We’re over the moon that we were recognised at the OSCARS® in Los Angeles, last night, for our VFX work on ‘First Man’ – DNEG’s fifth Academy Award®!
DNEG’s Academy Award®-winning VFX Supervisor Paul Lambert and DNEG DFX Supervisor Tristan Myles accepted the award for ‘Best Visual Effects’ for their outstanding in-camera FX work on ‘First Man’, alongside Miniature Effects Supervisor Ian Hunter, and Special Effects Supervisor J.D. Schwalm.
This is DNEG’s second consecutive VFX Oscar®, with Paul Lambert winning the award last year as VFX Supervisor on director Dennis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049, and it means DNEG has now received the Best VFX OSCAR® for four out of the last five years.
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“Such a great honour!”
Speaking about the award, VFX Supervisor Paul Lambert said:
“It’s such a great honour to have won this wonderful award. We did things a little bit differently in terms of the visual effects for First Man so being recognised by the Academy is all the more special. It goes without saying that none of this would have been possible without our amazing cast and crew throughout the project – pre-production, the shoot and everybody in post — All of us led by the truly inspirational Damien Chazelle.
“Huge thanks to the producers of the movie: Marty Bowen; Wyck Godfrey; Isaac Klausner and Adam Merims; Universal VFX Heads Jennifer Bell and Bill Tlusty; my VFX Producer Kevin Elam; and a big shout out to Michelle Eisenreich and all my people at DNEG Vancouver. We seem to have done it for the second year running!”
Meanwhile, DFX Supervisor Tristan Myles, said:
“Wow! What an achievement to have won this prestigious award! Special ‘Thank You’ to the talented VFX team back home in Vancouver, without whose fantastic work this would not have been possible.”
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“Fantastic for our global teams”
DNEG CEO, Namit Malhotra, said: “It’s a huge honour for the team’s work on First Man to be recognised with an OSCAR®. While our primary focus is always on supporting the amazing storytellers we work with through the creation of state-of-the-art effects, it’s fantastic for our global teams to be recognised by the industry for their hard work and dedication.
“We are massively grateful to the director, Damien Chazelle, for having the confidence in our teams and technology to push the boundaries of visual effects.”
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DNEG’s OSCAR® success story
DNEG won its first VFX OSCAR® in 2010 for work on director Christopher Nolan’s mind-bending thriller Inception. This was followed by another collaboration with Nolan on the sci-fi blockbuster Interstellar in 2014. The following year, in 2015, DNEG VFX Supervisor Andrew Whitehurst accepted the VFX OSCAR® for work on Alex Garland’s directorial debut Ex Machina. Last year, Paul Lambert accepted DNEG’s fourth VFX OSCAR® for work on Blade Runner 2049.
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Cutting-Edge in-camera techniques
As the lead VFX partner on ‘First Man’, DNEG delivered around 430 VFX shots under the supervision of Paul Lambert who, as the show’s Overall VFX Supervisor, oversaw all the on-set VFX work as well as the whole VFX post-production process.
The team used a unique blend of cutting-edge in-camera techniques. These included special effects, scale models, and never-before-seen footage from NASA’s archives to realise this biopic about legendary American astronaut Neil Armstrong.
One of DNEG’s VFX team’s biggest challenges was to create the most realistic and immersive in-camera FX with the help of the biggest LED screens ever built on a movie set.
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‘First Man’ Featurette
Take a look at the multitude of VFX techniques that were used to create the realism for First Man, in this video: