On October 31, 2009, the DGA’s AD/UPM VFX/Digital Technology Committee invited members to Theatre 2 of the Guild’s Los Angeles headquarters where the seminar Science Fiction in the Future unlocked secrets behind the visual effects wizardry of the feature films Star Trek and 2012. Separate panel discussions on each film were moderated by Committee chair Susan Zwerman and co-chair Brian Frankish.
Star Trek’s director J.J. Abrams and VFX Supervisor Roger Guyett of Industrial Light & Magic spoke of how the imaginative use of CGI combined with live action was used extensively to great effect. For example, a snow sequence was partially accomplished with 2nd unit photography on a glacier in Alaska, with the human element filmed on a man-made ‘mountain of snow’ created in a 60’ x 60’ portion of the parking lot at Dodger Stadium; while the other side of that lot was devoted to a huge landing platform where a major fight sequence takes place. Both Abrams and Guyett expressed how important it is that the AD team should be able to work in cohesion with the VFX team.
2012's director Roland Emmerich was unable to personally guide the audience through his odyssey, but his VFX team of Volker Engel and Marc Weigert, VFX Producer Josh Jaggars, and DGA members producer Larry Franco and UPM Michael Malone, explained exactly what it took to bring just one page of script to life. Using a riveting three-minute sequence in which the whole of Los Angeles is destroyed as the earth erupts, streets are torn apart and every building collapses; the panel revealed that 95% was accomplished using CGI and every leaf, mailbox, home, vehicle, freeway and person, was painstakingly recreated as models within the computer to enhance the sense of reality. The team spoke in detail about how part of an insane driving sequence through this mayhem by John Cusack was accomplished using live action with blue screen. Malone and Franco pointed out the importance of the AD team really understanding how everything that is asked of them in the live action work by the VFX team, is essential to the success of all the CGI work in post. Franco further stressed that today’s production teams must realize the making of the picture isn’t done when they put away the camera.
Both sets of filmmakers used pre-vis extensively, explaining how this is an indispensable tool for not only the director and the AD team, but the VFX team as well.