The Boat That Rocked

DNEG’s Richard Briscoe, was the VFX Supervisor on the film and was supported by VFX Producer, Rupert Porter and CG Supervisor Richard Clarke. The team worked closely with Curtis to realize the visual effects that were a crucial part of the storytelling process.

DNEG work included the Mast Race sequence, which shows Philip Seymour Hoffman and Rhys Ifans in a harebrained race to the top of the boat mast. The actors were shot against greenscreen and composited against what was often a CG sea, boat, and extended mast.

DNEG’s main contribution, however, was in the finale of the film, where the boat gets into trouble and finally sinks. The work was a combination of greenscreens, with CG sea, rescue flotilla and digtal extention of the live-action boat, along with several completely CG shots. The sea was created using proprietary software, dnOcean and dnSquirt.

In total, DNEG provided 250 shots for the film.

THEY ROCKED. THEY ROLLED. THEN THEY SANK.