As the awards season culminates with the Oscars, and all the mega stars wait in anticipation to get recognised by the Academy in Los Angeles for the prestigious ceremony on the night of 22 February, AnimationXpress.com brings you its predictions for the Visual Effects category.
Let’s now take a look at the movies nominated in the ‘Best Visual Effects’ category
First up, Industrial Light & Magic’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier… When this Marvel character debuted on the big screen in 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger, he won hearts and also registered a strong box-office return that led to the sequel. The Winter Soldier directed by (Anthony and Jay) the Russo brothers went into scripting in 2011 and while the director duo aimed for more realism, with focus on practical effects and intense stunt work; the 2,500 visual effects shots that have been used in this chapter were executed by six different companies and leading the way was the California based ILM. The VFX studio has worked on some cult classics like the Star Wars franchise and the Indiana Jones franchise in the past and already an Academy Award winner.
Next up, Weta Digital’s Dawn of the Planet of the Apes… It is the sequel to the 2011 film Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which kick-started 20th Century Fox’s reboot of the original Planet of the Apes series. The Andy Serkis starrer has taken the performance capture technology to a whole new level, wherein the actors actually get into the skin of their characters and enact their scenes in body suits with motion trackers all over them to capture their performance in real time so that it brings the element of realism to the big screen. Weta Digital already boasts of five Academy wins in this category that include: the Lord of the Rings (trilogy), King Kong and Avatar. The kind of work that has gone into this feature is simply mind-boggling keeping in mind that the actors have had to perform like apes for days and months.
Next in line, Double Negative’s Interstellar… This Christopher Nolan sci-fi epic saga revolves around the life of a crew of astronauts who travel through a wormhole in search of a new home for humanity. The film features an extensive use of practical and miniature effects, while Double Negative created additional digital effects, which include the jaw-dropping sequences like the spinning black hole and 4,000 feet giant waves. The VFX house has only won an Academy for its work in Inception (Hey! Wasn’t that a Nolan directorial as well?), it certainly is among the favourites with the technical reviewers.
The last two nominees are Moving Picture Company’s Guardians of the Galaxy & X-Men: Days of Future Past… The first is a superhero film based on the Marvel Comic superhero team of the same name. The film was a critical and commercial success, also becoming the highest-grossing superhero film of 2014. The film garnered praise for its humor, soundtrack, visual effects, Gunn’s direction and performances of the cast. Gunn stated that he attempted to use as many practical effects as possible while filming to aid the use of CGI and motion capture during post-production.
The second is the seventh installment of the X-Men film series and acts as a sequel to both 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand and 2011’s X-Men: First Class. Days of Future Past has received universal critical acclaim and has been acknowledged for its fresh visual style, story, pacing, acting and depth. With this nomination it also makes it the first X-Men film to be nominated for an Academy Award (ever!!!).
So what’s the verdict?
The Academy will certainly have to rack their brains to come up with the winner’s name, as all the films nominated this time have a very different visual style and design. Though Interstellar will eventually take the award for its risky approach in dealing with the visual effects on this epic space saga; Dawn of the Planet of the Apes certainly deserves a mention for pushing the envelope in using performance capture extensively in a feature length film. So if the Nolan helmed sci-fi does manage to bag the top honour, do remember you read it first on AnimationXpress.com.
That’s the verdict from AnimationXpress.com; do leave your comments/thoughts. And the Academy goes to… Double Negative for ‘Interstellar’ (Updated: 23/02/15 @ 8:45 am)