The challenge of working on the iconic 1997 cult classic reboot of Anaconda with a significant Hollywood budget and expectations, came at the right time for the Sydney headquartered Stage23 team. Following a run of diverse local and international VFX work ranging from MaXXXine, Bring Her Back to Kangaroo, Stage23 saw the project as an opportunity to showcase the ways that the skilled ingenuity of a tightly focused team can create high-end visual outcomes.
With a budget of $45 million and Queensland securing the location shoot, the opportunity for local production crew and VFX studios and teams to work on an intensive big budget feature was relished. Multiple locations were used through Queensland, as the primary filming base, including a mix of rainforest locations across the Gold Coast hinterland such as Springbrook National Park and Tamborine Mountain and studio infrastructure to replicate the Amazon basin.
Sony’s reimagined Anaconda, is not a remake but serves as a craft homage to the original, pivoting on it to leverage a new comedic twist on the Amazonian adventure. Anaconda director and co-creator Tom Gormican describes it as a “buddy movie that becomes an adventure film that becomes an action film that becomes a horror film.” The modern retelling plucks a cabal of middle-aged mates, with unactioned filmmaking dreams, and transports them on a journey into the Amazonian jungle to shoot their own version of the original film.
Stage23 were responsible for the bulk of the VFX on the film, bar the snake by ILM.
Stage23 co-founder Jonathan Hairman said the experience showed that an independent studio can work on global productions seamlessly.
With much of the external shots filmed across Queensland bushland and waterways, Stage23 were tasked with morphing raw Queensland landscapes into complex Amazonian scenes. Much of the landscape work included changing day to night sequences, adding the environment elements and cleaning up much of the live location shoots and re-rendering them.
“It was a labour of love with one sequence alone comprising 307 shots. We did over 300 shots of simulation travel on the river, which included CG water and CG for the boat.”
Jonathan Hairman, Co-Founder, Stage23
Much of Stage23’s alchemy revolved around shots in the controlled studio environments at Village Roadshow Studios on the Gold Coast working with the blue screen. The actual boat was taken into Gold Coast studios for staging of the effects-heavy sequences which allowed for tighter scheduling control and integration of visual effects work.
“Continuity was a big issue keep in mind, and story wise, because these are predominantly dialog scenes, so keeping the work subtle and realistic in the background, but still integrating with the plates.”
Jonathan Hairman, Co-Founder, Stage23
The decision to use both live Queensland locations with soundstage work also assisted with cost effectiveness and process.
For the Stage23 team, the most significant complexity was shot count and scale.
“The timing demands of the shoot meant that we had to collaborate extensively with the editorial team, as their shots would come in and out so frequently. Flexibility and adaptability was essential to be able to handle their requests at a large shot count. Our team was flexible, organized, staying on top of a lot of detail at quite a large scale.”
Jonathan Hairman, Co-Founder, Stage23
In working with the luxury of a studio VFX film, you still need to be smart with your budget, Hairman adds.
“In our experience across all ranges of VFX budgets, we have found that we can service big budget films in a really cost effective, organized way, because we are an indie studio and have learnt how to adapt to all terrains and needs and by necessity being nimble and really well organized.”
Jonathan Hairman, Co-Founder, Stage23
The collective wisdom of the Stage23 team has also allowed for a deep development of inhouse technology.
“We’ve spent a lot of time working on and developing our own technology pipeline that enables us to handle high shot loads. In addition to coding in lots of tools for the artists that streamline both working from shot to shot and also creating consistency from shot to shot.”
“Investing in our own technology pipeline, means that you can efficiently automate repetitive tasks that take time, and focus on the shot count and continuity and the onslaught of editorial changes.”
Jonathan Hairman, Co-Founder, Stage23
Stage23 take a bespoke and focused approach that produces efficiencies that equate to rates that suit a range of budgets and top end of town studio quality.
