BLITZ

CASE STUDY

 

 

A defiant young boy goes on an adventure in London during World War II, only to find himself in immense peril amidst the Blitz, while his distraught mother searches for him. Blitz, produced and directed by Steve McQueen, stars Elliot Heffernan as George and Saoirse Ronan as Rita, his mother. 

Cinesite delivered 150 visual effects for the historical drama, which opened the prestigious London Film Festival on 9th October 2024. Blitz, which shows the harsh reality of war from a child’s perspective, has been praised widely in the press, as “Visually stunning,” with “images that are both haunting and beautiful,” and also for its “sense of timelessness and historical authenticity.”

Interview with Cinesite Senior VFX Supervisor Max Dennison 

How did Cinesite’s VFX contribute to the narrative and tone of Blitz?

Blitz is a historical drama, a gentle story about a little boy who gets lost in the Blitz and his journey to find his way back home. We approached it as sensitively as possible; our work absolutely needed to play a supporting role within the main story.

Steve McQueen wanted the audience to see the world through the boy (George’s) eyes, so the visual effects could never involve big CG camera flythroughs; we were not delivering a spectacle. What we needed to create was a sense that you are inside the same story as the boy.

The visual effects needed to be invisible and as authentic as possible, transporting the viewer back to 1940s London.

What was most important was for all our artists to understand the nature of the work and to invest in the world which director Steve McQueen was trying to create, delivering exactly what he envisioned on screen.  Providing this creative context is a key part of the VFX supervision role. We are not just technicians, we’re filmmakers first and foremost, and we needed to be honest honest in our storytelling.

 

 

 

“Cinesite delivered 150 visual effects for the historical drama, which opened the prestigious London Film Festival on 9th October 2024. Blitz, which shows the harsh reality of war from a child’s perspective, has been praised widely in the press, as “Visually stunning,” with “images that are both haunting and beautiful,” and also for its “sense of timelessness and historical authenticity.”
– Steve McQueen

 

 

 

How important was realism and historical accuracy?

The London bombing sequence would be the most challenging aspect of the VFX which Cinesite created. Our first step was to find appropriate visual reference. We explored 1940s black-and-white film footage of the Blitz, with firefighters in the streets desperately trying to put out the raging infernos. We assembled hero reference footage, which became like a Bible of visuals for us to- follow. Of course, that footage was shot in black-and-white, so we also referenced contemporary colour imagery, but it was important for us to understand how a building would burn when constructed from combustible materials specifically from that era.  For instance, London warehouses along the Thames are made of brick with oak floors and ceilings, which created stark skeletal shapes as they burned.

Shadows were very important to the aesthetic I wanted to achieve; it should be like shadow play, shadow puppets. The boy is seeing tortured metal and buildings surrounded by smoke, obscured by flames and layers of smoke. There would be an abstract quality, because he would not know exactly what he is seeing, but we needed to create a visceral sense of it, so finding the right reference was vital.

How was the Blitz environment on the docks created?

The entire sequence was filmed at Watford Docks in East London, which have actually changed very little over the intervening years, with many of the old warehouses still intact, now renovated and modernised. It was easy to be there and imagine what it might have been like in 1940.

The Thames is a working river, and we needed to recreate it as it was, bustling with barges, ships and coal. We built a huge façade on the North and South banks with a realistic working river environment, which included cranes, barges, bridges, boats and dilapidated warehouses.

The scene would be backlit from the impact of the incendiary bombs across the South London skyline, so from a lighting perspective many elements would be silhouetted. Again, that shadow play, creating silhouettes which captured the essence of the destruction, was very important. As bombs explode in the distance out of shot, their impact would not always be seen, but the silhouettes of cranes and buildings create a real sense of fear.

We constructed an environment where we never moved higher than about 20 feet, always keeping the viewpoint close to the ground to maintain a consistent perspective; low, looking up into the sky and never down, like the boy’s perspective.

How were the explosions created?

For the actual explosions, we went back to reference, studying the types of ordnance used by German bombers and researching the amount of blast, debris and dust each size would create, in order to be as authentic as possible.

In one shot, George is running down a burning street beside the Thames, passing an ack-ack gun and searchlight looking for German bombers to target.  Further down the street, firefighters are desperately attempting to put out the fires. The buildings, smoke, dust and debris, were all created in CG, along with some digital matte painting to enhance the camera movement.  We incorporated camera shake to give a handheld feel, along with dynamic smoke and fire effects to create a hot, dangerous atmosphere.

What was the biggest challenge in the Blitz sequence?

Throughout the nine shots in the Blitz sequence, the challenge was to place the audience inside the action, so there would be no big flyovers or remarkable camera moves. If you could have filmed the action in 1940, either with a handheld camera or on a crane or boom, that would be legal; anything outside of that we could not include. We always grounded the visual effects in what felt real. If we showed the perspective of George running, we made sure that the surrounding events were seen from his height and not higher than that. 

 

There’s a shot where we see George running around a corner and a plane crashing into the river behind him. There is so much attention to detail in what we created. We were constantly reviewing and checking for authenticity, making sure the smoke was correct, that it was moving the right way, that the aircraft dynamics and water spray worked correctly.

 

Can you describe some of the other visual effects that Cinesite delivered?

In one scene, George’s mother Rita desperately searches for her son, she enters a small courtyard next to a bombsite. A brick wall collapses, and an air-raid warden just pulls her to safety in time before it topples in front of her.  

They had built a practical wall on set that dropped; this was ultimately used as reference for a CG wall that we created and added later. The collapse also required some dynamic effects including breaking bricks, dust and rubble.

In a dance hall sequence we added a CG ceiling and in one train sequence filmed at St Pancras station in London, we needed to clean all the contemporary elements of the scene, replacing them with 1940s locomotives, steam trains etc.  There were many entirely invisible visual effects shots which were created by the team.

There’s also a lovely sequence with George and a couple of other boys who have climbed up onto the roof of a train traveling through the English countryside.

The boys were filmed against greenscreens, and footage shot from a train was stitched together and regraded to create the background. We used CG to recreate the carriages, locomotive, steam, and smoke, integrating everything together to create the environment which we placed the boys inside.

Favourite shot?

There honestly wasn’t one bit that I could pick out because I’m just so proud of the whole show as a body of work. We grounded the visual effects that we created in reality, with the artists really invested, owning their shots. Everyone had a passion for what they were doing, which is very important for a film like this – it was a labour of love for all of us.

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BLITZ

Trailer