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Oscar Picks Sony Pictures Imageworks could get some attention for its work on Hotel Transylvania. 26 tors — DP Daniel Mindel, whose credits include Mission Impossible 3 and Domino, and VFX supervisor Peter Chiang, who runs Double Negative, the acclaimed Londonbased effects house whose credits include Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts 1 & 11, Iron Man 2, Inception and The Dark Knight Rises. "We had to figure out who was going to do all the computer-animated characters for the film, so we met with Peter and his team," recalls Stanton (see Post's interview with the director in the April 2012 issue), "and their group really reminded me of how Pixar felt in its early days, so it was good match." While the original plan was to shoot it all on location in the US Southwest, ultimately however, due to logistics and budget constraints, the film first moved to London and many of the effects shots had to be done inside. Filming on stage took some six months, at Shepperton, Longcross, and also in a converted warehouse in North London. Later, the filmmakers moved to Utah for another two months for all the location work, with a huge exterior greenscreen set at Lake Powell in Arizona. There are a huge number of visual effects shots in the film, ultimately done by three visual effects houses: Cinesite did all the environments and any inanimate objects like ships; Double Negative did all the character animation and anything with actors or creatures involved; and MPC contributed a couple of standalone sequences. Mindel worked "very closely" with Chiang, and the DI was overseen in-house by Pixar at EFilm with colorist Mitch Paulson. "What's so interesting about shooting a hybrid digitalanalog film like John Carter is that some of the artifacts that are left later can't be taken away, as they're part of the skeleton of the film," adds the DP. "I love that, the idea that the two technologies can work alongside each other and complement each other." Another 3D tale, Men in Black, was back for the third installment of director Barry Post•January2013 Post0113_022-26-OscarsMV3FINALREAD.indd 26 Sonnenfeld's sci-fi comedy franchise, and once again visual effects were front and center with over 1,200 shots, all done by Sony Pictures Imageworks. Unusually, Sonnenfeld (see Post's interview in the May 2012 issue) teamed with two visual effects supervisors — Ken Ralston, who has won five Oscars for his pioneering work on films such as Star Wars, and Jay Redd, whose credits include Stuart Little and Monster House. The director says he's "very involved" in every aspect of VFX and as an ex-DP, puts special emphasis on depth of field. "I like to shoot the plates with the same lenses that you shoot the foreground with," he stresses. "There are some people who have an aesthetic where when you're shooting with computer graphics, you do away with the laws of physics, and every single thing is in focus. But I don't like that or believe in that." The director, who says that post is, "my favorite part of the whole filmmaking process, because it's where you get to make the movie better," did all the post on the Sony lot and a DI at EFilm, with Steve Scott. just seemed the perfect technique for the story. I just get so much joy from using the technique, however labor-intensive it is." Indeed, the film took "about a year just to animate and shoot, and before that we had two years of preproduction and testing the puppets," he reports. "We did it all at Three Mills Studio in East London with an international crew of about 200 animators, and I'm very happy with the way it turned out." After the disappointment of Cars 2, Pixar's Brave was right on target with its tale of strong-willed and ace archer Scottish princess, Merida, Pixar's first heroine — and it also earned over $530 million worldwide — making it the seventh highest-grossing Pixar film. The 3D family blockbuster Ice Age: Continental Drift hauled in $870 million worldwide, making it the third highest-grossing film of the year and sixth highest-grossing animated film in history, and Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, the first in the franchise to go 3D, was also the best-reviewed in the series — and the highest-grossing, with over $725 million worldwide. Rise of the Guardians, DreamWorks' Santawith-attitude tale (he's voiced by Alec Baldwin) is an edgy kiddy epic that also showcases the talents of first-time director Peter Ramsey, and The Secret World of Arrietty, a dreamy fantasy about tiny people living under a house, combines the great tradition ANIMATION It's also been another strong year for animated features, both creatively and at the box office, with several likely contenders, including Wreck-It Ralph. Disney's wacky and anarchic comedy showcased its state-of-the-art 3D animation in a digitized homage to '80s video arcade games by The Simpsons and Futurama director Rich Moore, making his feature film directorial debut. While the CG 3D film The Lorax grossed nearly $350 million worldwide, critical response was mixed. More admired were ParaNorman, a 3D stop-motion tale made with Director Tim Burton on Frankenweenie: "I was very the same loving attention to detail passionate about it being B&W and doing it stop-motion, that the Laika studio artists lavished because the language of B&W is so emotionally rich and on Coraline, and Frankenweenie, Tim immediately takes you back to all those classic horror films." Burton's homage to Frankenstein and all horror films — and the first B&W of British children's storytelling with gormovie and first stop-motion movie to be geous animation courtesy of Japan's famed released in IMAX 3D. Burton, who calls the Studio Ghibli. (The anime film grossed nearly film "a labor of love," says that it was inspired $150 million worldwide. by his love of stop-motion and based on his And don't forget the 3D CG comedies 1984 short, "which is also pretty odd," he Hotel Transylvania featuring the talents of admits. "I was very passionate about it being Sony Pictures Imageworks, and Pirates! Band B&W and doing it stop-motion, because the of Misfits, which is a clever hybrid of Aardlanguage of B&W is so emotionally rich and man's brilliant claymation enhanced with CG immediately takes you back to all those classic VFX in the service of a briny yarn starring horror films. Same with stop-motion, which Hugh Grant. www.postmagazine.com 12/21/12 4:13 PM