As technology has made special effects more
accessible, and CGI sets have become cheaper
to build than real locations, studios are
more and more tempted to rely on computerized
effects to tell their stories.
Movies have become so reliant on digital effects
that their original footage is often completely
unrecognizable from what you see on screen.
Here's what these movies really looked like
before the special effects were added.
The Revenant
Leading man Leonardo DiCaprio and director
Alejandro G. Iñárritu weren't the only ones
to gain recognition for their work on 2015's
The Revenant.
From riding a horse off a cliff to an epic
bear attack, ILM, the digital team behind
the film's special effects, had their work
cut out for them.
The true hero of this film, though, was Glenn
Enniss, the 6'4'' stuntman who played the
iconic bear.
"It was hard on the body.
So, you know, on your hands and feet, picking
someone up, throwing them around."
Ennis also admitted that DiCaprio was a pretty
intense co-star.
The A-lister's agony was so believable that
Ennis thought he was actually hurting him.
Passengers
Despite failing to recoup its $110 million
budget, nobody could deny that 2016's Passengers
looked great.
Director Morten Tyldum wanted to keep the
visual effects as subtle as possible.
Effects company MPC was behind many of the
film's iconic shots, including a beautiful,
zero-gravity water sequence.
However, though special effects may be accessible,
they certainly aren't cheap.
MPC's visual effects supervisor Pete Dionne
told Art of VFX:
"[Morten's] aesthetic is definitely biased
towards invisible effects, and where they
couldn't be invisible by nature, to keep them
restrained and to never distract from the
drama."
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Warner Bros. maxed out their $250 million
budget for Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice,
and although the film made tons of money,
critics still weren't impressed.
Director Zack Snyder received a lot of flack,
but he claimed that he and his effects team
actually went out of their way to pay homage
to the source material.
Take Superman's cape, for instance.
VFX supervisor Bryan Hirota told Art of VFX:
"[It] had to act and feel natural, but on
the other hand behave in an art-directed way
and create appealing shapes that remind the
viewer of the original comics."
That may sound like a nice detail, but it's
a safe bet that everyone was too busy trying
to spot actor Henry Cavill's CGI-erased moustache
in Justice League to go back and notice.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2
The Hunger Games franchise split its final
book into two movies, and most fans agree
that the second was far more exciting than
the first.
VFX supervisor Charles Gibson described Mockingjay
- Part 2 as a war film with massive setpieces,
saying:
"We had to enhance battle action and create
believable environments that would hold up
for extended coverage."
Working closely with production designer Phil
Messina, Gibson agreed on a mix of shooting
on location and building digital sets, saying
that Messina's input on the project and his
design approach were invaluable.
Okja
South Korean director Bong Joon-ho turned
countless Netflix users vegan in 2017 with
Okja, the touching story of a girl and her
super-pig.
VFX supervisor Erik-Jan de Boer explained
that the success of the film hinged on whether
the audience believed that Okja, a genetically
engineered pig, was real.
As he explained to No Film School,
"The only way that people are really going
to believe Mija and Okja and their little
pet friendship is if we have a lot of contact,
and if that contact is truly believable."
In order to achieve this physical contact,
the VFX team created a range of foam props
for young star Ahn Seo-hyun to interact with,
including a full body suit for the most intimate
interactions.
Fortunately, the effort paid off, as Okja
struck a chord with both viewers and critics
alike.
Blade Runner 2049
The sequel to Ridley Scott's seminal sci-fi
classic Blade Runner was a long time coming,
and the VFX team felt the weight of the '80s
cult classic on their shoulders.
Overall visual effects supervisor John Nelson
told Art of VFX,
"Any fan of science fiction or cinema has
a great deal of reverence for the original
Blade Runner, myself included."
Blade Runner 2049's cityscapes, in particular,
were a huge job, and multiple VFX companies
were hired to craft this world in miniature.
While the film fell below box office expectations,
it did at least manage to capture the neon-noir
feeling that resonated with fans of the original
so strongly.
Arrival
Before Blade Runner 2049, Denis Villeneuve
directed a sci-fi outing that was a little
more grounded in reality.
2016's Arrival follows a linguist and a physicist
as they attempt to communicate with an alien
species.
The VFX style was the polar opposite of the
Blade Runner sequel, seeming drab and washed-out
in comparison.
VFX supervisor and regular collaborator Louis
Morin told VFXblog,
"[Villeneuve] wanted nothing to do with any
kind of sci-fi movie that we've been seeing
recently from Hollywood.
. . . he just wanted this movie to feel so
real and so boring in so many ways, like,
ordinary looking."
Louis then talked about a cold, cloudy day
in Montreal, where Villeneuve explained that
this was what he wanted Arrival to look like.
Considering how grey and drab the film looked,
it's safe to say he nailed it.
Ex Machina
Alex Garland's indie sci-fi drama Ex Machina
beat out many big-budget films to win the
Best Achievement in Visual Effects Oscar in
2016.
According to VFX supervisor Andrew Whitehurst,
the shoot was so well-organized and efficient
that they had extra cash to spend on making
Ava, the AI, look amazing.
He explained that the initial budget would
have only allowed them to animate Ava's torso
and limbs, and that the extra money let them
animate her head and neck as well.
Garland also wanted to make sure Ava had romantic
appeal.
Costume designer Sammy Sheldon Differ explained
that her suit, which left little to the imagination,
was a massive group effort.
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