In order to honour the stories told by his grandfather about being a soldier during World War I and immerse the audience in the experience, filmmaker Sam Mendes (Skyfall) decided to follow the mission of British lance corporals Tom Blake (DeanCharles Chapman) and William Schofield (George MacKay) to call off an attack through war-torn France as if it was a single shot. The concept led to a rethinking of the traditional way of tackling visual effects, which are normally divided by shots and sequences. The postproduction period for 1917 lasted 17 weeks with digital augmented imagery encompassing 91 per cent of the theatrical runtime.
“Visual effects pipelines are not good at handling shots that are over 500 frames, which is a 20-second shot,” notes production VFX supervisor Guillaume Rocheron (Ghost In The Shell). “On this movie we had some takes that were seven minutes long and others that were a couple of seconds. One thing that we realised quickly is that shots can’t be defined by cutting from one to the other because the shot count becomes too long, but also when the shot goes to the next one, we have to work to connect them.”
With the continuous shot approach making dividing the workload tricky and the methodology of stitching being so specific and precise, the decision was made for MPC to be the sole visual effects vendor on the project. “It required a lot of planning from MPC just to logistically handle the movie, because how do you design, split and review the work?”
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Super Founders Edition
On the surface, the GeForce RTX 4080 Super is barely any different from the vanilla GeForce RTX 4080 that was launched in 2022.
MCU VFX moments
Pros choose their favourite CG shots from the Marvel Cinematic Universe
Nosing around on Fallout
We sniff out the story of how FutureWorks brought The Ghoul to life with the creation of his iconic noseless face
DISCOVER RED GIANT GEO'S HANDY TOOLS
Heather Sterland introduces one of the newest additions to Maxon's suite of Red Giant VFX plugins with an atmospheric lunar creation
BUILD AND ANIMATE A FUN-FILLED ROBOT
Expand your horizons with Julio Benavides, who reveals his workflow for creating a charming hard-surface character
DESIGN STRIKING SCULPTS AT SPEED
Learn how to build 3D characters that balance visual quality and efficient workflow with pro advice from Oh Holy Mary
CREATE A CANYON ENVIRONMENT
Build a stunning desert setting with an expert walkthrough from Romain Eboli, who uses high-quality Quixel assets
TURN A 2D CONCEPT INTO AN INCREDIBLE 3D-PRINTED FIGURE
Concept artist Emily Chapman shares her process for sculpting, printing and painting an outstanding model to put on display
Goodbye SAIGON
Trevor Hogg gets held captive by multiple versions of Robert Downey Jr.while uncovering the visual effects of HBO's spy series The Sympathizer
IMPRESSIONISTIC REALISM
Trevor Hogg learns how the artisan aesthetic came to be for The Wild Robot