Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1512164
The Ship The smallest of the big four, but not without its own challenges, The Ship, one side and front was surrounded by a giant LED screen (36-feet high and 205-feet long). As with all the other sets we created, the ship was composite with one area leading to another. Art Directors Géza Kerti and Dániel Miklòs spent a long time, based on the concept Jonas Bethge had created in Blender, creating a series of components that could be manufactured like an assembly line. The ship had a huge chandelier that, originally we tried to get swinging with the sway of the boat. The gimbal idea was axed but they remained…just chained in position. LED screen content was produced by Union VFX in the UK and consisted of seas and skies which evolved depending on where in Bella's journey she was. We looked at painted skies, strange anomaly skies, candy floss skies and cauliflower clouds. The sky was never big enough for a fisheye lens. Yorgos had hoped he would have three hundred sixty-degree worlds with nothing stopping him, we tried but with the exteriors, the world did stop somewhere and that was the edge of a mammoth LED screen. Miniatures Miniatures were something Yorgos wanted to use to help bring the world to life. To keep the handcrafted feel. The ship, Alexandria, Alfie's mansion, Tower Bridge and the Lisbon tram. Some elements from the chapter headings were shot as miniature elements that were then crafted back together by Timed Based Arts in London. We talked a lot about having a toolbox of techniques to use. This box was full of techniques dating back to the beginning of cinema such as cut-outs and forced perspective, but also the most cutting edge of techniques such as LED technology which we used instead of green screen. We created five miniatures, they were Alexandria, The Ship, Alfie's mansion, Tower Bridge and a Lisbon tram, which were scanned and used for VFX referencing. Tower Bridge was used multiple times and also scanned for VFX to place at the end of the London Street. Alexandra, The Ship and Alfie's were all shot in a small LED volume which had a purposely designed sky for each. A. BELLA AND DUNCAN'S SHIP CABIN INTERIOR. BUILT IN STAGE 3 AT ORIGO STUDIOS, HUNGARY. THE WOODEN MARQUETRY DEPICTS SCENES AND PLACES ON BELLA'S JOURNEY. SET PHOTO BY ENIKÖ HODOSY. B. SHIP INTERIOR. SET PHOTO BY ENIKÖ HODOSY. C. SHIP MINIATURE MODEL BUILT BY FILMEFEX, HUNGARY. SET PHOTO BY ENIKÖ HODOSY. D. ALFIE'S HOUSE EXTERIOR MODEL BUILT BY PROP FACTORY, HUNGARY. SET PHOTO BY ENIKÖ HODOSY. E. LISBON CHAPTER HEADING. ORIGINAL SKETCH BY SHONA HEATH. F. LISBON CHAPTER HEADING. CONCEPT ART BY PLUM WOODS AND SALWA MCGILL. TIME-BASED ARTS (VISUAL EFFECTS) CREATED THE FINAL TABLEAU IN CGI USING SHOT FOOTAGE, AND COMBINING THIS WITH FLUID FLIMS FROM CHRIS PARKS. KATHRYN PRICE MODELED THE FISH IN 3D THEN FILMEFEX MADE THE MODEL FISH THAT WAS SHOT. Post Production We were hugely involved with the post production. The concept artists who'd been with us from the first days of conceptualization, Jonas Bethge and Antonio Niculae, continued into post production, creating temp shots for the edit, finishing off design work of the wider world we hadn't had time to do in prep or while production was happening. A large part of this work involved taking frames and over-painting them or matching the 3D environments Jonas and Antonio had created in Blender. These finished concepts were handed over to the VFX house Union who had an accurate representation of what the finished shots were to look like. A B