American Cinematographer - November 1998 - 55

she

in terms of

persuaded to join the
in March 1997 to
evaluate and design the visual effects
that would be required for the film's
completion.
Somers's unique title reflects

perspective and matte
it, she's very patient,
and she doesn't give up - I was very
lucky to be able to work with her."
Quite
literally,
Somers
attempted to divide the work along

her work with the individual effects

Biblical lines. POP took

supervisor at each respective house
involved in the production. Her role,
however, expanded beyond keeping

shots

was

Dreams production

Dreams' CGI/miniature effects
time and

budget to

remained

true to

ensure that
Ward's vision.

on

they

pack¬
age had already been awarded to
Mass.Illusions (Judge Dredd), which
was being bankrolled by mini-major
outfit Cinergi. But in April of 1997,
on the eve of production, Cinergi
was sold to Disney, and the company

118

over

spanning the Victorian land¬
scapes of Marie's World, Bridge City,
the astounding Venetian Library, the
ship graveyard and the inverted
cathedral. The tabletop miniatures
for the Hellish environments

The film's entire effects

ever

connect.

were

built

by Mike Joyce's Cinema
Production Service, Inc. Digital
Domain took on 54 shots, ranging
from character animation

structing

should be both familiar and alien. He

explains, "As
mented with

a
a

painter, I've experi¬
certain color range, a

little bit like

oil-paint-meets-stainedglass, and I thought that if ever there
was

a

film which would suit that

radically
differing worlds

of the afterlife.

Opposite:
Tracker, Albert
and Chris arrive
on the shores of

Hell,

a

virtual

ship graveyard.
Below: The

color

golden "stair¬
way to heaven"

concept

of Marie's World.

palette, this one would. My
for paradise was this stained
glass-style series of oil paintings,
ranging from the German romanti¬
cism of Casper David Friedrich to
the dark palette of Monet, with other
late 19th-century artists and styles
thrown in

as

drew Ward

Both realms

created
Pacific Ocean

were

by

Post

well."

It wasn't

to recon¬

entire poppy-laden

an

The

Ward felt that the afterlife

issues. She gets

simply artistry that

the German romantic

to

then backed out of Mass. Illusions in

September. Suddenly, Somers had to
bring in other effects houses to save
the picture before cameras started
rolling. "When Cinergi backed out of
Mass.Illusions,

we

had two weeks to

figure out what to do," Somers
recalls. "Unfortunately, their new
investor [The Manex Group] was not
ready to take on the responsibilities
of this project, so we basically fourwalled

Mass.Illusions

from

last

September. We brought in equip¬
ment and finished staffing the other
half of the personnel that was
required. Due to their financial situa¬
tion, Mass.Illusions wasn't able to
dive into the
month

or

two

Paocciufrtesy
Images

we

slipped

a

in research and devel¬

was already a very
ambitious schedule to start with. It

opment on

FPDPOEnoiticelaogyrmmeagnstadndl.,

job, and

what

quickly became apparent that the
volume of work was going to be
larger than they could handle, so the
job got broken down even further."
"Ellen found some very good
people to deliver 50 percent of the
images we needed, people we would
never have thought of, including
POP and Digital Domain," Ward
recalls. "Also, because of her history
of working with heavily art-directed
material, she has a really good eye for
what makes shots work, particularly

landscape. "Initially,
into

a

we

broke it

up

Heaven/Hell situation, barring

two," Somers says.
stylistic issue, and the
ability to keep creative continuity
was of great concern."
a

sequence or

"There

was a

Mass.Illusions' contribution
entailed

visualizing all of the Painted
particularly the "painted"
effects, some 44 shots depicting a
wild, floral landscape of running
pigment - which serves as Chris
Nielsen's gateway to the afterlife. POP
supported this work by compositing
the painted backgrounds with the
foreground actors. A critical matter
World

-

for the artists

was

had

a

to

evoke

audiences

that this sequence

strong response, lest

tune out

of the film before

its emotional one-two

punch could

movement;

provided
believed

its

some

that

philosophy also
stimulus. "They

nature

was

more

powerful than man," Ward says. "We
created a paradise that's not tame, a
place of roaring winds and twisted
trees and steep mountains and mist.
Chris's paradise is actually kind of a
personal Hell - incredibly beautiful,
but quite lonely, because he's there
without the person he loves."
For three months prior to
filming, visual researchers delved
into countless art libraries searching
for illustrations that would capture
the vision Ward had in mind. Ulti¬

mately, Friedrich and other 19thcentury masters helped to define and
communicate Ward's vision to

whole

range

a

of artisans, from
American

Cinematographer 53
American Cinematographer - November 1998

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