- Getting to be bionically strong is pretty fun.
- We're about to break down the visual effects
in "Thunder Force".
(exciting orchestral music)
I see it as an accidental superhero film.
[Dave Morley] They go onto fight crime
within the city of super villains.
- I love that world, where it's not
everyone in the world isn't super.
Like Obama vacuuming or Eleanor Roosevelt fought--
(cafe explodes)
- Octavia and Melissa
are just having a quiet little breakfast at the local cafe.
And out of nowhere, Laser comes in,
and she's causing destruction.
A lot of people are on wires.
- [Director] One, go!
(people crashing)
- [Dave Morley] We had a lot actuators
pulling furniture and flipping chairs.
We had cannons out the front that was blowing glass out.
We have to match-move all the people
and the objects in the world,
so all our digital glass interacts with them.
[Dave Morley] We don't have the glass in the scene.
We remove that.
So then we add as visual effects
is we put the glass back in,
and then we digitally shatter it
and fly glass throughout the scene.
We add lasers,
the energy and the gaseous kinda nature of her blast.
And there's some great kinda movement
when the air cannons go off.
You get this percussion wave of wind blowing
and all the sheet ceiling pieces are lifting up.
(energy blasts)
(man screaming)
- [Man] Help me! (screams)
(stool rips)
(stool strikes)
(body crashes)
- This scene was the first introduction to Laser.
[Dave Morley] At this point, we knew that she existed,
but we really didn't understand her super powers.
And we always knew that it needed to be energy-based.
So the idea that she could somehow conjure energy,
we sort of played on that idea,
of almost this sort of black hole,
dark matter type approach.
So how do you make this energy ball
then turn into essentially this extension of herself
that she could grab onto something?
And in this case, she grabs onto Frank and lifts him up.
- If you were a narcissistic megalomaniac,
where would you hide a bomb?
- My guess is a place of power, her office maybe.
- [The King] Well, well, well.
Evening, ladies, assuming you're both here.
I gotta tell you,
I'm super bummed you're not there.
- [Dave Morley] Octavia and Melissa,
they end up on the mayor's office.
And of course, they're confronted with all the villains
in all their glory.
- If I punch someone, it's not gonna just hurt them,
they're gonna go across the room.
I throw this tire (indistinct).
It's not very heavy at all.
(The King grunts)
- What's the matter, cat got your tongue?
(Lydia chokes)
Enjoy the ride!
(Lydia screams)
(window smashes)
- There was a stunt person that was shot,
flying back through the table.
[Dave Morley] When it was shot in-camera,
it was just a little flatter than we needed.
So we essentially used the action of her being thrown
as the starting point to take over completely digitally
and do a digital double.
Once she hits the table,
then everything that's on the table,
we have the paper, the lamps, the staplers,
everything there is digitally animated
and flies off through too.
The venetian blinds on the back wall are digital as well.
(energy crackles)
- Peekaboo.
(both grunting)
(laser blasts)
- [Dave Morley] Laser's doing battle with Octavia,
who's using her invisibility to hide from her.
(Laser growling)
(Octavia thuds)
And you wanna see Octavia, you wanna see her performance,
but you need the audience to understand
that she's not visible to anyone else.
- (gasps) Ho, ho, ho, ho!
Oh, Em, say something!
You're freaking me out!
You gotta say something, Emily.
I can't...
(woman laughs)
All right, where are you?
- We came up with the idea
that she would essentially distort the background,
refract it in a way,
and we just added some interesting effects,
with this kinda oil slick, translucency to her
And we would just shoot Octavia's plate,
then take the clean plate,
and we would remove her from the plate.
And then we would add her back in, in a subtle way,
to make her invisible.
When Octavia touches her,
the energy flows from Laser into her,
essentially revealing her,
back to an opaque character.
(Lydia screams)
(glass smashes)
(body thuds)
- Damn!
(man screams)
- Shit!
(body thuds)
(Lydia gasps)
I love wire stuff.
Oh, my God.
- [Dave Morley] For the big headbutt,
it was made up out of a couple of different shots,
and there's a little transition in between the wipe,
where we had the stunt person
transitioning into a digital person.
We had the pre-bent I-beam in place.
So when the stunt person gets kicked, and we pan,
you're panning onto a bent I-beam,
And we digitally replaced it, and we straighten it up.
And then at a certain point,
we add in a digital version of Melissa,
and she actually hits the digital beam
and bends it into the place that we set in-camera.
(body thuds)
(taser strikes)
(taser buzzing)
(The King gasps)
(I-beam rips)
She's about to pick up the I-beam
and you know, do a big baseball shot with it.
So what she was holding onto was physical,
but then it stopped maybe about a foot past her.
And then we digitally extend
and make the rest of the I-beam.
[Dave Morley] I need to pay attention to
where would the end of this I-beam fall.
So if she's putting in (indistinct),
or that's angled to low,
it would be sitting through the table and chairs there,
so we just need to hold it up a little it more.
Even though she's got superhuman strength,
there still needs to be a reality,
to you know, her swinging like a foam proxy of an I-beam.
(I-beam smacks)
- It's our first fight.
I'm glad it's on camera
Bye!
- If you want to find out what happens next,
you're gonna have to watch the movie.
[Dave Morley] Check out "Thunder Force".
Now streaming only on Netflix.
(exciting orchestral music)