Ok, so I really quite like Children of Men. Partly because it is one of the most convincing films I have seen in a long time, in more ways than one. With other films, I sometimes doubt what I am witnessing, in due part to visual effects that are simply unnatural, for lack of a better word. However, in Children of Men, the implementation of CG and special effects is nearly seamless and unidentifiable, undoubtedly in due part to the overall fluid nature of the film. Nevertheless, CG is there, and this fxguide article does a great job in highlighting how special effects studio Double Negative handled implementing CG into several of CoM's key (and long) scenes. Ordinarily, visual effects artists deal with source footage in several second cuts, but DNeg was faced with compositing shots that went for up to nine minutes. The article also has great technical details regarding the camera rig used during the infamous car chase scene. Very enlightening stuff here. (Here's hoping for a feature-loaded DVD release.)(via editblog)
1. Just wanted to add an additional observation. I do agree with your comment about the verisimilitude of the effects in this movie. This was also achieved by the “documentary style” approach employed by Cuarón (well choreographed long shots, non-intrusive CGI). The result is a realistic, pragmatic and pervasive vision of future.
One of the many things I find remarkable about this film is that all the visual wizardry is exclusively justified by the narrative, not the other way around. In recent years we have become so accustomed to overwhelmingly elaborate visual effects that we no longer seem to care about the character or the story. That’s what I call the “CGI Backlash”. Without detracting on their merits, there are recent films like “Flyboys” or “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” that can illustrate this CGI Backlash. They jammed so much CGI action scenes that it produces an undesired effect in the audience: we are constantly aware of the green-screen compositing work. At no point we feel the characters or actors are in any real danger, and this detracts severely from the narrative.
“Children of Men” is the exact opposite: it has a solid script behind its very well choreographed long shots, and no single special effect is out of place, and never added just for show. It is refreshing to watch a film like this. One of the year’s best, indeed.
Posted at 5:48PM on Jan 29th 2007 by J.B. Soler