Next: Flex Time for VFX
Time is flexible in Next (opening April 27 from Paramount), a movie in which Nicolas Cage plays a man who can see the future and explore the potential paths it may take. Time and flexibility also challenged visual effects supervisor John E. Sullivan and his crew, which dealt with extensive script revisions, rigid deadlines and tight budgets in the most recent film adaptation of a Philip K. Dick short story.
Based on the 1954 tale The Golden Man, Next stars Cage as Cris Johnson, a Las Vegas magician who can see the future. Cris' talent comes to the attention of counter-terrorism agent Callie Ferris, played by Julianne Moore, who hopes his talents can help her prevent a nuclear attack.
The production was in state of flux when Sullivan -- a veteran of projects as diverse as Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Just Like Heaven -- came on board in March 2006. "The first six weeks I was on it, we went through the constant script rewrites," says Sullivan. "In that kind of circumstance, one of the primary things you're fighting with really is trying to lock down what you're doing almost more than doing what you have to do."
Working on the Fly The most complicated sequence in the film is a chase sequence in which Cris tries to elude his pursuers as well as an avalanche of rocks, logs and even cars down a mountain slope. Digital Dream, Look Effects and Comen VFX all worked on aspects of the sequence as part of their work on the film. Digiscope did the extensive tracking work on the sequence, all of which had to be done after the fact, a task that was made even more complicated by the number of different cameras used, which included cable cameras, Steadicams, handheld cameras and footage shot both on film and with a Genesis digital camera.
Given the fluid situation, Sullivan says there was little time to confer with director Lee Tamahori or to research and develop new technology for the film, forcing much of the work to be done on the fly. "We were basically out to try to utilize tools that existed to create an interesting look that wasn't a cliché," he says.
The sequence used some practical elements in addition to CG, requiring extra attention in integrating those elements into the same shot. "When you have objects rolling down, kicking up dust, and then you go to put computer-generated objects that are also kicking up dust going down the same hill, getting them to integrate and not stand out was quite challenging for all the facilities," Sullivan adds.
The Look of the Future Sullivan says he and Jerry Pooler's crew at Digital Dream came up with an effect they liked that worked even though it went against Tamahori's initial desire to avoid using motion control for the effect. A climactic sequence in which Cris uses his power to get the enemy to waste his ammunition while he saves the woman he loves, played by Jessica Biel, and prevents a nuclear blast was shot at a power plant in Long Beach. Cage was photographed later doing multiple tasks against a greenscreen, which could then be used to create a shot with dozens of versions of Cris.
The sequence posed storytelling problems, and the number of versions of Cris had to be scaled back to make the storytelling clearer to the audience, Sullivan says. "It was a lot of fun, because when you're dealing with stuff like that, we're into the area where everyone sees something different and you're trying to discover something that works for everybody cause there is no answer to it. You're trying to come up with something that's interesting and a little unusual and yet within a reasonable budget."
An important part of the film was to establish the effect for Cris' ability. "We had to create an interesting look to try to get the sense of his character taking multiple paths in time and having that have a sense of evolution and growth as the film went along," Sullivan says.
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