility. It’s trying to find places you and I might be on a daily basis and then invest in something malevolent. As we’ve gone through the movies, it’s been getting harder and harder,” Perry said.

Audience members care more about the anticipation of the kill than the actual kill itself, particularly in the “Final Destination” franchise, he said.

Actress Haley Webb said she really enjoys the concept of the series.

“I love the fact that [the deaths] happens in an order — there’s always the question of ‘Can you beat death?’” Webb said.

“If anything, we’re reacting to this massive public interest in mortality and the desire to look at and get close to witness things that are horrible, but be safe enough that we don’t actually have it happen to us. It’s this weird human thing — the desire to be a witness,” Perry said.

Bobby Campo, who plays Nick, the guy who has the initial premonition of a racetrack disaster in the film’s opening, also discussed the film series’ success.

“The appeal to it is that these are everyday situations. It takes something that really can happen to you, and that’s the fear that we’re playing on. This stuff could happen to anybody at any moment,” Campo said.

Campo and VanSanten agreed that filming such a movie can take a lot out of an actor, both physically and mentally.

“There was one day where we were shooting it, and I just lost it. You’re in these scenes where you think, ‘I’m never going to understand what this feels like because it just doesn’t happen to that many people.’ As safe as I feel with [director] David Ellis — he was a stuntman forever — there’s still a part of you that has this raw adrenaline,” VanSanten said.

Campo said that safety, however, was always the primary concern. The stunts in the film, which were done by both the actors and their stunt doubles, coupled with the technology the film uses, will definitely attract a big crowd.

“You can’t just spectate in this movie — the technology literally draws you in t the film,” Campo said.