‘Dune’ VFX Supervisor Talks Creating Epic Sandworm Sequences
variety.comDaron James Denis Villenuve’s “Dune” is a visceral epic, propelled by practical and visual effects that shape the destiny of Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) following a vengeful plot that kills his father, Leto (Oscar Isaac), on the spice-producing planet Arrakis.The approach for visual-effects supervisor Paul Lambert was to avoid “fixing something in post” but to find ways on set that provided the “best base” to create any necessary elements.
One such moment is a stirring scene in which Paul and Leto visit a spice harvester only to be attacked by a terrifying sandworm.The sequence was a massive collaboration among the behind-the-scenes artisans and starts with the characters flying an ornithopter, a dragonfly-like helicopter, which was practically built from blueprints by production designer Patrice Vermette.
To film moments inside the aircraft it was placed on a hilltop outside Budapest where cinematographer Greig Fraser embraced the glimmering, natural sunlight.
A sand-colored screen was then built around the ornithopter in place of a blue screen background.“It felt like you were in the desert already having this brown look to it,” Lambert tells Variety. “Then instead of a traditional extraction and completely replacing the backgrounds, we were able to blend the beautiful plates we shot for those frames which allowed us to keep all the original reflections of the cockpit glass.
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