One of this year's most underappreciated delights, STARDUST, is released today (Dec. 18) on DVD from Paramount Home Ent. ($29.99). Matthew Vaughn's adaptation of Neil Gaiman's enchanting novel is full of charm and whimsy.
A young man named Tristan (Charlie Cox) ventures into a magical land to retrieve a fallen star (Claire Danes) for his beloved (Sienna Miller). The quest marks the beginning of a wild adventure filled with pirates (most notably a fey Robert DeNiro), kings, ghosts and witches (led by ruthless Michelle Pfeiffer).
Working with Vaughn to realize 830 vfx shots was Visual Effects Supervisor Peter Chiang. Double Negative was assigned 350, with Digital Supervisor Mattias Lindahl overseeing the effort. The remaining shots were spread among six different vendors, including LipSync Post, Cinesite, The Senate, Baseblack, Machine and Rushes. Mattes & Miniatures provided miniatures.
For Double Negative, the main challenge laid in the creation of vast environments. "Matthew wanted to join certain scenes to explain the geography of where the story was taking place at every moment," Chiang says. "So, we always shot the front end and the back end of those shots as a live-action plate. We would start with an actor and initiate the camera move on set. Then, we would transition into a camera move over a CG environment, and the shot would end with a live-action plate filmed on another set. By opening and ending a shot with real actors, the scene would be better anchored in reality."
The environments were based on The Isle of Skye in Scotland, and Iceland, where most of the location work took place. A company supplied high-resolution digital terrain maps and texture maps of those locations. "The terrain maps didn't come with fine displacement maps, which meant that it only worked from a certain height," Chiang notes. "And the trees lacked foliage. So, we used the maps to generate the basic terrain model with its elevations, and then further developed it with Double Negative's proprietary software Tecto."
DVD bonus features include:
* "Good Omens: The Making of STARDUST": a 30-minute doc, which offers an overview of the filmmaking process, including greenscreen work and CG comparisons.
* Deleted Scenes: Interesting to analyze in and of themselves and why they were cut.
* Blooper Reel: includes several takes of a fumbling Cox and R-rated ribbing from his fellow actors
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
