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Cinesite Ventures ‘Into the Storm’

London-based VFX studio creates visuals of Mother Nature at her most extreme for Warner Bros.’ latest release, ‘Into The Storm.’

London-based VFX studio Cinesite has created visuals of Mother Nature at her most extreme for Warner Bros.’ latest release, Into the Storm. The film follows the events of a small American town over the course of a single day, as it is hit with a devastating wave of tornadoes. Starring Richard Armitage in the lead role, the film is directed by Steven Quale, with Cinesite VFX supervision by Simon Stanley-Clamp.

In Cinesite’s main sequence, a graduation ceremony is taking place on a cloudy rainy day. Events take a sudden turn for the worse as tornado sirens warn the students and teachers of the devastation heading their way.

As the storm intensifies and the students seek shelter inside the school, debris builds up in the school corridor. While the students cower on the floor, debris blows forcefully overhead, posters rip off walls as more paper, dust and larger debris surge through the corridor. In the ensuing chaos, the ceiling, debris and lights fall, forecasting the annihilation to come. The corridor at the back end of the school is ripped away by the vortex, ascending the destructive path of the tornado.

“The most difficult part of the sequence was the integration of the ceiling of the corridor with the set, which had a partially collapsed practical ceiling which had to be reworked and replaced with our own CG ceiling and then animated to full destruction,” said Cinesite’s VFX Supervisor Simon Stanley-Clamp.

Cinesite is currently working on Maggie, San Andreas and The Man From U.N.C.L.E., which are scheduled for release in 2015. 

Source: Cinesite

Jennifer Wolfe's picture

Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.