Monday, October 25, 2021
How the 'Dune' VFX and Sound Teams Made Sandworms From Scratch
WIRED: They call it “sandscreen.” Out in the deserts of Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, where director Denis Villeneuve shot much of Dune, everything is varying shades of beige. To match it, visual effects supervisor Paul Lambert did something he’d never done before: turned his greenscreens brown. Sandscreen meant Villeneuve could get all his beauty shots out in the desert and Lambert could easily add whatever he needed to in post-production. All he had to do was swap out the sand color for whatever building, background, or beast he wanted. It allowed every shot to look as natural as possible—and also let them create one of sci-fi’s most iconic creatures.
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I just saw Dune last night, and despite a few problems I had with the film, I must admit that the design of the film, specifically the VFX and creature design work is undeniably incredible. The creation of a stark desert world that still feels full of life and interest blows my mind. The worldbuilding details are all meticulous because the land is so bare, which in turn has only made them more fascinating, drawing the audience in and in. The soundscape of this film also astounded me, both in the soundtrack and in the worldbuilding performed by sound. The music was the sort that flattened me against my chair and it shared some of the rattling tremors that also appeared in the sound design, giving the whole film a sense of cohesion. The roars of the sand worms felt incredibly alien, though at the same time they were perfectly grounded to Arrakis.
One of my favorite aspects of visual art, especially in films and televisions, is the creation of creatures that do not exist. Recently on a project, I decided to create a small alien as an element of my overall design, and I found it both challenging and exciting! I had to create a creature that no one had ever seen before, but it had to function at a level that was somewhat familiar to humans so we could comprehend what it was doing. I cannot imagine having this responsibility for a feature film. Something I never considered, but as shown in this article, is a big part of the process is designing the physics behind the creature. Not only does it have to look like something not from earth but also understandable to a certain level, but it has to FUNCTION in that way. How it's muscles move, how it breathes (if it breathes), how it expresses sounds. And with the creation of a new creation visually, you also have to basically create a new sound that is specific to this creature. It is a crazy feat, and something I deeply admire.
I have truthfully only watched one movie since getting to CMU in August. I had no intentions of seeing Dune. Then, I read this article and felt so excited to see all of the VFX that went into the film. I am always mind blown by the transformation of world’s through VFX. I have never heard of the concept of a sand screen, but to me putting actors in a more natural element just makes so much more sense than placing them in front of a solid-colored green screen. I’ve always seen those videos of actors working without VFX, and it’s also puzzled me. It must be so difficult to get use to interacting with non-visible factors. However, using the natural world as a green screen and allowing actors and the design to immersive the audience in a heightened version of the real world sounds phenomenal to me.
One thing I’ve truly never thought deeply about until now is how people think and design monsters for films. Throughout film there have been countless monsters created, and seemingly every new sci-fi movie has some sort of monster within it. One thing that is interesting is that monster ideas, such as a giant sandworm, are often reused. Yet, what I find fascinating is how designers detail these monsters and especially how sound designers create there unique sound. Almost every monster in film has a unique sound, which adds to their terrifying presence within the film. Their iconic noises are to some extent what make them unique and scary. The first time I was exposed to the idea of a giant sand worm was in “The Fast and the Wormious” Scooby-Doo Episode, and surprisingly all these years this monster has still engrained itself in my memory. I genuinely love how Dune interpreted the idea of a sandworm because I found that it was not only terrifying in its look, but they also perfectly incorporated it into the plot. I also loved that the color pallet of the sandworm was able to match the general grey, orange, and blue scenery and cloths of the film.
It makes total sense that you’d be able to change the color of a greenscreen, but that first raises a couple of questions from me, why do they start as green, did changing to beiges raise any problems? My understanding from the article was that it would not solely be one color which feels like it must affect this. One of the things I keep hearing about props and costumes and other is that actors and tech love being able to feel as close to reality as possible? Is that more a disconnect between theatre and film? Does filming movies in a tone of greenscreen, like some large budget movies that will post some behind the scenes, have a strong effect on actors? I also love learning about how things were made, especially sound from unexpected objects and then every time, especially in some video games, listening to those soundtracks or sounds and trying to figure out each time which one is which.
VFX is such an important aspect of film and television making, and with the increase in screen resolution, the audiences are asking for paying more attention to details than ever before. The advancement in technology has allowed CGI and VFX artists to create objects that are more and more realistic, with exquisite texture and colour. Reading this article gave me insights on the making of films where the general colour palette includes very similar colours. By making a sand screen, I guess the colour palette is more coherent. But I wonder if that made it more difficult to then add VFX on top? Also, learning about the sound editing process is really cool. I like how the team tried to produce sounds that are familiar to the audiences and then went through the process of recording with every piece of material available.
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