Q&A with Frazer Churchill, VFX Supervisor
The World's End is the final part of the famed Cornetto Trilogy starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Rosamund Pike, Paddy Considine, Eddie Marsan and Martin Freeman and Directed by Edgar Wright.
Frazer Churchill was the VFX Supervisor on The World's End and is also a member of thecallsheet.co.uk. This is the first and exclusive interview about the effects on the film.
The Worlds End is released this week. Is any of your work in the trailers or will have to wait to see the film?
There are a quite a few VFX shots in the trailers: There's the glowing eyes and mouths.
There's the Living Sculpture, which is something that was always devised as a "Trailer moment". There's some pretty extreme explosions and a couple of hints at some of the fight work, but Edgar wanted to hold back on showing the fight stuff. The fight sequences contain the bulk of the VFX work in the movie.
When you are preparing to create the end of the World, did you look at anything in particular for reference and inspiration?
Again I don't think I can say too much about this without giving things away.
Let's just say I got my inspiration from a trip to Formentera, a volcanic eruption and some biblical paintings.
The great thing about VFX design is you to get to draw on the numerous WTF moments you've experienced in your life and I've had a few of those.
Can you tell us about any particular challenges you faced on this production?
I started talking to Edgar about the film around 2 years ago. It was pretty clear then that the trick would be getting his quite expansive vision realised with a smallish budget. Michael Bay scale shots with a Mike Leigh Budget. So we had to be very selective and smart about how we shot and produced the VFX. We couldn't have too much CG, it's simply too expensive.
We all liked the physicality of prosthetics but wanted to push them a little further than you could with straight in-camera prosthetics (I'll say more about that when the film is released!)
We made a decision to shoot lots of practical elements & prosthetics and rely heavily on a VFX technique called "re-projection".
Re-projection is where you take photographed elements & their geometric form and composite them in a way that's more sophisticated than straight 2D work but simpler than full CG. Put simply, it allows you to photograph an element and put it convincingly into any moving camera shot.
It's cheaper and less labour intensive than creating pure CG. It relies wholly on good on-set reference photography shot in the same lighting conditions as the live-action photography.
A technique which requires an investment from everyone involved. It's cheaper in the long run but will take up more time on set.
We had to plan & make sure we shot all our references and elements (largely in the same sets & at the same time as the principal photography).
It was critical that we got these references to make the shots work because we couldn't rely on "CG'ing our way out of trouble" later. There simply wasn't the budget for that.
Obviously shooting elements and references takes time so we had to make sure everyone knew what was required on the day. For some shots we'd need to shoot an additional 4 or 5 passes.
Edgar will support me in anything that makes the VFX more impressive, so having his support & the support of 1st AD Jack Ravenscroft was invaluable in getting everything we needed.
Most of the filming took place in one town over a lot of night shoots. For your purposes, was that environment easier to work with?
Most of the films exteriors are shot in Letchworth at night. I've worked with Production Designer Marcus Rowland before (on Scott Pilgrim Vs The World) and we had a fantastic locations manager Camilla Stephenson. The collaboration with those 2 was invaluable in getting what we needed. I did a lot of stills photography in central London to make some of the concepts work; again working with Art Dept. & Locations was essential to making this work.
Preparation & collaboration are the key elements in getting what you need from the locations. The downside was that it was generally around -4 during the night work. I don't think anyone really likes shooting nights do they?
You’re currently working on your own Feature Film, ‘Apache’. What can you tell us about it and what stage are you at?
It's a coming of age tale set in 1985 about a crew of young break dancers from South London. They're all in their transition to adulthood and this film charts three weeks in their lives building up to an important London-Wide Break-dance championship.
It's a semi-autobiographical story about the importance of friendship & youth culture and the creativity of the kids from the suburbs in Thatcher’s era.
A love letter to youth and youth culture. The film will feature unique VFX in the explosive dance sequences and Graffiti montages. The script is complete; it's been through a development program (Babylon 2012).
I've done a lot of technical development work and I've just found a very prolific and interesting Production partner who wants to make it! Which is nice.
TWE is one of the first feature films to be posted at the brand new Dneg building. Are you enjoying your new home and has it benefitted the process?
The new building is amazing! It just won an Architectural award for Best Corporate Workplace. It doesn't feel particularly corporate; it's a great place to work. We were spread out over 3 sites before which made it harder to collaborate effectively, so yes, everyone here is feeling the benefit of being together under one purpose built ultra-modern roof.
Frazer Churchill is a member of thecallsheet.co.uk. View his profile page HERE
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