Ex Machina – VFX Q&A
by Graham Edwards
Ever since Fritz Lang’s 1927 film Metropolis, the concept of a robot with artificial intelligence has held movie audiences in thrall. Now, as the science fiction dream of AI becomes ever-more plausible in the real world, so a new generation of filmmakers has begun to explore its tantalising possibilities.
The latest addition to this recent crop of AI movies – which includes Caradog James’s The Machine and Spike Jonze’s Her – is Ex Machina. Written and directed by Alex Garland, the film introduces young computer coder Caleb (Domnhall Gleeson) into an experiment designed to establish whether sexy and cerebral android Ava (Alicia Vikander) is truly self-aware.
Vikander’s on-set performance as Ava was meticulously preserved during the post-production process. While much of her body was replaced by a digital counterpart, Vikander’s face and hands were retained throughout. The result is a seamless blend of live-action and CG animation that remains convincing in a film characterised by long takes and intricate dialogue.
The production visual effects supervisor for Ex Machina was Double Negative’s Andrew Whitehurst, who was assigned to the project for around 16 months. Under Whitehurst’s supervision, Double Negative delivered over 300 robot shots, with an additional 250 VFX shots being provided by Milk VFX, Utopia and Web FX.
Watch the trailer for Ex Machina:
How did you get involved with Ex Machina?
Double Negative were approached by DNA films and the writer/director, Alex Garland. We quickly worked out that we saw things very similarly, and that we would be able to work together.