Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1277777
"Mack was a man who was utterly overwhelmed by the demise of his failing business so the oce was the centre of his working life. fter close conversations with Bryan Cranston about the mood of ack's oce we kept the notion of 'twenty years of clutter' in our minds as we produced mountains of old paperwork and fast- food cartons. y contrast, the oce was also a dressing room and this sacred corner reected the vanity of his performance character with every item carefully displayed and arranged." In mid-April, we began the hybrid phase of the shoot with the lead actors, as well as green suited tracking actors and puppets to stand in for the animal characters. As we were shooting, the VFX department was busy scanning every detail of the backstage area of the set to be recreated as an exact digital replica for the animated sequences. Everything from the colors, wall textures and set dressing, down to the smallest circus props had to be an exact match, because some scenes were shot practically toward a real actor, but the reverse shot was to be on an animated character. For the editing of such scenes to be seamless, a full virtual replica of the set needed to be perfect with nothing out of place shot to shot when the virtual and hybrid scenes were edited together. After the hybrid shoot, which ended with exteriors on location in Florida, a much smaller A crew returned to Pinewood for the virtual shoot, the final phase of the shooting process. he first stage of animation, created out of Phase One was now complete, so a fully realized version of each animated character on the virtual set was brought onto a virtual production stage—an empty stage with equipment and computer monitors that allow the camera operators to use a real dolly, crane and Steadicam to shoot shots of animated characters they could see either virtually or in the monitors while listening to voiceovers from the actors. hese final virtual seuences were then passed on to the editorial team and treated as normal dailies, edited together with the rest of the film. Over the next fourteen months, Nick Davis's VFX team would work through the final animation process while hea and her editor cut the film together. There were several fully virtual exteriors that we still needed to work through together in that time, and although I could not be in London, we managed to share information back-and-forth to keep the design process intact. he final result of this two-plus-year process is a magical film with awless recreations of a silverback gorilla sharing his very human story. The One and Only Ivan, originally intended for the big screen, will premiere on Disney+ on August 21. ADG A. PHASE THREE ANIMATION FOR VIRTUAL SHOOT. B. MALL ARCADE THRASH BALL GAMES. SET PHOTO. C. PHASE TWO HYBRID SHOOT OF IVAN'S BILLBOARD. D. PHASE THREE VIRTUAL VIEW OF BACKSTAGE MODEL. E. FINISHED FRAME OF IVAN IN HIS CAGE. ©Disney