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BITS & PIECES www.postmagazine.com 12 POST APRIL 2016 INTELLIGENT CREATURES CREATES VFX FOR LONDON HAS FALLEN FREMONT, CA — Toronto-based post house Intelligent Creatures relied on the VFX and motion graphics solution, Fusion Studio, from Blackmagic Design (www.blackmagicdesign.com) for their work on the recent Gramercy Pictures film, London Has Fallen. Additionally, Intelligent Creatures used a Blackmagic Cinema Camera to capture VFX plates for the film and DaVinci Resolve Studio to convert VFX plates. London Has Fallen is the sequel to Olympus Has Fallen, a suspenseful action thriller based on the premise: after the British Prime Minister pass- es away, his funeral becomes a target of a terrorist organization to destroy some of the world's most powerful leaders, devastate the British capital and unleash a terrifying vision of the future. The only hope of stopping it rests on the shoulders of the President of the United States (Aaron Eckhart) and his formidable Secret Service agent (Gerard Butler), as well as an English MI-6 agent (Charlotte Riley). Morgan Freeman also stars as the Vice President of the United States. Led by compositing supervisor Eric Doiron and VFX supervisor Geoff D. E. Scott, the Intelligent Creatures team created VFX sequences for London Has Fallen featuring the jet Air Force One and the helicopter Marine One. Mixing practical effects with full CG and everything in between, Intelligent Creatures used Fusion Studio to enhance and create excitement. "Working on the helicopter sequences was interesting because there was a bunch of different elements at play. Some shots were actually filmed in the helicopters, some with partial greenscreens, and others were full CG," says Doiron. "Using Fusion Studio's compositing abilities and projection mapping, we were able blend the worlds of the practical and visual effects. "The biggest sequence we did was when Marine One is shot down and crashes through a building, eventually stopping in iconic Hyde Park. It started on a greenscreen but gradually became all CG. It took months to accomplish but Fusion Studio's speed is [so] remarkable that it really helped us speed up what would have been a much longer process. The software's node-based architecture helped us to manage hundreds of elements and make many revi- sions without getting backed into a corner." The Intelligent Creatures team also used a Cinema Camera to capture the streets of London. They then used DaVinci Resolve Studio to ingest the VFX plates. "For some of the most intensive sequences, we needed helicopters to fly low, right over major London streets, which would never go through practical effects due to safety issues," noted Scott. "We went rooftop to rooftop with a Cinema Camera and took footage to create the VFX plates, so that everything would be authentic to the city."