DON SHAY

Founder and publisher 0f Cinefex.
Of the many sequences that stand out in my mental time-trip through the past twenty years, the one that emerges most vividly in terms of the effect that it had on me at the time – and now – is the launch sequence in Apollo 13. Viewing it for the first time, I had a visceral reaction, a cinematic adrenaline rush, that I hadn’t experienced in quite the same way since Darth Vader’s Imperial Star Destroyer rumbled over my head in the opening moments of Star Wars. Here was a near-perfect amalgam of artistry and technology, a sequence that embraced nearly every trick in the visual effects playbook. As executed under the supervision of Rob Legato at Digital Domain-still an upstart startup company at the time – the sequence employed large-scale miniatures, pyrotechnics, scenic backgrounds tiled together from location still photography, digital matte paintings, practical and computer generated enhancements, plus other elements too numerous and subtle even to notice, let alone enumerate. In short, the sequence ran the full gamut of old and new techniques to re-create on the big screen spellbinding imagery that was both altogether familiar and altogether new. Though, in many instances, camera angles had been chosen that could never have been used in real-world situations, the overall impression was exactly that which had been burned into a generation’s collective consciousness via documentary NASA photography. The fact that the
reality of these oft-seen images was simulated as credibly as it was resulted in a jaw-dropping, exhilarating viewing experience – and may well have cost the film a richly deserved Oscar for visual effects as, almost certainly, many of those voting for the award must have supposed they were looking at stock footage.