FILM
“One of the areas visual effects have almost done a disservice is by always taking things to 10, which is the mantra in most visual effects-heavy popcorn movies. The speed in Ford v Ferrari isn’t at a ridiculous level. Part of it was finding ways to denote speed that are in the shot construction, and more about showing the road moving underneath the cars, the speed of the background out of the windows, vibrations, and that the camera is never in a place that it could never be on a car that was really moving that fast.” —James Mangold, Director, Ford v Ferrari
TOP: Thirty custom-made race cars were created for the production. MIDDLE: The signature Dunlop Bridge had to be recreated for the Le Mans race. BOTTOM: Wide lens close-ups were key in conveying the high speed of the race cars.
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Vintage Panavision C and T series anamorphic lenses were customized to cover the large sensor of the ARRI ALEXA LF. “We needed numerous lenses because we had a lot of different mounts that were being run simultaneously on the car,” explains Papamichael. “It was important for us that we try to do as little as possible onstage and greenscreen, with the exception of some specific beats that are extreme close-ups on Christian during the final race. Everything is hard-mounted to the car seated on the pod car driven by a stunt driver. Christian is being catapulted around with the actual G-forces going into these curves with all of the interactive light. We were trying to go at the correct speeds where you feel the cheeks moving, and the vibration of the body and camera gets transmitted to the frame. You can’t fake that on the stage.” A big crash occurs at the start of the Le Mans race, which is shown from the point of view of the drivers. Recalls Prescott, “We had this drivable cannon that went 70 miles per hour, which drove with the shell of the car on it, and at a certain point launched the shell like 300 feet. The shell would then hit the ground in front of the Frankenstein. “We were hoping to get the shell to bounce in-camera,” Prescott continues, “but it never did exactly what we wanted it to do. You start trying to figure out the physics and dynamics of these crashes. There’s just so much going on in milliseconds it’s hard to recreate them a lot of times. In that sequence, we took the best bits of the actual live-action crash, and then Olivier took over, really dialed that thing in and made it land where we wanted it to be.” Critical to completing the visual effects shots during the post-production period was having a quick editorial turnover. “James and our post-production supervisor, Aaron Downing (The Greatest Showman), were helpful with the turnovers,” notes Siegel. “I had expected a director of James’ caliber and narrative quality to hold onto the shots longer, but he understood that getting shots out would make them better. He was receptive
to the idea of sending out look development shots during the shoot and pulling shots with Olivier that would help the vendors to start to build their environments and allowed them to feel comfortable when the shots came in.” A good percentage of look development shots made it into Ford v Ferrari. “We talked with editor Michael McCusker (Walk the Line), Visual Effects Editor John Berri (Deadpool 2) and James about the shots that they loved,” Siegel recounts. “We were able to pull 25 to 30 shots early, which allowed us to show James tests and models while shooting was still taking place. John is skilled at After Effects, so he was helpful doing tests for previews, showing us lineups, giving us temp shots ideas, and translating Michael’s and James’ ideas to us.” Method Studios was the main vendor and looked after Le Mans. Rising Sun Pictures dealt with Daytona, and additional support was provided by The Yard VFX. “The show got a lot bigger,” states Siegel. “We initially bid 621 shots and were 1,048 at delivery.” Even the gauges on the dashboards became full CG shots in order to have more control of the imagery. “We added a lot of shake and pull out to get the right frequency,” remarks Dumont. “It was mostly a continuity thing between shots in the cut.” A safety issue needed to be addressed with a digital solution. “The stunt drivers were wearing helmets way bigger than the ones that everybody was wearing in the 1960s. It wasn’t just face replacements,” adds Dumont. “We also had to change the helmets in a lot of shots.” Skid marks were added to show how fast the race cars were leaving the pit, “but we also had to remove them from the previous day.” The heaviest simulation was the rain. “You have to analyze the rain. How does that work visually? At a certain distance you see the drops, but after that it becomes misty. You have to look at that to know when you can switch to 2D elements.” Ford v Ferrari covers the full range of visual effects. “The story is so good and is so well directed that you have to look at it as a whole experience,” believes Dumont. “I always felt the movie was a reverse Saving Private Ryan,” states Mangold. “It ends with a 40-minute race sequence, but the movie builds towards that as the audience follows this group of characters who are brought together when Ford decides to get into racing. It’s what’s missing in a lot of action films these days. We have all of this sound and fury, and these incredible images that visual effects and modern technology can produce, but very often I find the only thing that is holding me to the film is the sound and fury.” Concludes Mangold. “What I can’t wait for is that nexus between the emotional investment the audience has made in the characters and how much more the action means to you. I didn’t want my effects and sound teams showing off so much that it started to cross the boundary into the comic book aesthetic. I wanted this to feel much more influenced and of a [period] piece, like the original Le Mans film with Steve McQueen, or Grand Prix. We put all of our effort into making it feel that everything is 100% real.”
TOP TO BOTTOM: In order to portray the 24-hour time period of Le Mans, Mangold made sure to feature shots of day, night, sunrise, sunset and rain. Natural elements such as rain were added digitally. To complete one lap of Le Mans meant going through four or five locations, and yet the physical relationship of all of the cars had to remain constant for it to be a continuous race. Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, doubled as Daytona International Speedway. Elements that denote speed needed to be sped up with sound having a huge influence.
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