Scooper ‘StarzGuy’ is back with another excellent report, this time on the visual effects filming in Chicago for Batman Begins…
As stated before, this Chicago shoot is a pure VFX shoot. I walked down to LaSalle from my office in downtown Chicago around 8:30 on 5/27. I noticed upon walking up that the shoot this evening was going to cover South LaSalle, between Madison and Monroe (which were blocked off by Chicago’s finest). This stretch of LaSalle is a great looking block, filled with many art deco buildings, and eventually running up to the Chicago Board of Trade.
I had the chance to speak with one of the PAs there (I’m withholding his actual title), and besides the fact he was a great guy, he had plenty of interesting information, such as:
They actually starting this shoot on Sunday evening, 5/23. Weather was terrible Sunday evening, and they had their hands full with this portion of the shoot. They are planning on wrapping up this shoot tomorrow, 5/29. They will shoot as soon as it’s nightfall, and go straight through to dawn.
The VFX crew is British, very professional, but very down to earth as well. Members of this crew worked on “The Matrix” and it’s sequels.
The actual shot they are working on is a “wallpaper” of the length of LaSalle, using two digital cameras mounted to a boom crane to map out the street. The shot goes from the EL right down to the Board of Trade Building. VFX will then be dropped in… The software being used for the shoot is a brand new program and this is the first feature to use this application.
The images are directed and captured on the spot to the crews PCs from the boom crane.
Crew size for the shoot is about 20.
My contact wasn’t part of the Iceland location shoot, but spoke to crew that was there. He said the locations were breathtaking and perfect for what they were trying to capture in the scenes.
When they return in late July, the production will be using locations “all over town”, not just the old Helene Curtis Factory on the Northside…
A passerby asked my contact what they were filming, and he said “The Intimidation Game”. She just said ok, and kept walking…. The contact then said (with a smile) “It works”…
‘StarzGuy’ provided eight pictures from the set which you can view in the SHH-Media gallery. Be sure to read the descriptions underneath the pictures for more information on each!
Source: StarzGuy
