Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1464279
large windows, helping to give it the look of New York City's Grand Central Station. Cream-colored screens were used rather than blue or green screens, and gobos were used for lighting. "The logic behind using cream screens is because it is roughly similar to the color of the stone that City Hall is made from," notes Langlands. "Ultimately, if you put green screens up around everything, then you get spill. Everything turns green." Weta compositing supervisor Beck Veitch says the cream color involved a lot more rotoscoping than if the production had shot with blue or green screens. "You need a really good roto team because there's no way you can pull a key from a cream screen," says Veitch. "However, our team has had a lot of ex- perience in what we phrased as 'adven- turous edge blending,' so we actually got some really good results." The Chase Sequence Weta's most demanding work can be seen in the chase sequence, in which Batman, in the Batmobile, is chasing a sedan driven by Penguin through the city's rainy streets, and finally on o a highway, where they deal with traffic a numerous big rigs. A fiery multi vehicle crash leaves Penguin thinking he's gotten away from the caped crusader — but don't count Batman out just yet. "There's quite a lot of stuff the e," says Langlands, who estimates that as many as 200 VFX shots make up the sequence. "They previs'd that sequence pretty heavily before they went and shot it, and they ended up shooting a version of pretty much every shot." While many of the production ele- ments may not have made it into the final sequen e, they served as a solid foundation for their digital replacements. "Ultimately, you know what the actual vehicles and lighting look like in the scene," says Langlands, noting that the sequence was broken into two sections: one being the chase through the city's back roads, and the other starting once they get on the highway. The highway elements were shot on an airstrip in the UK that was dressed with street lights and a center divider. "It was largely practical before they're on the highway, but in pretty much all of those shots, we were adding CG rain — the rain effects, like falling raindrops, spray from the wheels and rain impact- ing the ground," Langlands recalls. "Once we're on the highway, it becomes more and more digital, until we get to the end, where Penguin sets off this big chain e- action. By the time we get there, a lot of that ended up being fully-CG, or at least heavily-CG." Langlands says director Matt Reeves wanted the camera to always be in the action, as opposed to viewing it via wide shots. "A lot of what we were doing was trying to help sort of tell the story, going from one bit to the next," he says of the sequence. On set, there were several practical Batmobiles, each with different rims and tires, depending on what the vehicle needed to perform. Weta replaced several wheels digitally for continuity purposes. The studio also created an entirely-CG version the Batmobile, along with additional cars and trucks. During production, a van was used for the practical explosion. That van was then replaced by Weta with a digital fuel tanker that better represented the magnitude of the explosion. They also extended the explosion considerably to allow Colin Farrell's Penguin performance to play out. "That was originally supposed to be a much shorter shot," Langlands explains. "But Matt liked Colin's performance so much, (which is) why we held on it for a very long time. It kind of created the issue that, by the time he's finished, th big fi eball in the background died out." Digitally, the studio added second and third explosion events in order to keep the moment going. That way, after Penguin's dialogue sequence, there was still a wall of fi e for the Batmobile to emerge from. "It was challenging and very exciting," says Yoo of the scene. "Like Anders said, they previs'd out everything, and (went) on set and shot what (they could). When they came out, they realized they were missing a bunch of the puzzle…They defi- nitely knew what they wanted, and it was just us grabbing the footage that was getting taken and then trying to work out how we can wedge in or work on some of the animation that is cohesive so that you're building up the sequence." Weta's fir t pass of the sequence played out much too long, but showed how it could come together from a story- telling standpoint. Langlands made the call to track the camera movement from the live-action shoot, which was then applied to the animated sequences, helping to sell the CG replacements. "It's kind of put a stamp on it that these cameras are legit," says Yoo. "It actually made life a lot easier. Even though we had to tweak some of them, it was still based on reality." www.postmagazine.com 11 POST MAR/APR 2022 Weta extended City Hall for the memorial-service scene. A CG version of the Batmobile was used in the chase sequence.