The Senate Visual Effects has completed 215 shots for the Fox 2000 Pictures/Walden Media holiday motion picture “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.” Richard Higham, The Senate’s visual effects supervisor on the film, working with The Senate’s visual effects executive producer, Paula Pope, and Ed Randolph, visual effects producer, oversaw 12 sequences.
“The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” opened in theaters everywhere December 10th.
“We were awarded some very challenging and complex sequences and the team was thoroughly energized and up for the challenge,” Richard Higham states. “Our main sequences involved Coriakin’s Library, Cambridge and Ramandu Island, in addition to shots in Lucy’s dressing room, Goldwater Grotto, on board the Dawn Treader and the Lone Island bell tower.”
Two major sequences involved shots in Coriakin’s Library which included enhancement of the library, falling snow and Coriakin’s invisibility effect. A mixture of CG environments, CG particle work for the snow, CG book pages and full CG models of Coriakin were used throughout the sequence, as well as multiple-plate composites. Other shots involved the creation of a CG three-dimensional map complete with an animated border, moving clouds, waterfalls and a blue star. Combining a mixture of both 2D and 3D effects work, an ordinary set of book shelves was turned into a window onto outer space, complete with magical aurora-type effects and books that file themselves away.
The Ramandu Island sequences were also significant and complex. The Senate created effects for Liliandil, to enhance the idea that the character is a fallen star with ethereal glows and solar flares that are part of her. Another series of complicated shots show the transformation of Liliandil into a star. For shots of Ramandu Island, The Senate’s team replaced blue screens with a fully CG model complete with individual trees, waterfalls, clouds and ruins, combined with ocean plates and a matte painting of night skies. They also created a beam of light that shoots from swords, emphasizing a story point. The beam was created using a mixture of CG particle and fluid effects.
In the Cambridge sequence which opens the movie, The Senate replaced massive blue screens with CG models of World War II era Cambridge and added in CG spitfires. For the Goldwater Grotto, they extended the grotto set using matte paintings and modeled a CG shell and branch, which appear to be organically transformed into gold. On board the Dawn Treader, the team replaced the blue screen outside the ship’s portholes and windows with sea and sky plates, and rain and splash elements were also added to enhance the storm. In Lucy’s dressing room, the visual effects work included a full body morph from Lucy to Susan. For the Lone Island Bell Tower sequence, The Senate created set extensions and enhancements of the bell tower set including extensive roto of all characters and foreground elements.
Visual effects supervisor Angus Bickerton oversaw all the work on “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” and The Senate was one of the leading visual effects vendors.
The Senate is also announcing that it has opened its new facility in Soho. This studio will augment The Senate’s production facility based at Twickenham Studios. The new space, in the historic De Lane Lea building, will provide clients with a convenient location for shot reviews, screenings and other steps in the process of visual effects work. Joining The Senate team is Harriet Donington as visual effects bidding producer. Her visual effects producing credits include “Vantage Point,” “Shanghai Knights” and “Batman Begins.”
“We are very proud of our work on ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader'” says Sarah Hemsley, CEO of The Senate. “Our team is very talented and they enthusiastically embraced the work. Having this new facility is a perfect solution for our clients. The Soho location is convenient for them and also puts us in the middle of London’s thriving visual effects community. Plus De Lane Lea is a hub for London’s filmmaking industry, and has wonderful facilities which The Senate clients and staff can take advantage of.”
Now that the Democrats are entering their lame duck session it looks like the US Government will be able to do something productive with our elected representatives. I wonder what other movie projects the US Senate will work on?
Here is a list of some potential 2011 movies that The Senate will be working on. Because the Democrats control The Senate most of these films have strong progressive themes.
Pirates of Somalia (Staring president Obama as an action hero who saves the day by authorizing the military to shoot the pirates.)
The “Green” Hornet (A movie about two superheros who promote recycling and drive an electric car “Black Beauty”. They join up with Al Gore to battle C02 emissions to save the world from global warming.)
X-Men: First Class Healthcare
Cars 2 (In this pixar sequel the cars must travel around the world to search for environmentally friendly alternative fuels.)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II (Harry Potter uses magic to make the national debt disappear.)
🙂 😀 Love it, David!
Liliandil is not a “fallen star”. That implies that she sinned against Aslan and was cast out of the sky as a punishment like Coriakin was. Liliandil was more of a star in waiting. She was not a star at all in the book, but in the film she seems like she used star based navigation to guide the Dawn Treader along their entire journey and waited until they arrived to greet the travelers.
Totally agree. But of course, in the movie, you never find out that Coriakin was a punished star.
And if Liliandil (as they named her) was a star as the movie shows, how can she marry Caspian? Of course, they never showed that either.
Oh, and it’s not called “Goldwater Grotto” it’s called Deathwater.
I know this is kinda off subject…BUT! Just wanted to say…I AM GOING TO THE NARNIA EXHIBIT TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!! I am soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo excited! Never thought I would be going! This is amazing! No pix…but i am sure i will write all about it! 🙂
For the most part, I loved the SFX in Dawn Treader, so I’m glad to read more about them.
By the way, Box Office Mojo indicates that the movie is really picking up steam. It made 36% MORE this Monday than it did last Monday! News must be getting out about the film, finally, and the school holidays must be helping a lot. Also the drop from Sunday to Monday was under 40%. Last week by comparison the drop was 73%. We’ll have to see if this growing momentum keeps up or if this was just a fluke, but whatever the case this is a really good sign.
…i love narnia ever since..
Paul Martin…I went to the Narnia Exhibit in Hunstville the other day…If I were to write a “review/report” about it, would you use/need it?
Blessings,
For Christ Alone (Anna…yes, my name is really Anna and it’s not just an Anna Popplewell fan thing LOL! :)…in Alabama)
I loved the snow falling in the library..it was to me, an endearing act of Aslan to Lucy,a reminder of how He knows us well- to give her a familiar love in an unexpected way. Isn’t that what God does for us? Becauses no one knows us as He. This was beautiful! Loved the whole scene of Lucy and the book- and the line they had Aslan say “you wished yourself away”. I think some compliments are in order!