“People
should think we shot Gravity in space” - Alfonso Cuarón’s animation brief
Soho based Framestore's Max Solomon, animation supervisor of Gravity, gives us a peek into the massive
work that went into the animation part of the blockbuster. Harrow Conversations,
an initiative to bring lunchtime conversations of interest to staff and
students alike, hosted this talk on the 25th of September 2014 at
the University of Westminster, Harrow. From film buffs to animation students,
this was a golden opportunity for everyone to discover the development of those
special effects that left us all spellbound.
The
talk opened with a trailer showing Sandra Bullock somersaulting into space - way
to get the adrenaline pumping. When the story was pitched in 2009, the entire animation
team was acutely aware of the challenges of making a hyper realistic thriller
with immersive long shots and zero gravity. Most movies didn’t do that. But
this one did. Max walked the audience through the entire process, from
pre-production nightmares to post-production labours.
Early
tests showed that traditional shooting wouldn’t work. A previz
(pre-visualisation) team of 25 first worked to visualize complex scenes in the
movie before filming. A horde of thinking caps explored the shot structure, the
visual/spatial concepts and the animation/actor relationship. This gave them a
lowdown on the choreography, 3D, physical cameras and performances beforehand.
Max
explained, “The long shot scenes that lasted more than 13 minutes were a real
pain. We had to avoid making it seem like audience was watching it through a
window. We used long lenses that gave the audience the feel of actually being there
in space.” For the destruction scenes, they had to carry out various tests in
order to get the material to bend more than breaking into thousands of pieces,
which would be unrealistic.
The
lightbox and motion control bit was revolutionary, which he opines led to an
Oscar win. “In the process of making the film, we developed a new camera especially
for the purpose”. Some of the material used was a 2 tonne robotic arm, a 10
feet cube (to film the epic scene where Sandra is hurtling into space),
removable planes and 1.8 million LEDs! The defining feature of filming the
movie was when they had to deconstruct the motion to the camera, which means
the cameras and not the actors did the moving. They had to avoid cowboy shots,
i.e. shots from the waist up, and instead shot confused angles of the body as
seen in zero gravity.
Max
modestly added that the other departments had a lot to work on, for example
creating different looks of earth as seen at sunset and sunrise, modelling and texturing
exterior surfaces. The NASA outfits themselves were selected after testing them
for both, looks and motion. Finally, the emotional performance had to match
live action for which they reanimated shots during post-production. The entire
film incurred a massive R&D expenditure.
3
years and a special effects team of 400 people later, we had the spectacle
called Gravity that blew our minds away. “Even when you have talent, it is sheer
hard work that is more important”, Max ended solemnly while referring to the crazy
hours his team had clocked in.
The
talk proved to be extremely insightful for budding film makers and animators. Aravind
Sundar, an audio production student at Westminster, expressed, “The talk was a ‘mind
opener’. I learned a lot.”
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| Max Soloman addressing the crowd at Harrow |
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| Interacting with a student post-talk |
