The Oscar-nominated Michelle Yeoh leads viewers on a frantic, emotional exploration of love, family, and tax misery in the multiverse in the film Everything Everywhere All At Once, which has been hailed as one of 2022's most exciting movies.
The £88 million ($106 million) hit, whose modest budget is anticipated to be a quarter of its current box office receipts, also stars Jamie-Lee Curtis, Ke Huy Quan, and Stephanie Hsu.
For the post-production team, who had to switch editing suites for their bedrooms during the Covid pandemic, committing to celluloid such a visual feast, including blasting bagels and hot dog fingers, involved difficult challenges.
Zak Stoltz, Ethan Feldbau, Jeff Desom, and Ben Brewer, four of the visual effects (VFX) team's five members, talked to the BBC about their stunning on-screen creations.
Lockdown restrictions only exacerbated the difficulty of the "limited budget and a large ambition" for the movie's visual effects, according to Zak.
Due to pandemic restrictions, the small VFX team had to work from their bedrooms in the US to complete the majority of the visuals, which totaled more than 500.
The movie uses "a very special visual language that used these effects shots to really communicate a lot," according to Ethan, to tell its story.
Because of the team's limited resources, including time, computing power, and technical know-how, he says, the majority of the effects were produced using Blender, a free open-source 3D graphics program, and Adobe's After Effects.
The fact that all of the visual effects in this movie are financially feasible is, in Ben's opinion, what makes them the most interesting.
"Any shot you've seen in this movie doesn't have a price point that's particularly high," he continues.
Characters in the movie face a number of challenges, including a looming, overstuffed bagel that threatens to swallow the multiverse.
Ben reveals that the absurd black hole in the movie was created using the graphics software Blender and a YouTube tutorial on its features.
"This pink-frosted doughnut has been produced by thousands of people. It's how you learn the fundamentals: you model it, you light it.
I simply chose to remove the icing from the doughnut I had modeled and paint it black, he says.
"I like thinking about it [in the movie] and realizing that there are thousands of people who made that bagel, they just aren't aware of it. ".
In addition to completely erasing characters from scenes, the VFX team also created 2D shading and animations of vegetables flying through the air.
"It felt very inspiring and very motivating to keep going; to try things that were maybe not the right way to do it - or, like, the proper 3D way to do it - but just to do it in a way that looked good," says Jeff.
While the visual effects team did not receive a nomination for the film's 11 Oscar nominations, Zak's team did receive a nod for its 10 Bafta nominations, competing against blockbusters like Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water for the best special visual effects prize.
Sunday in London will see the 76th British Academy Film Awards presented.
This feels really unique and very special, says Ethan, because oftentimes in an industry-driven awards show, it's a larger film that receives an acknowledgment.
The team, however, also hopes that their modest method for the movie's visual effects will leave a legacy that endures beyond award season.
Anything is possible if you can do VFX creatively and keep the emphasis on the creative [element] rather than on pushing the limits of technology, says Zak.
Watch the entire report at. Click.
