How to create Oscar-nominated visual effects

“I don’t think many people watching films understand how much work and how many people actually go into creating [special] effects,” says Genevieve Camilleri, a visual effects artist, nominated in the 2021 Academy Awards for her work on the film Love and Monsters.

“Basically there’s multiple departments, starting from somebody who ingests the film footage that they shot on set, and then the next artist creates a CG (computer-generated) camera to replicate the one on set. That’s passed to the next department that will create, say in Love and Monsters, one of the big CG creatures.

“The next person animates it to move him the way that he needs to into the footage, for another artist to add texture and colour. After that the next artist renders out those computer graphic images for the last department to put it all together with the live action footage.

“It’s quite a complicated process. To create just two seconds of film, could involve up to 10 people and a couple of months of work.”

Ms Camilleri says “working on (Love and Monsters) was fun, it was quirky and different, but it never crossed our mind that it would be entered into the Academy Awards and of course be nominated for an Oscar.”

Initially headed for a career in biotechnology, Ms Camilleri instead decided on a Postgrad Diploma in Visual Effects at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne.

“To be honest for me it’s following what you enjoy. I think if you do something that you really enjoy and you’re passionate about, you’re going to succeed at it because you’re putting your heart into it. Then to get paid for it as well at the same time is just a double reward there,” says Ms Camilleri.

“But in terms of getting into visual effects (VFX) itself, it’s quite a technical and creative industry, so finding a balance between learning between both of those things I think is really important.”

Although ‘Love and Monsters’ made it into the final nominations, it was the film ‘Tenet’ that was awarded the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects in 2021.

Episode recorded: May 17, 2021.

Interviewer: Dr Andi Horvath.

Producer, audio engineer and editor: Chris Hatzis.

Co-production: Silvi Vann-Wall and Dr Andi Horvath.

Banner: Getty Images