A blogtacular blog filled with words, images, and whipped cream on top. Written by Todd Vaziri.
Saturday, February 25, 2023
An Ongoing List of Directors Positively Acknowledging Visual Effects
this page is periodically and (hopefully) frequently updated
Over on social media, I provide an extensive and exhaustive chronicle of movie directors and studios denigrating, marginalizing, and outright insulting the visual effects crews of their own films.
I want to do a better job of chronicling the positive: the lovely, fleeting moments of Hollywood leadership actually publicly acknowledging and praising the digital visual effects work in their films and the people who create the work.
Have you seen a studio, producer or a director specifically praising the people and work behind the visual effects of their film? Send me a link - tvaziri@tvaziri.com .
• • • • •
2023, Rian Johnson and "Poker Face"
Here's "Poker Face" showrunner Rian Johnson talking about the show's visual effects, calling out supervisor Craig Clarke and the visual effects houses that contributed to the show.
2023, John Francis Daley and "Dungeons and Dragons"
I served as ILM's compositing supervisor on "Dungeons and Dragons" (2023) and directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein were fantastic partners on the movie.
Writer and producer Craig Mazin was extremely complementary of the visual effects work on "Chernobyl" on his podcast Scriptnotes, and even dedicated an episode of the show to a discussion about visual effects. In Scriptnotes 588, Mazin goes out of his way to praise the visual effects artists of his show "The Last of Us".
2023, Jim Cameron and Jon Landau, "Avatar: The Way of Water"
I wrote about how director Cameron and producer Landau were public and supportive of their visual effects teams on the night of the Visual Effects Society Awards in 2023. See also Landau calling into Corridor Crew's VFX Artists React video.
I had the pleasure of having a quick chat with Boots Riley when he was prepping "I'm a Virgo" - he's such a thoughtful gentleman and I was thrilled to see his tweet about both the in-camera effects work and the digital work for the show:
Director J.A. Bayona was effusive with praise on the visual effects of his film "Society of the Snow", and promoted an interview with the film's visual effects supervisor Laura Pedro. (Thanks, Charmaine!)
Co-director of "Nyad" Jimmy Chin promoted the work of visual effects supervisor Jake Braver and the visual effects team on Instagram. Thank you, "megbaratta"!
• • • • •
2023, Reginald Hudlin, "Candy Cane Lane"
Director Reginald Hudlin went out of his way to talk about the artists of ILM:
"There were so many joyful things about making this movie, but one of the best was working with the brilliant artists at Industrial Light And Magic. Watching the magic unfold weekly was a treat!"
Director Michael Sarnoski talks about digital effects in "A Quiet Place: Day One".
“The monsters themselves are physically unique and a bit impossible to do practically. But we had amazing people at ILM who had a lot of experience bringing those monsters to screen and did an incredible job making these monsters extremely real and extremely terrifying,” he says.
2024, Wes Ball, "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes"
Director Wes Ball has been exuberant about his experience working with Wētā FX and about digital visual effects in general, both on his own Twitter account and promoting the movie.
"I've been spoiled as a fairly young filmmaker - I've made four movies with Wētā . They are the best in the world... I can't say how humbling it is to work with people that are the best in the world at what they do. It's absolutely a thrill every day to see the stuff they do. They are true artists. They are not just 'computer tech nerds'. People don't totally appreciate the artistry and storytelling, filmmaking craftsmen that these people at Wētā are."
Watch the people behind "Fallout" (Prime Video) talk about creature effects, stunts, LED volume, practical effects and visual effects and how they all work together to tell a story. No need to present one craft as more "pure" than another.
In one tweet, he writes about why he's so happy to talk about the digital work in the film: To shed light on all the amazing work contributed to a grounded' film like REBEL RIDGE by VFX artists who are usually only honored when aliens or dinosaurs attack shit.
Amidst a flurry of ignorant accusations of the use of generative AI in his new film "The Legend of Ochi", director Isaiah Saxon fiercely defended the work of his crew, including digital effects.
From the Indiewire article:"Six years of handmade work: puppets, animatronics, matte paintings, and a bit of 3D animation. No AI. There’s the statement... I’ve been making handmade films that feel painted since 2005. Along came AI, and now we have crusaders like you shitting on people who’ve dedicated their life to craft,” Saxon wrote to one Twitter user. He continued, “Shot 1 is full 3d animation and took a year of work, shot 2 is fully in-camera shot in Romania, shot 3 is a built model fg element, shot 3 is in-camera shot in the Carpathian Mountains with a partial matte painting integration on mountains. No mid-journey storyboards. Just stop.”
There is lots of great practical work here. But I don’t want to discount all the great work by the VFX artists at @CraterStudio who spent tons of hours creating some amazing visuals. @tvaziri talks about this lots but just because you can’t see them doesn’t mean they aren’t there.
🤘
• • • • •
2024, Alex Garland "Civil War"
Director Alex Garland talked about the digital visual effects of his film "Civil War" at the BFI. The movie features over 1100 visual effects shots, and the last act takes place in war-torn Washington D.C.
In film there's a sort of, like, virtue signaling, a sort of piousness that can relate to 'practical effects over VFX'... I don't go along with it. I don't because all of film is essentially a fiction. All of it is constructed one way or another. And VFX is a tool in the tool set. Shooting [the movie in Washington] D.C. itself... impossible. Impossible.
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