BarXseven Visual Effects, was one of the main VFX vendors for Immortals, the $75+ million, 3D action fantasy adventure that achieved “number one” at the box office upon its release.
Immortals is an epic feast- a renaissance painting brought to life through a stunning combination of live action photography and visual effects – the kind of eye candy for which Director, Tarsem Sing has become known. BarXseven, known not only for their ability to design, but also to create high-end works for Feature Films, was responsible for creating over 100 shots from concept through completion. The result – a visual collage of slaughter that drew the following observation from the New York Times, “Despite the carnage the effect is as artful as it is graphic.”
To underscore Tarsem‘s quintessential style and vision, the visual effects experts at BarXseven were tasked by Relativity Media to design some of Immortals‘ more creative and complex sequences during preproduction. Jay Randall, the company founder and VFX supervisor, then supervised 2nd unit for the entire shoot. Once shot on set, the BarXseven team perfected the VFX -heavy sequences.
The level of effects complexity in Immortals can be seen when the character “Aries”, a god played by Daniel Sharman, rampages with incredible fury, and smashes with his war hammer, the heads off the Heraklion army of humans under Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) to save Theseus (Henry Cavill). Tarsem figured that the gods‘ version of real time would move so fast that humans would be virtually stationary and their heads would explode in slow motion. This visual was achieved by filming the sequence in multiple layers with different cameras. Aries was filmed hitting targets on a green screen with a regular speed camera, then, the Heraklions were filmed in separate passes with a super high-speed camera. BarXseven then combined all the footage and created the computer simulated heads exploding in extreme slow motion.
Another challenging sequence for the artists at BarXseven occurs when Zeus lands on earth and lashes Aries with a fire whip. “Creating a wind-blown fire whip at 500 frames per second in a computer is a challenging endeavor”, Randall explains. “On set, we shot Zeus (Luke Evans) holding a whip handle but no whip. He executed a whipping motion, and we created a computer generated whip and simulated the fire. It was shot in extreme slow motion as well”.
Relativity Media‘s, Raymond Gieringer, Production Visual Effects Supervisor for Immortals, chose BarXseven for the project because of the studio‘s expertise in handling shots that require high degrees of creativity and skill. Having worked with the studio on Mr. Magoriums Wonder Emporium and Law Abiding Citizen, BarXseven has become one of Geiringer‘s go-to VFX resources.
Gieringer has this to say of BarXseven‘s work on the film, “BarXseven have proven time and time again that they have the ability to create effects that are of the highest standard. On Immortals, they delivered one of the most breathtaking sequences I think audiences have seen, and that speaks to their commitment and talent. I consider them trusted collaborators and look forward to working with Jay and gang in future.
Randall and his team at BarXseven are presently working on Relativity Media‘s latest project, Mirror, Mirror, the highly-anticipated Snow White feature due out March, 2012.
In addition to Randall, artists Rob Rosello, Charles Lequen, Mitch Deoudes and Stephen Elphick comprised BarXseven‘s core artistic VFX team for Immortals. The total scope of work undertaken encompassed: FX animation, fire and liquid simulation, particles, dust and smoke, digital environments, matte painting, paint work and multi layer compositing.
