![]() Method used a combination of tracking tools, but predominantly 3D Equalizer, to solve the fluid camera moves, with some in-house tricks for the most complicated set-ups. In terms of on the film, they are actually slide around which means everything was changing shape as we track.” “That meant the background objects were shifting in focus, and with anamorphic, that means they were actually moving in space. “They would also rack focus while they were walking,” adds Liegey. “The tracking is more difficult because of the distortion but they were going for a more 70s gritty style.”ĭoP Dante Spinotti relied on a Steadicam for the majority of interior apartment shots, a further tracking challenge for the visual effects artists. “It was an anamorphic show so they were using scope lenses, which made depth of field tight,” notes Method visual effects supervisor Greg Liegey. Greenscreen was positioned behind the windows with tracking markers both in and outside the set. In the film, Shaw’s penthouse apartment is located on the 52nd floor of The Tower, matching the location of the Trump International Towers – used as a location for filming – but interior scenes were shot on a soundstage in Brooklyn. Method also carried out some additional gold prop enhancements, while sister facility Company 3 completed the DI color grade. Method Studios NY took on 138 shots for the film, the majority being apartment composites to place Shaw’s home in New York. Final shot.Įach vendor on the film completed effects shots filling out views of the Manhattan skyline, either from Shaw’s apartment, on top of The Tower or while the heist was in full operation. Method’s methodology on creating a New York skyline Original plate. We speak to the effects supervisors from three of the film’s vendors – Method Studios, Phosphene and Gravity. Shooting in an around New York and on greenscreen sound stages, overall VFX supervisor Mark Russell relied on a combination of visual effects techniques to feature Shaw’s hi-rise apartment in ‘The Tower’ and show the workers concocting an elaborate heist involving a red Ferrari. Murphy, in his first role since 2009, is in full Eddie Murphy mode, with comic riffs and astonished double takes.Tower Heist tells the story of a staff of blue-collared workers taking on greedy Wall Street heavyweight Arthur Shaw, played by Alan Alda, who has swindled the group out of their retirement monies. Fitzhugh (Broderick), who is jobless, broke, has lost his family and being evicted from the building, and characters played by Casey Affleck, Michael Pena, Gabourey Sidibe (her second film since her Oscar nomination) as a Jamaican whose father would crack safes, and - well, Kovacs decides they need someone more familiar with crime and enlists Slide ( Eddie Murphy), a loud-talking dude from the street in his neighborhood. ![]() Obviously, this requires stealing the car from the penthouse, where there's no door or elevator that can handle it. They're looking for a wall safe, but then discover Shaw's Ferrari is solid gold: $65 million is hidden in plain sight. Enraged, Kovacs recruits a team to break into the apartment. So dear old Lester and all the others are penniless. ![]() ![]() The FBI is on the job because Shaw has been running a Ponzi scheme, and among his loot are the pension plan and investments of the tower's employees. It was taken apart piece by piece, he explains to FBI agent Claire Denham ( Tea Leoni), and assembled there. His most prized possession is a bright red 1953 Ferrari, once owned by Steve McQueen. The penthouse is owned by Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda), a financial wheeler-dealer, whose walls display priceless modern art. His team works flawlessly, beginning with the beloved doorman Lester (Stephen Henderson). The story: Josh Kovacs (Ben Stiller) is the perfectionist building manager at the most luxurious condo skyscraper in New York, which providentially is on Columbus Circle, in the exact footprint of Trump Tower. It's funny in an innocent screwball kind of way. There is also the novelty that here is a comedy that doesn't go heavy on the excremental, the masturbatory and symphonies of four-letter words. It's the kind of story where the executives at a pitch meeting feel they're being bludgeoned over the head with box-office dollars. The movie is broad and clumsy, and the dialogue cannot be described as witty, but a kind of grandeur creeps into the screenplay by Ted Griffin and Jeff Nathanson. ![]()
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