10 films shortlisted for visual FX Oscar
(CBS News) Ten films are in the running for an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects, it was announced Thursday.
Members of the Academy's Visual Effects Branch will be invited to view 10-minute excerpts from each films on the shortlist, on Thursday, January 3. Following the "bake-off" screenings, members will vote to nominate five films, which will be announced Thursday, January 10, 2013, at 8:30 a.m. ET in the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater.
Click though to view trailers and behind-the-scenes featurettes about each film's FX work.
The shortlisted film are (in alphabetical order):
"The Amazing Spider-Man"
Senior FX supervisor Jerome Chen walks us through the creation of the high school hallway fight in which everything - from characters to the environment - was created digitally.
10 films shortlisted for visual FX Oscar
"Cloud Atlas"
This show reel from Method Studios shows the creation of CGI environments and effects for the future Korea scenes of "Cloud Atlas."
10 films shortlisted for visual FX Oscar
Video: The Dark Knight Rises: Bane's football explosion
"The Dark Knight Rises"
Director Christopher Nolan famously prefers to shoot the effects of the Batman films in-camera, rather than being added later in post-production. In this featurette clip FX Supervisor Paul Franklin reveals how the football stadium explosion scene from "The Dark Knight Rises" was created, as a mixture of practical on-set effects and CGI.
10 films shortlisted for visual FX Oscar
"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"
With Peter Jackson's opening salvo of a trilogy of films based on J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" yet to open, we present the HD trailer for the film, in which Weta Digital will try to top their work on the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, for which they won three Oscars.
10 films shortlisted for visual FX Oscar
"John Carter"
Three companies - Double Negative, Cinesite and MPC - split the roughly 1,900 FX shots of Disney's Edgar Rice Burroughs interplanetary adventure.
The pictures below show how on-set transportation was digitally erased, in order to accommodate the creatures that were really carrying the star.
10 films shortlisted for visual FX Oscar
"Life of Pi"
Beyond the visual splendor of Ang Lee's adaptation of Yann Martel's novel, this featurette explores the creation of CGI shots of the film's tiger, which were mixed with footage of a real-life tiger.
10 films shortlisted for visual FX Oscar
"Marvel's The Avengers"
In this featurette from The Daily, Jeff White of Industrial Light & Magic discusses how actor Mark Ruffalo was incorporated into the animation of the Hulk.
10 films shortlisted for visual FX Oscar
"Prometheus"
FX Guide TV produced a detailed half-hour featurette (below) on the FX of Ridley Scott's prequel-of-sorts to "Alien."
10 films shortlisted for visual FX Oscar
"Skyfall"
FX Guide has published an in-depth article and podcast featuring an interview with visual effects supervisor Steve Begg on the effects of the latest James Bond thriller. [Spoiler alert!] The film mixes practical, on-set effects and stunt work with CGI, heightened by Roger Deakins' sumptuous cinematography.
The clip above - of a London tube derailment - featured a full-scale train hung from rails crashing into the set, with Daniel Craig inserted only barely out of harm's way. The train's conductor was also added to the shot.
FX Guide's article also features interviews with visual effects supervisor William Bartlett (of Framestore) and 3D artist Martin Aufinger on the creation of "Skyfall"s opening title sequence.
10 films shortlisted for visual FX Oscar
"Snow White and the Huntsman"
Visual effects supervisors Todd Shifflet of Rhythm and Hues, and Nicolas Hernandez of The Mill, describe some of the CGI and design work that went into creating the Troll and the Mirror Man (from The Daily).
The Academy Awards will be presented on Sunday, February 24, 2013.