The career of cinematographer Ross Emery, ACS, includes a large number of major effects-heavy science fiction films. His latest project, the HBO Max series Raised by Wolves, is his latest venture into sci-fi territory.
Produced under the Scott Free banner and featuring the first episodic TV work by director Ridley Scott, we talked with Emery about rethinking the sci-fi genre, making room for VFX, and post-production during COVID.
When thinking about the Star Wars universe, “small” is probably not a word that comes to mind. But for Dave Asling, Owner/Creative director of Creation Consultants, Inc., miniatures and models are perfect for creating larger-than-life visual effects. His company’s work on films such as I, Robot, X-Men: The Last Stand, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Elysium and Welcome to Marwen, led Disney+ to tap them for work on Star Wars: The Mandalorian.
For Nike’s Lebron 17 spot, the team at Blue Ox Films knew they needed to do more than think outside the box—they needed to create a new one.
When we asked Robert Legato about his success rate at achieving the impossible, he didn’t immediately answer the question. He’d never thought about it. This is the man responsible for the visual effects in films like Apollo 13, Titanic, Avatar, and The Jungle Book. A man fluent in the impossible. And yet overcoming it had rarely occurred to him. It’s the exact mind-set, we soon realized, that makes Robert Legato Robert Legato.
Nothing gets wasted more often than inspiration. Sure, it’s the spark to something much larger, but far too often it fizzles, flashes, and ceases to exist. Poof. Gone. So, a word of warning: Don’t let your moment of inspiration go to waste. It may be temporary, there’s so much power behind it — and you can use that energy to bring something beautiful to life.
