Andrew Jackson, Visual Effects Supervisor Oppenheimer disproved the popular belief that the film did not use digital effects. This idea came from an interview with Christopher Nolan, its director.
“Some people have taken it and interpreted it to mean that there are no digital effects in the film. Oppenheimerwhich is wrong,” he explained. Hollywood Reporter. “Visual effects can include a lot of things, including those that were created digitally, as well as those that were done practically on set.”
What did Christopher Nolan mean by “no digital effects” in Oppenheimer is that there are no complete plans created on a computer from scratch. But many of the film’s practical visuals are supported by digital elements.
As an example, Jackson cited the moment of the Trinity test when J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) detonated the first nuclear bomb in 1945. This was achieved by overlaying practical effects recorded on set onto digital compositions. “Nolan didn’t want to use computer simulations of a nuclear explosion, he wanted real elements to tell the story,” he explains.
A total of 400 individual elements were recorded – by IMAX cameras and high-speed cameras – using barrels of fuel and large amounts of dynamite. From there, a library was created, with which the explosion was built.
For the scenes where the actors are watching the explosion, practical effects with explosions were used in some cases, and effects with professional lighting equipment in others.
Oppenheimer has a total 200 frames with visual effects. Many of them are practical, but in some cases, for example, digital retouching was required to remove modern physical elements in filming locations.
Andrew Jackson is a Hollywood veteran who worked with Christopher Nolan on Oppenheimer, Dogma – for which he received an Oscar – and Dunkirk. In addition, he was responsible for the visual effects Mad Max: Fury Road.
Source: Hiper Textual
