‘The Creator’ Effects Team Breaks Down That Terrifying Tank Attack Sequence
04.10.2023 - 20:57
/ variety.com
Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Gareth Edwards’ “The Creator” was a resourceful sci-fi endeavor with an $80 million production budget, but its visuals are on par with epic blockbusters that cost three times that amount. Rather than shoot on a studio backlot, the filmmaker behind “Godzilla” and “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” opted to shoot in eight different countries, including Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia and Japan. For an all-out climatic action sequence set in Thailand, a village comes under attack by the U.S.
Military as John David Washington’s protagonist defuses a bomb. Visual effects supervisor at Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) Jay Cooper and supervising sound editor Erik Aadahl explain how the setpiece came together. “There was nothing temped in, it was just production dialogue and nothing else,” Aadahl explained.
“It was an amazing blank canvas to start working with. There were no visual effects, just a title that said ‘Tank on the Hill.’ We were told to imagine a giant tank.” Furthermore, there was no temp music in the sequence. Aadahl brought it up with Edwards who told him, “That’s the intent.
I want this to play real. I don’t want music in this sequence.” In cracking what a giant futuristic tank would sound like, Aadahl noticed there was a void in the tread of the tank. Edwards explained the wheels were not connected to anything — it was almost hovering at ground level as it went on its destructive path.
Said Aadahl, “We reverse-engineered what this technology would be, maybe’s this big electromagnetic thing. We plugged in a big bass sound that had a tank tread rhythm. And really, nothing was working.” He continued, “However, in a serendipitous moment, as often happens in filmmaking, my wife
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