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Oscar-nominated blockbuster Dune is an
outstanding example of the skills that can provide a route into
the film industry for a wider range of people, when streaming
has increased the appetite for content and production has become
highly technical.
The film is a collaboration between French-Canadian director
Denis Villeneuve and British-born Visual Effects Supervisor Paul
Lambert, who previously worked together on the 2017 film Blade
Runner, which won an Oscar for best visual effects.
Lambert, who has around 25 years of experience in visual
effects, learnt on the job.
He had a degree in aeronautical engineering, otherwise known as
rocket science, but until he became a courier making regular
deliveries to Pinewood Studios, he told Reuters he "never in a
million years" thought he could work in film.
One thing led to another and he realised the "very, very
creative and very technical" area of visual effects was his
vocation.
"I live, breathe, dream what I do," he said.
Increasingly universities and the industry, often working
together, are providing training and say streaming and the
backlog caused by lockdown have created a surge in demand for
technical talent.
This need "allows young people across a broader spectrum of
classes to get their foot in the door," said Assistant Arts
Professor Sang-Jin Bae at New York University, where the Tisch
School of the Arts teaches virtual production, as well as
animation and visual effects.
German-headquartered Maxon is one of the companies that provide
the software. It says it seeks to mentor artists and create
diverse role models in its tutorials to improve inclusivity in a
mostly white, male film production sector, and to address the
talent crisis.
"The more people that come in, the more artists there are," Paul
Babb, chief marketing officer at Maxon, said.
Lambert used Maxon's technology for a scene in Dune in which the
protagonist hides in a hologram bush.
The secret to making it believable is natural light, which means
you must "always reference something real," Lambert said. In
this case, it was the actor.
The obvious approach would have been to create a
computer-generated version of Dune's protagonist played by
Timothee Chalamet. Instead, Lambert projected "a series of
slices" of a computer-generated hologram bush onto him.
"You get a beautiful sub-surface look on skin, which is really
hard to produce in computer graphics," Lambert said.
The reward for Lambert and his team could be an Oscar later this
month.
(Reporting by Barbara Lewis; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
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