A blend of traditional and digital effects enhance the horror in Event Horizon .
Director Paul Anderson's hybrid science-fiction/horror film,
Event Horizon, demanded 250-plus effects shots,
running the gamut from the stars, planets and spacecraft of one
genre to the abhorrent nightmare-inducing visions of the other.
Pulling it all together was visual effects supervisor
Richard Yuricich, ASC and visual effects producer Stuart McAra.
The duo oversaw some 400 craftsmen and artists working in
England, including CG experts at Cinesite London and
Computer Film Company.
Yuricich's background in special effects dates back to the pioneering work he did with Douglas Trumbull on 2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Trek The Motion Picture and Blade Runner. (He was also the director of photography on Trumbull's Brainstorm.) But Yuricich is also known for his recent solo visual effects projects, Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (see AC Dec. 1995) and Mission: Impossible (AC Dec. '96). He decided to tackle Event Horizon because the project promised some completely unique effects challenges.
Both of the film's spaceships the 250' Lewis & Clark and the mile-long Event Horizon were created using models in several scales. There were 26 miniatures in all, ranging from a 1' version of the Lewis & Clark (which resembles a submarine crossed with an ambulance) to a 30' long model of the Event Horizon. Yuricich notes, "Our problem was how to film something at that scale and get people to buy it. The answer was to put our 1' Lewis & Clark together with our 30' Event Horizon in the wide shots to establish the scale."
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