PROJECT INSIGHT
It’s always happened, and it has happened once again with the cinema release I of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer: the entrance of a film that has tapped into the zeitgeist of its audience, its images capturing a sense of an event that is so dramatic and has such a visual imprint.
The film also has distinction when it comes to the work undertaken and realised in terms of visual effects. 3D World spoke with DNEG duo Andrew Jackson, the film’s production VFX supervisor, and Giacomo Mineo, a VFX supervisor, about the work of their teams on the biopic.
A distinction of Nolan’s filmography has been its application of visual effects as part of the total storytelling palette available to him. Oppenheimeris now the eighth collaboration between Nolan and DNEG, with each of their projects strikingly integrating dramatic intensity with a sense of visual spectacle.
With its ambition to recreate a very particular moment in time, DNEG’s work on Oppenheimeradopted a defined aesthetic and methodology. The final film comprises over 100 shots that draw on 400 practically shot elements. The application of miniatures, long-exposure shoots and aerial images sit alongside the use of a range of compositing approaches.
Our conversation with Jackson and Mineo starts off with an exploration of the nature of the overarching creative challenge that they faced: balancing the dramatic requirements with images that visualised the Los Alamos bomb event in a way that was true to the reality. Mineo begins our interview by noting: “For the Trinity test sequence, in contrast to other visual elements where there was great space for creative interpretation, the goal for us was to craft an authentically real and aweinspiring depiction.