In the sequence below from Antoine Fuqua’s Emancipation, the character Peter, a runaway slave played by Will Smith, is escaping through a swamp when he is snatched by an alligator and has to fight for his life.
Working with Legacy Effects and Wētā FX, VFX supervisor Rob Legato shot elements for the underwater scene in a 25-foot long water tank with an LED screen behind. The idea was to shock the audience with the speed and violence of the not-too unexpected encounter and create something that has sufficient haphazardness and imperfection that it does not look animated or contrived. This even extended to eschewing the use of a storyboard.
I like the idea of doing live action, real place, underwater tank, LED screen, animatronic and CG, and then glueing them all together. You can create an editorial flow to cherry-pick the best moments. CG is very difficult, in that you can do anything, but anything tends to look a little too animated, studied, perfect. So you try to sandwich it in once you shoot the live action.
Rob Legato
Previs was done in the Legato basement with a handheld camera to get the right angles and cuts. Some elements were shot live action in a swamp with a stunt double. Whatever the stunt double did was then matched using the star in, as Rob Legato puts it, “an aquarium in front of a TV set”. They then did a ‘sandwich job’, with CG ferns in the foreground, keeping the game engine background as murky as possible.
In the tank, we shot with an animatronic from Legacy. Then we shot some stuff where the live animatronic was going to be replaced, and then we shot some without it. Then more with the stunt double who could jump in and dive and spin around. Then, the CG alligator was added to that. For some shots, Weta did a full CG Will and full CG alligator, although that was used very sparingly. There’s only a handful of shots that I used it in. They were always in the middle of action.
Rob Legato
If you are looking for advice, guidance or support on how to introduce in-camera visual effects, LED screens or immersive, real-time 3D content into your productions contact John Rowe (john@mondatum.com) or Colin Birch (colin@mondatum.com) for an initial chat.
Source: before&afters