Previously, director Christopher Nolan said he didn’t use CGI — that is, computer-generated imagery — for his epic biopic about the father of the atomic bomb. However, this does not mean that oppenheimer Lack visual effects, as it certainly does.
In interview with The Hollywood ReporterAndrew Jackson, who served as visual effects supervisor for oppenheimer, emphasized that the technical department in which it works “can cover a lot of things”, such as CGI. However, not all visual effects are based on computer generated images. Sometimes, the software is used to amalgamate material captured directly with the camera, which was the use given by Nolan for his most recent feature film.
The film starring Cillian Murphy narrates different moments in the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, an American physicist who directed the Manhattan Project, a government initiative in the 1940s that saw the birth of the first atomic bombs. For oppenheimer, Nolan was given the task of recreating Trinity, the very first nuclear test carried out just as part of the Manhattan Project. And it was because of that sequence of the film that the visual effects obviously became more important.
According to Jackson, the Trinity test simulation did not use CGI, but did use digital compositing. In other words, a computer program that allowed them to superimpose different filmed elements —including images of smoke and explosions— in order to generate the effect of a bomb detonation. For this, Nolan turned to DNEG, a British visual effects studio.
“Nolan didn’t want to use computer simulations of a nuclear explosion,” the VFX supervisor commented. “He wanted to situate himself in that kind of celluloid-era language, using practical filmed elements to tell the story. [de Oppenheimer]».
Filming such material required various lenses and cameras, including IMAX and high-speed cameras. From there came about 400 analog images used in the computer mix.
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According to the report of THRthe film contains around 200 visual effects shots, including those for practical effects and those in which it was necessary to digitally remove unwanted elements from the image, mainly objects not corresponding to the period portrayed.
oppenheimer It is currently exhibited in Mexican theaters.
Antonio G. Spindola I have very bad memory. Out of solidarity with my memories, I choose to lose myself too. Preferably in a movie theater.