Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1495163
j a n u a r y • f e b r u a r y • m a r c h 2 0 2 3 c g w 1 3 S et during World War I, Netflix's All Quiet on the Western Front follows the poignant story of a young German soldier experi- encing the horrors of war. Based on the acclaimed novel by Erich Maria Remarque, the story fol- lows teenager Paul Bäumer (Felix Kammerer) as he and his friends voluntarily enlist in the German army. Paul's naïve patriotism quickly vanishes as he enters the trenches of the Western Front and finds himself trapped in the unrelenting bru- tality of war. Nominated for nine Academy Awards including Best Visual Effects, the film res- onated strongly with audiences and critics around the world. Director Edward Berger and di- rector of photography James Friend worked closely with VFX supervisor Frank Petzold to cra the film's visceral, histori- cally accurate visuals. Petzold, whose previous cred- its include The Terror (2018), The Golden Compass (2007), and The Ring (2002), based the film's visual effects on extensive research to maintain the highest level of historical accuracy. He aimed to create photorealistic VFX that would set the stage for the film's emotional narrative, seamlessly in- tegrating naturalistic effects into principal photography. Petzold gave CGW an inside look at his work on the project, sharing his techniques for delivering the film's stunningly immersive visual effects. Maintaining Authenticity Petzold was eager to reunite with director Edward Berger, as they had previously worked together on The Terror. He knew that bringing the events of All Quiet on the Western Front to life on screen would be a very challenging endeavor. "It's such an iconic book, and especial- ly with the current events — it's heavy material," he shares. "Before I even could think about technicalities and visual effects in general, the biggest challenge was the responsibility of making it right — be- cause this had to be absolutely authentic." Instead of focusing on the spectacle, he knew the film would need to focus on emotions. "It couldn't be just like any other war movie where, especially as a VFX artist, you like to turn it up to 11," he con- tinues. "This was the opposite." The team understood that they were creating a type of historic document that should convey the reality of war. "According to our producer Malte Grunert, this should be shown to teenagers in the coming generations as an anti-war movie," he shares. "It was very clear that it had to be authentic, and it had to be absolutely photoreal." Stepping Backward Returning to the roots of VFX, Petzold chose to integrate photo- graphic elements into the film's effects workflow whenever possible. For example, instead of relying on CG soldiers for deep background scenes, Petzold chose to capture the performance of actual actors. Production designer Christian Goldbeck built the film's trench set pieces in an old airport field outside of Prague, so there was plenty of space to capture extra shots on the sidelines. "We built a green screen stage with treadmills. So in between takes, when Edward was doing two shot dialogues that didn't involve VFX, I could grab the stunt guys," he recalls. "I set up different cameras, I think six of them from different angles, just to shoot stunt people charging and running and shooting and doing all of those things — real." The pro- cedure was very effective, and by shooting the footage at different speeds, he was also able to adjust the scale as needed. The VFX team applied the same technique to the film's tanks. There was one working tank available, plus a second that could be placed in one spot but was not in operable condition. It was important to capture real footage of the war machine rolling over the trenches. Layers of CG smoke and different speeds of fog were added to the battlefields.