Following on from their win at the BAFTAs last week, DNEG VFX Supervisors Paul Franklin and Andrew Lockley (along with New Deal VFX Supervisor Ian Hunter and SFX Supervisor Scott Fisher) picked up the Academy Award® for Best Visual Effects for Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar at Sunday’s star-studded awards ceremony in L.A.
The Double Negative crew, under the leadership of Paul Franklin (Interstellar’s Overall VFX Supervisor) and Andrew Lockley (DNEG’s Internal VFX Supervisor) were tasked with the challenge of accurately depicting the film’s wormhole, it’s supermassive black hole (Gargantua), the Tesseract (a four dimensional space allowing time to be seen as a physical dimension), digital space vistas for projection on-set (no greenscreen was used in any of the space sequences), robots TARS and CASE and the population of alien worlds with giant waves and landscapes of frozen cloud and ice.
DNEG’s work with leading astrophysicist Professor Kip Thorne (Interstellar’s Science Advisor and Executive Producer) in creating the most accurate depiction of a blackhole and wormhole yet seen, has subsequently led to the recent publication of two scientific papers: The Interstellar team turning science fiction into science fact by providing new insights into the powerful effects of black holes.
The win follows on from 2011 Academy success for Double Negative when Paul Franklin and Andy Lockley were on stage with fellow DNEG Supervisor Pete Bebb to collect the Oscar® for their work on Christopher Nolan’s Inception.
Said DNEG CEO, Matt Holben of the win:
‘We’re delighted to congratulation our whole DNEG crew for the Academy Awards win. What was achieved with Interstellar is indicative of what we at DNEG (and the wider visual effects industry) constantly strive to do: find solutions to previously un-asked questions, rise to the challenges set by the Film-makers we work with and work across the scientific and artistic disciplines to support each other in the creation of stunning visuals that help the Director tell their story. The work on Interstellar is a combination of ground breaking R&D, beautiful and original design and superb execution.
It’s once again been an absolutely privilege to work for Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas and all at Syncopy. It is their vision, creativity and leadership that make inspirational movies like Interstellar a possibility. Also special thanks and congratulations have to go to the wonderful teams at Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures.’