American Cinematographer - November 1998 - 56

Designing the Afterlife
this

project," Somers admits.
came in, every wall in
the production office was covered
with the most amazing artwork that
to

"When I first

I'd

ever

seen,

and many scenes were

literally based upon classical 19thcentury artists because Vincent was
trying to create this underlying,
subconscious, painterly tone."
Toward

that

end,

to

film. In turn,

met

Vincent's
to

design and/or produce elements.
"We hired Josh Rosen
art

as

the

such

to

POP because there

were

-

54 November 1998

comment on

them. But I would feel

bad assuming any sort of
responsibility for creating the tools,
because I did not. I simply supported
people and made sure they were
given what was needed in order to
very

make those tools work."

Somers's support may

have
in keeping

played

a key role
Mass.Illusions' team

including
Joel Hyneck
and Nicholas Brooks, line producer
Donna Langston and software
Pierre

Litwinowitcz

-

Jasmin and Pete
the

project long
enough to prove that their untested
strategy for the Painted World's
-

on

effects would work. Others had

posited a more traditional approach,
shooting the actors against a greenscreen and comping them into
digi¬
tal landscapes created via multi¬
plane or 3-D matte paintings.
Though that method might have
worked, it would not have satisfied

incredibly instrumental person on
the film. Finding the right type of
personnel was a bit like finding
needles in a haystack."
Despite bringing ideal artists

Ward's demands for artistic freedom

What Dreams May Come, then
overseeing and often making key
suggestions on hundreds of effects

to

me

directly with the supervi¬
making sure that the directions
we took would
satisfy the director's
wishes and work for production. In
order to protect production, it also
gave me veto power and the respon¬
sibility of signing off on shots, which
meant I had an equal opportunity to
sors,

Deak Ferrand, who became

as

an

half-dozen visual effects

I worked

creators

we were

would match Vincent's criteria

a

deliv¬

liaison between the

tion had that certain feel

certain artists there that I knew

artists. "I think that's what drew

a

visual effects supervisors

went

AFC and

but rather

community.
Although all of the people working
on the
project at Mass.Illusions -
even the software people - were
painters themselves, Josh's art direc¬

looking for. He was a software devel¬
oper we found on sabbatical in Italy
doing illustrative work for a book,
but on the side, he was off painting
frescoes! We also hired Syd Dutton of
Illusion Arts and Michael Lloyd to do
matte paintings. And we basically

production designer Eugenio Zanetti
to cinematographer Eduardo Serra,

were

producer/supervisor' title does not
make me the visual effects supervi¬
sor," she states. "I respected and relied
upon the in-house supervisors. I was
not the lead creative person delegat¬
ing my vision to the effects facilities,

director for Mass.Illusions and

installed him in that

home.

that elements

time. "The 'visual effects

director, production departments

fine-art criteria and hire them

to create Chris's

on

and vendors. My title does reflect that

search for artists who

elements

ensure

Somers

they were teamed up with the appro¬
priate effects house. "Finding classi¬
cally trained fine artists is a whole
different world," she says, "and it's
certainly difficult to marry with the
technological world! Our effects
companies were not always staffed
with people who had the 'soul' that
Vincent was looking for, so we had to

stage-shot and location-plate
composited by Digital Domain

ered

actively pursued freelance fine-arts
professionals who could help trans¬
late Ward's vision

A series of

and

shots, Somers insists that her role was

primarily to shepherd the

process

and

of

reality. "Vincent
a real place, as
absolutely real, complex and
dynamic as the world we're used to,"
a

sense

wanted Heaven to be

Somers offers. "Those

tional

processes

restricted the

more

would

amount

tradi¬

have

of detail and

complexity we could later get into
those shots, as well as the cinematog-
American Cinematographer - November 1998

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