Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1097515
PHOTOS: (LEFT) PHOTOFEST; (RIGHT) CLAY ENOS/WARNER BROS. H E N I T C O M E S T O box office dominance, nothing succeeds like shrewdly deployed visual effects. Nine of 2018's 10 top- grossing blockbusters relied on digital sleight of hand to con- jure out-of-this-world excitement for audiences. Measured by sheer scale, big VFX productions can be daunting, requiring up to three years to prep, shoot and edit. But while CGI-driven epics may be more complicated to execute than kitchen-sink dramas, some directors have managed the transition from low-budget drama to nine-figure spectacle with aplomb. Ramping up the scope of her work incrementally from short films to breakthrough indie hit Monster to the acclaimed AMC series The Killing, Patty Jenkins took the reins of 2017's Wonder Woman determined to articulate a sin- gular vision for all of her collaborators—no matter how long it took. "The only thing that's really different about doing a visual effects movie, compared to a regular movie, is the amount of multitasking you have to do," says Jenkins, speaking from Lon- don midway through postproduction on Wonder Woman 1984. "Before I start directing actors in the morning, I'm on set looking at my computer drive and making notes about VFX shots," she adds. "I'll direct a scene, and while they're lighting the next shot, I'm giving notes on previs for another scene that we'll be shooting four months later. During lunch I'm review- ing more shots and making more notes. On my way home, I'm reviewing and making more notes. It just goes on and on and on and on. You have to direct multiple things at all times in order to keep the whole thing chugging forward in small steps." Wonder Woman, which grossed nearly $822 million world- wide, employed six different VFX shops to create more than 1,800 digital effects. Jenkins relied on visual effects supervisor Bill Westenhofer to help wrangle talent and manage the produc- tion pipeline. "The big learning curve has to do with logistics," says Jenkins. "I had to be totally clear about how to execute all these shots by the end of the film. In what order do we need to turn them over and at what step do final decisions have to be A BIGGER BANG W Directors Patty Jenkins, Colin Trevorrow and Rupert Wyatt each navigated the leap from intimate to VFX-heavy productions in their own way | BY HUGH HART 59