10 Things In Historical Period Movies You Didnt Know Were CGI

10 Things In Historical Period Movies You Didn’t Know Were CGI

A lot of films use CGI to create unique scenes and Historical Period films are no exception.

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When most of us think of CGI in films, we think its enhancing superhero capes as they fly through the air, or creating alien creatures in science fiction adventures. Most audiences don’t expect it to appear in historical period films, where so much emphasis is placed on the story, actors, and props being as accurate as possible.

CGI in these particular films is used more often than you think, for every imaginable reason. Either because a certain historical item or location no longer exists, or because there’s simply no other way to demonstrate the scale of a historical battle or environment. It’s also used for enhancing environments, whether it’s in 19th century Regency England or the ’40s in Europe during WWII. Below you’ll find 10 things in historical period films you didn’t know were CGI.

10 LONGSHANK’S ARMIES & STAKES IN BRAVEHEART

Despite Mel Gibson being a lot older than the real William Wallace at the time he portrayed him in Braveheart, as well as a few creative liberties taken with the breadth of Wallace’s march on York, it still holds up as a great historical film. CGI was used to enhance it only where completely necessary so as not to take away from the authenticity.

CGI was used for long shots of Edward Longshank’s armies as they line up before the initial battle, and while “an army” of extras were hired for the film, CGI was used to vastly multiply their numbers. When the horses were impaled on stakes in the battle, the stakes were CGI, while the horses were dummies.

9 THE ENVIRONMENTS IN PRIDE & PREJUDICE

Joe Wright’s 2005 version of Pride & Prejudice is one of many film versions of Jane Austen’s classic piece of literature, but what sets it apart from the others is the enchanting beauty of its natural environments, from capturing the majesty of England’s rolling hills, to the stately elegance of its manor homes and country houses.

Though most people think it’s CGI-free because it’s a period drama, you’d win a bet if you decided to prove them wrong. CGI was used to enhance the facades of many historical homes and remove modern-day anachronisms, and heighten lighting in natural environments. The scene where Lizzy is crying in her carriage about Lydia and Wickham was shot in the day but made to look like dusk.

8 CINDERELLA’S FEET

When Disney’s live-action Cinderella debuted, the dazzling CGI of the lavish historical environments wasn’t the topic on everyone’s lips. Audiences were debating on whether or not the star’s svelte waistline had been altered using CGI to be even smaller than it would be while corseted.

Ironically, that wasn’t where the CGI was used on the star! She never felt her feet were particularly attractive, and for the scene involving the glass slipper being placed on them, she was happy to have them digitally enhanced to be daintier and more slender.

7 SOLDIERS IN DUNKIRK

Christopher Nolan takes great pride in using as little virtual effects as possible in his films. He prefers to use practical effects wherever possible, with CGI only used as enhancement. But even he couldn’t get away with making a large scale film like Dunkirk without a little CGI boost.

In the scenes on the beach involving hundreds of stranded men, Nolan and his team used a time-honored tradition of using CGI to multiply certain extras by putting the same ones in a different position and replicating them. He had to do something to indicate there were 400,000 men stranded on that beach. Surprisingly, he only ever had three (real) spitfires in the sky, which didn’t provide the same sense of scale.

6 COLISEUM CROWD IN GLADIATOR

Gladiator was a historical period drama on an epic scale, drawing from real history and combining it with scintillating narrative enhancements to tell the story of one gladiator who defied his place and challenged an Empire. Some of the enhancements were through CGI, and they were done cleverly enough as to not pull focus from the grand storyline.

The Coliseum is well known to have been recreated using CGI wizardry, returning it to its glory in ancient times. But the crowd was also CGI as well beyond the Emperor’s box, meaning Russell Crowe was addressing about 10 people max.

5 SOUTHAMPTON IN TITANIC

Pioneering filmmaker James Cameron has always used the latest in digital technology to bring his cinematic visions to life. The technology he used in The Abyss for the most realistic water effects ever seen on film was used extensively in Titanic, especially in the sequence where it capsizes.

But there were other environmental aspects that audiences may not realize were also made digitally. Much of early 20th century Southhampton, where the ship sets all from, didn’t exist. They had to either map historical buildings over real ones, or completely recreate buildings long-since demolished.

4 BULLET WOUNDS IN SAVING PRIVATE RYAN

Steven Spielberg, like James Cameron, is a filmmaker who is at the forefront of film making technology to get his narrative exactly the way he wants it. In the famous war film, while he used thousands of extras in lieu of CGI soldiers, and built provincial French towns where none existed with practical effects, he had to use CGI for some of the smallest details.

You would think he’d simply have his VFX crew pour corn syrup and ketchup on some prosthetic wounds, but he used CGI in 1998 to make them as gruesome and realistic as possible in Saving Private Ryan.

3 DONOVAN’S DEATH IN INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE

The Indiana Jones films used a variety of movie-making magic to Chronicle the adventures of the worlds most famous globe-trotting archaeologist. From creating giant matte paintings to create jungle vistas and ancient temples, to playing with blue screen for exciting car chases, every effort was made to make the scenes seem as real as possible.

In the third installment in the film franchise, for the scene involving Donovan’s death by drinking from the wrong grail, Spielberg wanted a long take focused on his decaying body. Multiple puppets were made in his likeness and then the actor’s face was digitally mapped over it, a tricky process in 1989.

2 THE PIER IN THE GREAT GATSBY

Baz Luhrman’s The Great Gatsby is a dizzying, frenetic look at one of American literature’s most important novels and characters. CGI can be found throughout the beautiful sets, to recreate aspects of New York City in the 20s, as well as heighten the level of opulence in Gatsby’s impressive abode.

But where it might not have been expected is to recreate the infamous pier in the novel, which separates Gatsby’s house in the fictional West Egg from his rival Tom Buchanan’s house in the East Egg. The pier, water, and blinking green lantern were all created using CGI.

1 SOOT IN THE DARKEST HOUR

While The Darkest Hour gets great accolades for using practical effects and makeup to transform Gary Oldman into Winston Churchill during WWII, it should be celebrated for its painstaking recreation of wartime London through the clever use of CGI.

London in the 40s was covered in a thick layer of soot, and it wasn’t possible to film exterior shots of the city without using CGI to bathe the city in a blanket of blackness. It added to the oppressive ambiance of the film and showed the descent into degradation the war effort had caused on the jewel of the British Empire.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/historical-period-movies-didnt-know-cgi/

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