“An incredible amount of visual effects work went into the opening shot which comprised of 6 different plates shot in both Mexico City and at Pinewood Studios and totaled around 6’000 frames. The shot work included large crowd simulations, digital matte environment extensions, prop additions, rig removal and cleanup and digi-doubles.”
Mark Bakowski, VFX supervisor at ILM London talks to Art of VFX about the work done on the new James Bond epic Spectre. Mark talks in great detail about the often invisible VFX work done by the ILM team, particularly on the spectactular Day of the Dead sequence in Mexico, which has been getting a lot of attention in reviews of the film. He also explains how the 5 minute opening shot was stitched together from 6 different plates, and augmented with lots of digital effects work to create the compelling start to the movie.
“The Mexico City environment was a fully digital asset created by the Generalist department at ILM London. ”
I had the privilege of working as a compositor at ILM London on Spectre for around 8 months, working under Mark's supervision. Indeed this is the fourth project on which I have worked for Mark Bakowski, but Spectre was a particularly interesting project to work on. The compositing team was fairly small, and we had a large number of very complex shots to deliver, so it was a fast paced and challenging show. But Mark, and compositing supervisor Dan Snape, made for a great supervision team, ensuring that the work we delivered was consistently of a high standard. As a junior compositor, it was a great experience to be working on this project and I learned a great deal and developed a lot as an artist. Plus I got to composite some great looking shots, and work on a film which has been very warmly received, which is always a plus.
“Never underestimate a retime! But you live and learn….”