Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1536119
James Alexander: It's all about being true to the image that Ryan and Autumn are creating. Michael put an enormous amount of work into prepping all of our visual effects partners, explaining the process that he'd been through with Autumn on Wakanda Forever in terms of understanding, both technically and creatively, her visual style and process. Some of the partners that we worked with, Storm, for instance, had already been through the process before and knew the rigor that we had to apply to make sure the digital work we were applying to Autumn's work was as true as could be. Michael created a bible that we shared with our visual effects partners that went into a huge amount of detail on the lensing, the way we were shooting, and the way we needed to treat it to make sure everything was integrated as seamlessly as possible. That was a real milestone, when we first presented some of our work to Autumn and we got her sign-off. We established that trust, and then we knew we had a flow that would allow us to maintain that throughout the show. Having that real reference, being able to say, "Let's look at the plate." We know that the truth is in the plate, and we can go back to it. We know that if we're matching that, then we're on the right track. It's true not only of Autumn's cinematography, but also, as Michael mentioned, when we set fire to the roof of the Juke in that surreal montage. That last day when we filmed it we'd been up all night, and everybody was on their last drops of gas to get this shoot wrapped up. Ryan watched the monitors and we watched the playback, and it was a huge setup with incendiary material built into the roof that we shot at the stage in New Orleans. It was a significant reset, not only because it meant climbing up into the set, but also the whole sound- stage would be filled with smoke during this really significant burn. We filmed it, and it looked amazing in the plate. Ryan looked at the monitor, gave Michael a hug, and was really pleased with how it turned out. In filming that for real, there's irregularities, inconsisten- cies, and weird little details that you could never art direct. If we were to create that from scratch, you would never get the real visceral, an- alog, practical feeling that you get from literally setting something on fire and having those embers fall towards frame. In that scene in particular, I think it's just so important that the audience are not distracted by the visual effects. It's got to be about the visuals, the story, and the characters, and that supremely pow- erful moment that Ryan and Autumn have created. That was an im- portant part of having that real footage that we could go back to— that we knew Autumn and Ryan loved—and that we could integrate into the shot to wrap everything together. How did the VFX team collaborate with other departments throughout production and post? Michael Ralla: I think a lot of the visual effects work on this film was what we call front-loaded. So there was really intense, complex, and sophisticated planning. We had a fantastic previz partner at Bara- boom in LA, with an extended team in Spain. They were turning things around so fast using Unreal Engine—it was truly unreal—and we used their output as a communication tool to figure things out with other departments. We hired really good concept artists because Ryan insisted on Exterior environments were seamlessly extended with VFX.