NUCLEAR POWER PLANT SHOTS (4 shots)

Shot in a nuclear power station in Austria that never became active, the idea for that sequence was to create in CG both the water that cools down the nuclear reactor inside a 7 meter deep tank, and the reactor itself that did not exist on location. As the main character Gary and his co-workers walk around the nuclear pool filled with fluorescent blue water, the reactor at the bottom of the pool is revealed to us.

The challenge for the water in terms of visual effects was to make the audience believe that the water was real although in most of the documents we found about nuclear cooling pools, the water always looked a bit sci-fi so much the colors were extreme and saturated compared to any ordinary pool. The first thing we did to achieve that is put a cold and blue type of lighting on set, at the bottom of the pool that would also create interactive lights on the actors. All the reflections on the metal panels of the tank then became blue and it helped us integrate the CG water later in post. VFX Supervisor, Fabrice Lagayette, also gathered information about the environment around the pool, such as measurements to recreate the set in CG, and 360 degrees pictures to recreate both the set lighting in CG and the reflections onto the CG water surface. When the BUF team started working on those VFX shots, the first step was to give director Rebecca Zlotowsky still frames of each shot with several color proposals for the CG water (from a green blue to a saturated blue) to make sure we were as close as possible from the final grading she wanted and that compositing would go well. Then, we worked on having the good placement for the reflections on the water surface and the correct amount of imperfection and light undulations to understand there was water although extremely static.

The other challenge for that sequence was the top shot of the nuclear reactor. Again, we had to create CG water but we had to keep it as clear as possible and still feel it was there. Rebecca Zlotowsky really wanted the audience to be able to easily read the diver at the bottom of the pool and the reactor. Thus, we had to be very subtle with the reflections we put on the water surface and gave several options to Rebecca for their amount (most of them were the ceiling lights).

We also designed the reactor based on a visual reference chosen by Rebecca adding details and textures. Then, we added a CG tube to the diving suit for the diver to breath and a headlamp that would guide him while cleaning the pool. The animation of the tube had to be slow enough to feel the weight of the water around it and the lack of gravity.

“MANO NEGRA” SHOTS (2 shots)

The Mano Negra shots were about continuing the so called effect done on set on the first shot, and fully creating it for the second shot. The effect is like a fade out to black but done with a hand closing up in front of the lens until the circle shape it does is fully closed and therefore the frame becomes black. Very progressive and slow, it also creates erratic vibrations since the hand is not very stable. That is what BUF artists had to create on one shot for which the Mano Negra effect did not go to full black and replicate on another shot for which the effect had not been done on set at all.

WOUND SHOTS (3 shots)

At some point in the movie Gary is stabbed to the arm and keeps a deep and dark cut on his right forearm. The wound is visible in 3 shots that required VFX work as the makeup was a little over played. BUF reduced the depth of the cut, its shinny aspect, and made it thinner. The goal was to make it look more subtle and more real adding back the actor’s hairs on his forearm right around the wound that had been covered by the silicone makeup. A CG forearm has been modeled and tracked into each of those 3 shots, applying the new texture of the wound. The most challenging shot was the one at the end of the movie which is quite long and has many light changes while Gary is walking towards camera swinging his arms during the whole shot.