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May/June 2019

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www.postmagazine.com 28 POST MAY/JUNE 2019 SUMMER MOVIES "I can do this all day," Captain America states in one of the most repeated lines from Marvel's motion picture franchises to date. While the motto may be pure Steve Rogers, it surely also applies to many collabo- rators behind the scenes who have been working in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) — and count- ing amongst its biggest fans — for years. One such collaborator — LA- and London-based visualization studio The Third Floor — has contrib- uted to 18 Marvel theatrical productions since 2010, beginning with Iron Man 2 and covering the three Thor movies, both Ant-Man films, Guardians of the Galaxy (Volume I and II) and all four Avengers movies, including the latest box office megablock- buster, Avengers: Endgame. Here, Post speaks exclusively with The Third Floor's Gerardo Ramirez, visualization supervisor for Avengers: Endgame and Avengers: Infinity War, and a nine-film MCU veteran; and Shannon Justison, visualization supervisor for Captain Marvel, who worked on five of the Infinity cycle films, about what some of the highlights have been of the company's unique role helping ex- plore ideas, map out scenes and size up technical approaches on various Marvel movies over more than a decade. What was the scope of The Third Floor's work in the Infinity Saga films? Gerardo Ramirez: "On the earlier MCU films we worked on, we used traditional previs and postvis to help advance ideas and action with the filmmak- ers for scenes that involved just one or two super- heroes. As the movies progressed, the focus always remained on depicting and helping develop the vision, and the agility of our previs process proved very useful as more and more new characters, powers and key weapons were introduced. What kind of fighting style would Black Panther have on screen? What does it look like when Doctor Strange fights alongside Spider-Man? What cool faceoffs could happen among opposing heroes in Captain America: Civil War? Those concepts could all be visualized and explored. "Over time, the industry advanced and a lot of virtual tools based on previs and virtual produc- tion became available. We've supported virtual location and set scouting, virtual cinematography and logistical planning on many of the later films. Technical planning based on the previs has been a big arena, where we can provide schematics and diagrams about equipment and shooting method- ologies in collaboration with key crew. "Postvis has become a much larger part of the STEPPING UP ITS GAME THE THIRD FLOOR HELPS REALIZE AVENGERS: ENDGAME WHILE MAINTAINING AN 18 FILM STREAK IN MARVEL'S CINEMATIC UNIVERSE Shooting live-action for Endgame Previs of the required animation Captain America, with Thor's hammer.

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