When those were married together we got a very striking and stark look that strongly evoked the photography we all know from the NASA Apollo missions.”Īd Astra isn’t the first film to utilize infrared shooting to aid in realizing an otherworldly countenance. He used a stereo rig when shooting many of the wide shots, employing an Arri 435 film camera along with a modified Arri Alexa recording in infrared. “Fortunately for me, this grueling shoot was supervised by another Method Visual Effects Supervisor, Aidan Fraser,” says Compositing Supervisor Jedediah Smith “I heard many stories of buckets of ice being used to keep actors and cameras cooled down in the desert heat! Director of photography Hoyte Van Hoytema had an interesting idea to make the photography of the desert look more like the moonscape. Method Studios handled the VFX for this sequence, which featured principal photography shot on location at Dumont Dunes in the Mojave Desert.

Another element to juggle here is the heightened aspect of a cinematic image, which can be a big factor.”Īfter being dispatched on his mission, McBride’s first stop is the moon, where he comes under attack from pirates while en route to his next launch vehicle. If you watch The Yards, it is just steeped in an analog feel. There’s a very earthy feel to his work, even before Lost City of Z. Keeping it grounded meant being brave and photochemical in look. “He was very clear about having this not look like just the next space picture. “His vision required a different feel,” allows Wendt. Gray’s dedication to a gritty realism aims, in some ways, to go beyond the 2001: A Space Odyssey benchmark and groundbreaking sci-fi/space films since. Delving into that aspect while getting close to something that could be built with future tech were principal focuses for us.” “While the antenna is supposed to be a fairly new structure, things weather from sunlight up there differently than on Earth, with ablation patterns differing due to particle winds from the sun impacting structures. “We spent awhile conceptualizing the core components, using the International Space Station as one of our touchstones, which is reflected in the materials selected,” continues Wendt. Production’s art department generated quite a bit of concept illustrations for the antenna, a small section of which was created as a full-size set piece that Brad could be seen climbing. “McBride is working on it when a mysterious surge damages the structure, knocking him off. “We handled those shots seen in the trailer with that big antenna 80,000 feet up,” MR. X was tasked with the film’s big open taking place in low Earth orbit. X, Vitality VFX, Brainstorm Digital, Atomic Fiction, capital T, Territory Studio and Shade VFX, with Halon providing previs and postvis.

To realize his vision, Gray drew on the efforts of several visual effects vendors, including MPC, Weta Digital, Methods Studios, MR. On its planet-hopping voyage ‘up-river’ to the ends of our own star system, filmmaker James Gray’s Ad Astra, the Fox, New Regency and Plan B release from Disney, follows Army Corps of Engineers’ Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) on a voyage into the infinite darkness chasing down his long-lost father (Tommy Lee Jones), last seen in the vicinity of Neptune.

2001 space odyssey ship