So, whether you liked the film or not, it seems everyone is giving Flight’s half-an-hour crash sequence two thumbs up.
Baillie has worked with director Robert Zemeckis before on projects A Christmas Carol and Mars Needs Mums (for which Zemeckis was a producer) and it was this working history that later opened the door to Flight.
It was no small feat for the company, who provided all of the VFX shots (Baillie says there over 400) and completed them in-house during a five-month period.
Baillie and the team used a number of techniques to create the now-famous crash sequence, including having the cockpit on a green screen and using a hydraulic platform.
“The crash scene was a really fun scene to film in the movie,” says Baillie. “We used a mixture of a lot of different methods create the illusion we were in a plane that was crashing. For instance we put a real cockpit on a hydraulic platform – to actually have Denzel’s body react naturally to that movement was fantastic.
Baillie credits the success of the sequence to decisions made by the team early on to commit to as much realism as possible.
“Zemeckis and the special FX supervisor and everyone involved in that scene… we all agreed it wasn’t going to be [the type of scene where] there’s a big hole that rips through side of the plane. There was not going to be drama everywhere. We wanted it to be a very, very realistic scene and I think that it is powerful from that perspective. It is so much more terrifying and more believable [when it is realistic]. We wanted to make sure every VFX shot in the scene was seamless. We didn’t want you to be able to tell.
There is another scene in the film, much less famous than the crash sequence, that Baillie is particularly proud of.
“It’s the scene before they take off where Denzel is outside doing his pre-flight inspection. It’s pouring down with rain and there’s thunder and lightning, and he trips on the stairs when he goes up. When we went to shoot that scene – and it’s worth mentioning you can’t shoot at airports anymore after 9/11 – we’re supposed to be at Orlando International.
Flight is released on DVD on June 19.