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Entering the Void with BUF
Today I want to talk about a movie and a VFX studio. The movie is “Enter the Void” by the French Director Gaspar Noé. The VFX studio is the one that made this project possible: BUF. (This is going to be a long one so hang on!)
First of all let’s talk a little bit about the movie. The sinopsis of the movie is pretty simple, a young drug dealer is killed in Tokyo and his spirit remains to take care of his sister. Wow, that’s simple. But nevertheless this movie is anything but simple. First of all if you read “spirit” and though this is a simple ghost movie, think again. The death of the main character is the starting point for a journey through Tokyo like anything you’ve ever seen before in storytelling.
Through the eyes of the character’s spirit we fly around Tokyo in a very poetic manner going from one place to another in sequence shots, flying through buildings,cars and even going up in the sky in to an airplane and finishing in a taxi cab. Everything is really nicely done and the transitions are so seamless that you get this sensation of dream-like story. Although drugs play a big role in this movie with some hallucinogen sequences and so on it’s not the main point and it doesn’t get to annoying.
This movie is (I would say) for experienced viewers… you don’t have to be afraid of it’s length 2:40h and have to be pertinent in some almost-epileptic sequences because in the end it’s worth it. It has some pretty explicit sex scenes (at least for some) and not everything is wonderful and has rainbow colors everywhere.
The movie is very paused and kind of like a big journey in to the characters life and those around him in the last moments of his life. This is accentuated by the fact that the whole movie is experienced in first person (POV) or in some cases in third person, seeing the main characters back of the head. His face is only revealed in the sequences were he looks himself in the mirror.
So with that said I can only say that if you want something a little different from your normal sunday afternoon movie give this little movie a chance and really enter the void…
Now to the geeky and cool stuff. This movie need it a really strong VFX crew to create the atmosphere and look development of the film. It also need it to recreate this endless space travel between lot’s of spaces in Tokyo in these magnificent sequence shots that the movie has throughout.
This was task for the very talented and innovative Post-Production house in Paris called BUF. They’re a highly experienced crew that has worked in tons of movies. For me its very best work was done in Fight Club. They did a great job there with some really cool camera moves and set extensions that have aged beautifully and to this day fascinate me. You can see what I’m talking about by going to the visual effects section in BUF’s website.
Well in this movie they went up and beyond with the quality of their work. I mean it’s amazing what they achieve and how seamlessly they make us go from real plate to CG integration to full CG to real live action plate once again. I really enjoyed their work from a VFX perspective and what is really cool about BUF is that they use proprietary software tools (developed by them) in their whole pipeline which makes it even more awesome!
If you are really interested in the VFXs regarding this movie you can read the interviews in The Art of VFX and in fxguide. And don’t forget to check out the making of of the movie at BUF’s website.
Hopefully it will engage you to see this movie and then you can tell me what you think?
