EINSTEIN AND THE BOMB PRODUCTION VFX
Robert Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein, two towering intellects of the 20th century, shared a pivotal connection in the atomic
IT’S A beautiful sequence THAT WE BEGAN AT THE script stage ”
bomb’s development. Einstein’s theory of relativity laid the theoretical groundwork for its immense destructive potential. Oppenheimer, with his profound grasp of theoretical physics and exceptional leadership, spearheaded the Manhattan Project’s Los Alamos lab during World War II – bringing Einstein’s theories to fruition, intertwining ethical dilemmas, scientific brilliance and historical consequence. The ‘father of the atomic bomb’ is celebrated in Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster biopic Oppenheimer , which swept the Oscars in 2024. Now, Einstein’s narrative takes the spotlight, illuminating another crucial aspect of this pivotal era. BBC Studios Science Unit presents Einstein and the Bomb , shedding light on the complex relationship between the German-born theoretical physicist, who hailed from a Jewish family, and Germany’s then-chancellor Adolf Hitler. The film chronicles Einstein’s flight from Nazi persecution and his role in shaping history amid the tumult of the 20th century. Utilising his own words, this feature-length film intertwines dramatic re-enactments with archival footage, providing a poignant and enlightening window into his life. REBUILDING THE PAST It doesn’t take a genius – pun intended – to know that numerous buildings dating back to World War II have either fallen into ruin or ceased to exist. Take, for instance, the Berlin Philharmonic Hall (the ‘Philharmonie’), which was obliterated during a British-American bombing raid in January 1944. The VFX team
faced the daunting task of digitally and meticulously reconstructing this intricate structure from scratch. “We found someone who had historically researched the building to create an accurate but basic model of the hall,” explains Mike Sadd, creative lead at Lux Aeterna. “We used this as our base and then built more architectural details and textures on top using Houdini, Maya and Nuke until we had a photorealistic version we could use in the film.” The team combined this with a live-action shoot that took place at Shepperton Studios with the cast and extras. Nuke was used for additional crowd simulation, creating hundreds more audience members, and also controlled the lighting of the scene. This was an extra challenge because the integration with live-action footage required consistency with the CG work. CG supervisor Timmy Willmott aligned the lighting with VFX plates. Using AOVs (arbitrary output variables) and light groups meant he could blend the live- action and CG audience more effectively. “Once this was completed on our side, we worked closely with the film’s production designer Noam Piper, as well as referencing the model of the hall to ensure historical accuracy,” Sadd says. “The attention to detail was scrupulous.” LIGHTNING SPEED One of the key scenes in the film is where Einstein imagines chasing a photon at the speed of light. Sadd says “this was always going to be an interesting and artistic, as well as scientific, challenge to overcome. “It’s a beautiful sequence that we began developing at the script stage, storyboarding the different framing options to work out potential issues,” he explains. “We were on hand during the green-screen shoot, where the young actor had to wear a safety wire while
running on the treadmill. The wire needed to be removed in Nuke, along with some braces on his teeth. The plan was always to have a CG environment, which evolved in the production from a stylised street scene, evoking period black & white photographs of his home town, to a much more photorealistic approach. This involved a lot of art-working to build up a long enough, detailed street scene, with different foreground and background elements for him to run past.” NUKE ’EM As part of the process, the VFX team kept an element of old film grain and texture at the start of the sequence to evoke the flashback, which is slowly dialled back as Einstein accelerates to light speed. This was composited in a mixture of Nuke and After Effects, ‘with the elements effectively on a loop like a chase scene from Scooby Doo ’, becoming progressively more blurred, warped and stylised as he runs closer to the speed of light. “The footage of the actor on the treadmill was originally conceived to be in real time with young Albert as he experienced his revelation. However, the initial cuts of the sequence didn’t have the necessary impact,” Sadd continues. “We had the idea of progressively speeding up the footage of young Albert to the point of breaking the speed of light, then snapping to super slow-motion as he transcends to light speed, with glitches of high speed overlaid onto the slow motion like little echoes in time. The scene wasn’t filmed in a high frame rate, so we ran the footage through Chronos to bring it down to something like 20% of the original speed. Once we’d made that change, it suddenly brought the whole scene together and gave it a cinematic weight and fantastical quality.” Einstein and the Bomb, directed by Anthony Philipson, is available on Netflix
61
definitionmags
Powered by FlippingBook