Making the VFX of Here: Crafting a Prehistoric Sequence
For filmmaker Robert Zemeckis, a good movie is the perfect blend of truth and spectacle. This combination of storytelling approaches has defined Zemeckis’ movies across the decades with fascinating results.
With his latest film, Here, visual effects studio DNEG has visualized a concept that is anchored in a fixed camera position, depicting all the action of the story. We’ve seen how AI was used to de-age Tom Hanks for Here, a film that reunites director and star of Forest Gump, one of the best VFX movies of the 90s.
Making the VFX of Here: Crafting a Prehistoric Sequence
Alexander Seaman, Visual Effects Supervisor at DNEG, begins our conversation by noting that "The sense of the challenge was very much this unique way of telling a story. Certainly, with visual effects, this is not a very common way of showcasing your narrative. At face value, it seemed like a very straightforward project: it was the type of work that we were very familiar with doing. But, once we started to get into the shots, and by that, I mean the fixed-frame camera shots, we soon realized that all of the traditional problem-solving cinematography techniques that we’re used to doing were no longer applicable."
The Hardest Shot
Here’s a fixed-position camera viewpoint seen throughout the film. However, at the conclusion, there is an exception to the film’s established aesthetic. Alexander unpacks the creation of that final shot and begins by sharing its first and only time that the camera moves in the entire movie. He explains how it happens in such a subtle transition that you don’t notice it until you’re through the move and get a sense that something was different.
Making the VFX of Here: the Hardest Shot
Of the many things that were difficult about that shot, the camera move in particular required an almost partial rebuild of even the actors. At one point, the complete set around them becomes entirely digital because the set that was built for production didn’t really cater for a camera move that did that. So, we had to work to repair the actors’ perspective, and repair where their positions were in the set.
Conclusion
Alexander Seaman’s team at DNEG has combined rethinking and recalibrating long-established digital effects approaches with the fast-emerging world of AI in the creation of environmental elements that are seen throughout the film; often to very subtle effect. In this conversation, Alexander talks through their team’s challenges and opportunities in bringing visual effects approaches into a film that showcases the idea of the long take.
FAQs
Q: What was the biggest challenge in creating the prehistoric sequence in Here?
A: The biggest challenge was that one aspect of the shot changed, and it had a knock-on effect on the thousand frames that came before or after it.
Q: How did you approach the creation of the final shot in Here?
A: We approached it like the dinosaur challenge. It required an insane amount of detail added into that shot to make it look photographic.
Q: What was the purpose of the final shot in Here?
A: The purpose was to make the audience want to find out what happened to the neighbors and other people in the neighborhood.
Q: How did you achieve the subtle visual tricks in the final shot?
A: We used a lot of small, delicate visual tricks, and an insane amount of detail to make it look photographic.
