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www.postmagazine.com 19 POST MARCH 2018 BLACK PANTHER BUSAN T'Challa returns from his work as a politician in the outside world where his father was killed and where, in his superhero form as Black Panther, he had joined the Avengers in the film Captain America: Civil War to avenge his father's death. Before being crowned as king, he travels to Nigeria, where Nakia is rescuing kidnapped wom- en. The scenes were shot in Atlanta and created in post production by Trixter. "It was January in Atlanta and we were sup- posed to be in a jungle," Baumann says. "Hanna [Bleacher] built a road through a large stage with dirt, trees and greenery to give us a base." Trixter provided the jungle environment surrounding the area in which T'Challa meets Nakia and, with help from his bodyguard Okoye, rescues the kid- napped girls. Once back in the city, Okoye shows T'Challa a hologram of Klaue planning to sell stolen vibrani- um to the CIA agent Ross. T'Challa and Nakia, in Western clothes, travel with Okoye, who has traded her warrior costume for a cocktail dress and wig, to a casino in Busan, South Korea, where the deal will take place. A crew at Luma Pictures in Santa Monica and Melbourne worked on visual effects for the following casino fight and car chase sequence. SONIC DISRUPTION IN THE CASINO The sequence begins in the casino, a two-story interior set in Atlanta with no ceiling or ceiling lights. "They wanted the fight scene to be edited as one take, so they shot it in succession, mostly using cameras on cables that could be pulled around, and handheld cameras that could be picked up," says Kevin Souls, who supervised Luma's crew in Santa Monica. "The longest and most elaborate was a seven-shot setup. It starts on the ground floor. They pull a camera up to the second floor and also use a handheld camera there, where Okoye is fighting Klaue's goons. We cut the goons out of the plate, re-animated them in 2D, and replaced Okoye's spear [which magi- cally appears] with a CG spear. She kicks a goon. He breaks a railing and falls off the second floor, and she jumps after him. We replaced the stunt actor with a CG Okoye and did face replacement. There's a wipe to another plate. We repositioned the spear and goon on the ground. The camera switches to T'Challa and follows as he jumps up in a full-digital takeover, then switches back to the actor on the second floor. The camera swings back to look at Klaue, and we see his arm split open to reveal the weapon inside." The CG weapon is a sonic disrupter gun powered by stolen vibranium that shatters whatever it hits. Klaue fires the gun. A cart explodes. Paper money and chips bounce off the walls and land everywhere. "At the end of the day, we had 2,000 frames to time out and cut together," Souls says. In addition to digital doubles and face replace- ments during the sequence, Luma artists added the ceiling, chandeliers and damage as the shot progressed — bullet holes, broken glass and de- bris — all the while matching the on-set lighting. "The lighting on set would change as they moved the lights, and there were subtle variations in the lighting overall," Souls says. "They had to reposition large chandeliers on set as they filmed. There were lights in the walls and decorative lights around the perimeter. We added 10 to 15 lights, built so that their reflections would match what was on set." The special effects team rigged the set with squibs and cannons to shoot debris around. The vi- sual effects team added squibs, bullet hits just miss- ing the actors' heads and so forth. For the debris, they applied photographed elements to 2.5D cards. "We had a ton of roto and camera tracks for everything," Souls says. "There was old-school plate manipulation where we'd have to move a stunt actor, repair the frame and make sure the timing worked. The 'big stitch' was one of the first things we started and one of the last delivered. The fight is kinetic, but it's a smooth path that leads to the final blast from the sonic destructor." CAR CHASE IN BUSAN "Every Marvel film has an exciting chase scene," Baumann says. "Ours is in South Korea, and it's as much fun as you'd expect. This one is exciting because visually there is more eye candy. We have the vibrant neon colors of Busan at night." The chase after Klaue and his goons in black Toyota 4Runners through the Busan streets begins outside the casino. T'Challa in his Black Panther suit rides atop a Lexus LS500 driven remotely by Shuri back in Wakanda, and two women race after Klaue in another car. "We had everything from typical 'A over B' plates, to compositing moving backgrounds around actors on a soundstage, to full-CG roads and intersections," says Brendan Seals, who supervised Luma's team in Melbourne. "The main shot is when T'Challa is on top of the blue Lexus and it turns around a corner. Klaue opens his arm, fires and the blast rips through the Lexus. It does a full flip through the fish market. We had amaz- ing photography with the Lexus traveling at 50 to 60mph and a stuntman in a black suit on top. It was great reference to see how light moves Black Panther features 2,500 visual effects.