A24’s record-setting movie gets a glowing review from VFX artists three years later. Often prioritizing the director’s artistic choices and visions and using unique visuals to aid storytelling, the studio is widely recognized for its distinctive and striking visual styles that set its movies apart from a blockbuster-style spectacle.
Several of A24’s projects feature strong visual components that enhance the atmosphere and directly affect storytelling. While not using CGI, The Lighthouse incorporates black and white cinematography and a claustrophobic setting to tell a story about lighthouse keepers being stranded on a remote island during a violent storm.
The sci-fi movie Ex Machina, which features sophisticated AI, won an Oscar for Best Visual Effects. Projects like Midsommar, Euphoria, Moonlight, and Ladybird, are also recognized for their unique visual style.
Everything Everywhere All at Once Leaves VFX Artists Speechless Even Now
A Gem In Cinema History
Everywhere Everything At at Once was arguably one of the most talked-about movies in 2022. Having grossed over $100 million against the $15 million budget, the movie became A24’s highest-grossing movie before winning seven Oscars at the 95th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Visual Effects.
Widely praised for its mind-bending and genre-bending approach to storytelling, the science fiction action movie follows Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh), a middle-aged woman who is swept up in a wild adventure across the multiverse. The movie’s sprawling visual effects, in particular, feature approximately 500 shots and were made by a small team of five people.
Seth Worley sat down with two VFX artists from Corridor Crew to review the Oscar-winning visual effects in Everything Everywhere All at Once three years after the movie’s release.
They broke down the “chopping sequence” and how the creative team used an unconventional approach by using only “traditional comp and After Effects” to achieve the results that would’ve otherwise required 3D and a much more complicated procedure, praising the visual effects work in the movie a “highlight of what’s possible.” Check out their comments below:
I can never get over the chopping sequence… This was the approach that Jeff used to solve what I thought required 3D. So a chef is dicing up invisible vegetables and shrimp and whatnot.
And of course, as a visual effects artist, you’re given this plain. It’s like, okay, hey, add all the food. I got to worry about perspective, the rotating nature of the shrimp, or the lighting changing as it’s rotating inside of it, or splitting in half, the texture inside of it… And that takes time unless you’re Jeff Desum, who came up with such a cool solution to just do it with traditional comp.
They would pass projects around each other, like After Effects projects. And they just try to find the right fit for the right shot based on the skills that they had… This is the kind of stuff that inspired me. It makes me realize you don’t always have to go the brute force, “the hardest of all,” or “the correct way” of doing something.
If the end result sells the vision, and this completely does, like, this looks incredible, and is only one of my favorite shots in the whole movie. And it was done with shape layers… A real great highlight of what’s possible.
What This Means For Everything Everywhere All At Once’s Visual Effects
Everything Everywhere All At Once’s Oscar-Winning Effects Were Achieved Through Expressive Teamwork
The VFX team has previously shared details about their innovative workflow, highlighted by a collaborative and expressive problem-solving approach. Three years later, Everything Everywhere All at Once‘s visual effects are still considered top-tier in the industry for inspiring others to think outside the box and collaborate. This speaks highly of the creativity and teamwork that went into creating the film.
The fact that the movie didn’t use any fancy techniques or gear to achieve Oscar-winning visuals is impressive even by today’s standards. The VFX artists’ comments also shed some light on what made the A24 mind-bending sci-fi movie an instant classic and something hard to surpass. The visual effects team behind Everything Everywhere All at Once achieved something that many would consider impossible in a way that was unconventional and genius.
Source: Corridor Crew
