— UPDATED 6 November 2018 —
The Neil Armstrong biopic First Man took the use of in-camera VFX to new levels to achieve an immersive and stylised cinéma vérité look to the movie.
Most of the show’s most breathtaking shots, including the test flight of the X-15 and the journey to the moon and back, were created and delivered by DNEG’s Oscar-winning VFX Supervisor Paul Lambert (pictured right) and his talented team of VFX artists at DNEG.
Earlier this month, Paul, who received his first Academy Award for his work on Blade Runner 2049 in March, was interviewed for two popular industry podcasts, Hollywood Reporter: Behind the Screen and Next Best Picture Podcast, and the space-themed podcast: Dark Chats about Space.
In each interview, Paul shared details of his work on director Damien Chazelle’s First Man, and revealed the challenges he and his team encountered working to recreate Neil Armstrong’s epic story for the big screen.
He also reflected on his long career in VFX, which started with a role as a Runner for a London studio before rising through the ranks to where he is today.
Listen now
To hear the interviews with Paul, use the players below. Alternatively, you can download each of the podcasts via your preferred podcast player.
Hollywood Reporter – Behind the Screen
In this podcast, Paul speaks with film journalist Carolyn Giardina about his work to “help put moviegoers on the moon” and his collaboration with Damien Chazelle. Paul also shares details of DNEG’s work to transform previously unseen NASA archival footage into stunning imagery that is compatible with IMAX format.
Next Best Picture Podcast
This two-part podcast takes an in-depth look at the story behind the making of First Man. In the first part, host Matt Neglia interviews Paul Lambert about his work on the movie, in particular the technical aspects of how the team achieved the realism. The second part of the podcast features an interview with Tom Cross, the movie’s editor.
Added on November 6 — Dark Chats about Space
Host James Wilkins talks to Paul Lambert about the visual effects of First Man and discusses some of his favourite scenes from the movie.
DNEG and space
DNEG’s VFX artists have worked on a wide range of sci-fi space movies, and much of our work is based on science fact. You can learn about three of our favourite space related projects in this post: Science Fiction vs. Science Fact: three of our favourite space movies from 20 years of DNEG which published as part of World Space Week 2018.