- A lot of work went on behind the scenes to bring this year's Oscar-nominated films to life.
- Many movies used state-of-the-art CGI. "The Irishman" digitally de-aged actors Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci. Meanwhile, "Avengers: Endgame" created the nanotechnology-powered suits in post-production.
- Some of the standout Oscar-nominated achievements were done practically. Prosthetics and fake eyelashes were used to re-shape Charlize Theron's face in order to make her look exactly like Megyn Kelly in "Bombshell.""1917" built World War I-era trenches from scratch and then measured every single inch of them in order to make it look like the movie was shot in one long take.
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The following is a transcript of the video.
This year's slate of Oscar-nominated films highlights many Hollywood achievements beyond producing, directing, and acting. Prosthetics and makeup turned actors into completely different people, animation continued to push creative boundaries, and CGI allowed legendary actors to play characters decades younger than they are. From daring car crashes to ambitious battles, here's what this year's Oscar-nominated films looked like behind the scenes.
"The Irishman"
In "The Irishman," stars Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci were de-aged to play much younger characters. They acted as their normal selves on set, and the de-aging happened with CGI. Unlike a lot of movies involving CGI transformation, the actors didn't have to wear any kind of headgear or tracking dots on their faces. Instead, all of the action was captured with three cameras at once. Two of those cameras were infrared, which got rid of all of the shadows and helped visual effects artists better analyze the actors' physical features.
"1917"
The World War I epic was filmed to look like one long, continuous take. But they didn't just leave the camera running for two hours straight. The film is presented as a series of long takes stitched together with invisible cuts. In one shot in which actor George MacKay runs along the side of a trench and through a massive battle, the crew had to capture it by taking a camera off a crane, attaching it to a jeep, and then following him in the vehicle for about a quarter mile. The shot where the actor journeys downriver was partially captured by a drone. Nailing this technical feat required precise timing, so director Sam Mendes and the crew had to measure every single set. Each shot had to last exactly as long as the stretch of the land the characters were on. You can see that when looking at the trenches built from scratch or at the destroyed French city, which ends with MacKay jumping off a ledge into a river. On set, the actor jumped onto this mat.
"Avengers: Endgame"
The biggest blockbuster of 2019 was honored for its dazzling technical work. One major feat was turning chiseled actor Chris Hemsworth into a chubby character. To play Fat Thor, Hemsworth put on a bodysuit, which he estimated weighed 60 to 70 pounds. He also wore a mouthpiece that puffed out his cheeks. While the visual effects team did some touch-ups, Marvel Entertainment visual effects producer Jen Underdahl said that actually having the suit on set helped Hemsworth's performance. There is one surprising aspect of superhero movies that can be done digitally: the superheroes' costumes. It made the most sense to create the nanotechnology-powered suits largely using visual effects.
"Toy Story 4"
It wouldn't be a best-animated-feature-film race without Pixar in the mix, and "Toy Story 4" earned its spot. For the fourth "Toy Story" installment, classic characters like Bo Peep got a makeover. You will notice huge differences if you look at her side by side with her first "Toy Story" appearance back in 1995. To make her skin look less flat and more like a shiny porcelain doll, animators changed the way they lit her. They discovered that circular lights more effectively aided the illusion than square lights. Here, Bo Peep is being animated, and here she is in the final product, where you can see circular lights reflecting off her surface. For some new characters, like fan favorite Forky, supervising animator Scott Clark said animators actually limited his movements to show that he was still developing.
"Frozen II"
"Frozen II" had the tough task of following the 2013 smash hit, but Disney always pulls through. A team of 75 animators spent nearly four years working on the sequel. Because the film is set in fall instead of winter, Arendelle got a big update. The buildings wouldn't be covered in snow, so the animators had to fill in all the gaps. Anna and Elsa's outfits also got an upgrade. Thanks to changes in technology, the little details, from stitching to sparkles, look more convincing than ever before. The biggest challenge for "Frozen II" was having to personify the elements. The design of the rock giants borrowed heavily from the first film's trolls but had them at a much larger scale. The Nokk needed to look both like a horse and like water. Animators had to control how much water was spraying off of it. In general, thanks to simulations created for "Moana," the Disney animation team made massive breakthroughs animating water, which allowed them to create the huge waves Elsa runs across.
"Missing Link"
"Missing Link" shocked everybody, the creators included, when it took the best animated feature Golden Globe out of the hands of both Disney and Pixar. But Laika Studios, which also made "Coraline" and "Kubo and the Two Strings," is a powerhouse in its own right. While a lot of the animation we see today is done on a computer, Laika does everything by hand. For this globe-trotting adventure, the animators had to create 106,000 interchangeable faces and build 110 sets, ranging from an Old West town to the Himalayas. A unique challenge for the animation team was dealing with a 16-inch-tall Link, which is much taller than the average stop-motion puppet. Link's companion Sir Lionel Frost clocked in at a much more reasonable 13 inches tall. Link took over a year to get right. His hair was hand-sculpted out of clay and made to match the overall style of this movie and the other characters.
"Bombshell"
This movie stood out for the actors' incredible transformations into real people. Charlize Theron looks unrecognizable as former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly. Prosthetic makeup artist Kazu Hiro and his team used extensive prosthetics to alter Theron's look. The key detail: her eyes. Theron wore fake eyelashes, which could be manipulated and actually helped change the shape of her eyes. In addition, the hair department brought her hairline down because Theron has a higher forehead than Kelly. Theron wasn't the only cast member to undergo a transformation. According to John Lithgow, in order to play Roger Ailes, the actor wore a six-piece bodysuit, which consisted of two jowls, a double chin, two earlobes, and a nose piece.
"Rocketman"
One aspect that aided Taron Egerton's transformation into Elton John was the film's costume design, which consisted of approximately 50 pairs of shoes and 50 pairs of sunglasses. Costume designer Julian Day took some liberties with Elton's looks. For instance, his "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" outfit in the movie was covered in real Swarovski crystals and was inspired by "The Wizard of Oz." And let's not forget the elaborate set pieces and musical numbers. For instance, the "Rocket Man" number was partially filmed inside a giant water tank. And then there's "Crocodile Rock," where Egerton was literally lifted into the air by wires.
"Ford v Ferrari"
Over the course of shooting, "Ford v Ferrari" cycled through 460 vehicles. Cameras attached to the cars helped capture the movie's action. Rob Johnson, the film's vehicle director, researched the cars to make sure every tiny historical detail was correct. Johnson told Bloomberg he paid close attention to things like the racing stickers on a car. They actually destroyed multiple cars for the Le Mans crash sequence. To pull this off, the filmmakers mounted cars onto a cannon. That cannon was attached to a truck, which then fired the cars into the air.
"Knives Out"
The murder mystery solved a problem you've probably never thought about: What do you do when you have a lot of close-up shots of characters wearing glasses? How do you create realistic reflections while making sure that none of the lighting equipment is visible? Cinematographer Steve Yedlin wrote in a now viral tweet that key grip Matt Mania sculpted the mattes to reshape lighting equipment so it would look like the scenery. Here, you can see the realistic reflection of what looks like a window that they made for a shot with Jamie Lee Curtis.
"Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker"
The franchise is famous for mixing state-of-the-art CGI with old-fashioned effects. That was still Anthony Daniels under a C-3PO mask. And for the Millennium Falcon, the actors sat inside a rumbling cockpit that was surrounded by green screen. Most impressive of all? Composer John Williams received his 52nd Oscar nomination this year.
Which of your favorite movies made the Oscars shortlist this year? Let us know in the comments.