Universal Pictures
Christopher Nolan is a filmmaker that’s become known for many things over the years.
From his obsession with time to the sheer scale of his films, the 52-year-old British director has developed a clear style that’s made him one of the most successful auteurs in the world.
One of Nolan’s most famed ticks, which was on full display in Oppenheimer, is his insistence on using as little CGI as possible.
Now, given that Oppenheimer is about the making of the atomic bomb, movie fans have long been wondering how Nolan could’ve possibly recreated the explosion without using computers.
Luckily for those fans, Special Effects Supervisor Scott R. Fisher — who has now worked with Nolan six times — detailed how they pulled off the effects seen during the showstopping Trinity Test sequence, which was apparently created by combining gasoline, propane, black powder, aluminum powder, and magnesium flares.
For the Trinity Test, Fisher and his team used one of the oldest tricks in the Hollywood playbook: forced perspective. “We don’t call them miniatures; we call them ‘big-atures’. We do them as big as we possibly can, but we do reduce the scale so it’s manageable. It’s getting it closer to the camera, and doing it as big as you can in the environment.”
As for the pyrotechnic side of things, the intense blaze was “mostly” a combination of gasoline and propane “because you get so much bang for your buck.” Aluminum powder and magnesium were then added to the conflagration in order to approximate the instant blinding flash that accompanies a nuclear blast. [via SYFY]
Oppenheimer made $82.5 million at the domestic box office during its opening weekend, which is the biggest debut that Christopher Nolan has ever had for one of his non-Batman films.
In addition to Cillian Murphy, who’s getting touted as a contender for Best Actor at the Academy Awards, as the titular J. Robert Oppenheimer, the film also stars Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., and Florence Pugh. Further cast members include Josh Hartnett, Benny Safdie, Jason Clarke, Alden Ehrenreich, David Krumholtz, and more.