Raka's Emotional Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes Death Kept Changing All The Way Up To Release, Reveals VFX Supervisor
Planet of the Apes sequel VFX lead on changes.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
By Alexis Zaccaria
Published 5 minutes ago
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Erik Winquist, a VFX supervisor for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, shares how the death of Raka (Peter Macon) went through multiple changes right up until the film's final release. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, part of the Planet of the Apes franchise, takes place many years after the reign of Caesar and follows a young ape's journey that will lead him to question everything about the past and define the future. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is in contention for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.
During an interview with ScreenRant's Grant Hermanns, Winquist detailed the extensive planning that went into the pivotal water sequence, which involved real water effects and digital simulations. As Raka's fate hung in the balance, several changes were made to his death scene during the production process. These included revising his final words multiple times, with adjustments made even in the final stages of editing. The VFX teamâs collaboration was essential in crafting the scene, which combined real footage with detailed digital simulations of the river's rapid waters. Check out his comments below:
Yeah, and that was, again, a lot of this comes back to just working with those actors and putting them in the situations where that can come to the fore. Because, on the page, obviously it was clear that we were going to have a number of situations where we had wet apes to deal with, and the river is one of those. And obviously, there's a big flood at the end of the movie that really amps that up again. But for the river sequence, we have a scene here where our human character, Freya Allen playing Mae, she's got to be in the water with Raka, as well. So this was something where we were going to need to have real water, at least a section of fast-moving water that could be rushing past Freya to really amp up that and get her, literally, soaking wet. And then, the challenge, of course, was having to take Peter Macon's performance, who was in the water with her â because, obviously Raka helps her up to rescue her from that river, and in doing so, has consequences for him.
But the setup of that, as with so much in this movie, was all about wanting to shoot as much as we could for real, even if it meant knowing that we were probably going to be replacing most, if not all, of the photography for certain parts of it. Here, we wanted that water tank, so our colleagues in the special effects department cooked [that] up. We had a backlot set for a partial bridge that most of the scene takes place on. And obviously, once they end up in the water, they're in a real tank that had a big Weir wall and pumps that were really rushing water past the cast. From there, it became the big challenge of working through the sequence and figuring out, for those close-up shots, how much of the real water were we going to keep and where do we need to start our digital extension? Because, as you mentioned, we found a location in Australia that had a beautiful environment around it, but the river itself was dead calm. It was barely moving, so that didn't work for the reality of that scene, but either way, we were going to need to be doing digital rapids to make this work from a storytelling standpoint.
So, what it meant was we had to do basically a half a mile of river rapid simulations. And the way that our effects team had set that up, it allowed us to really art direct a lot of the water features in there, which is really important, because for that big moment where we lose Raka, we had to set up, earlier in the sequence, that there was a very dangerous body of water feature there that he was possibly not going to survive if he were to lose it. So, the art direct ability of that scene was key, as well. I think, when it all came together, we wind up with the effects department, working with the creatures department, working with the animation department, in a really circular, really sort of connected and coupled way, where the effects department generated a low-res river simulation for that area around the bridge animation, then used that to place where Raka was going to be in the water when they handed that off to our creatures team, who does the body simulation and the hair and all that stuff. That hair could reference the waterflow that was in the river simulation to sort of direct how all of his long hair was moving. Once that was done, that went back to the effects department, because then they had to take that final high-res hair, and then work through all of the water that he's fully saturated, right? So, we needed to simulate, every time he lifted his arm out of the water, you need to see the water drain out of all of that hair and affect it, as well. So it required a huge amount of collaboration and coordination and communication between all of the various departments at Weta that were contributing to that scene to keep things efficient.
And then, the funny thing was, that moment that you're speaking of, Raka's last words to Noa in the movie, Wes changed his mind a couple of times in terms of what that was going to be. Because we shot it one way in Australia, and then we did it again during some additional photography, you know, pickups here in Wellington on the mo-cap stage. And then, in the final delivery of it, Wes, when they were really working through this in the edit, realized that we just need to make another change. So, we actually had Peter record himself on his phone, and that became the performance that we finally put in the movie, but all of that had to be worked into this complex process I was describing with only just weeks to go before the end of our delivery process. So, it was a white-knuckle ride towards the end of that shot. But it was so critically important for the emotional impact of that moment in the movie that it was absolutely worth doing so.
What This Means For Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes's VFX ProductionLast-Minute Changes Were Vital To The FilmConsistently adjusting Rakaâs death underscores the evolving nature of visual effects production, particularly in its final stages. Winquist and his team's situation demonstrates how VFX is not just about creating visuals, but also about enhancing Planet of the Apes' overall storytelling. The digital renderings, including the rapids and Rakaâs body simulation, were vital in preserving the movie's continuity and emotional stakes.
RelatedWhen Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes Is Set & How Far We Are From The Original Movie2024's Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes takes place hundreds of years after Caesar's heartbreaking death in War for the Planet of the Apes.
Moreover, the back-and-forth revisions that occurred during Rakaâs death scene point toward the intricate process behind delivering Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes' final cut. With only weeks to go before the filmâs release, the VFX team had to work quickly, ensuring that all adjustments aligned with director Wes Ball's vision and tone. This included having Macon record his final lines without a recording studio and via cell phone, which only made his performance even more impressive considering the less-than-ideal circumstances.
Our Take On The VFX Process In Kingdom Of The Planet Of The ApesWindquist And The VFX Team Were Committed To The VisualsThe challenges in creating Raka's death in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes highlight the dedication and precision required in the VFX process. Windquist and his team's ability to balance the story and geographical realism made the final cut of the scene stand out. Their late-stage revisions testify to the relentless effort in refining the Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, proving that no detail is too small when it comes to delivering a cinematic experience.
Your RatingKingdom of the Planet of the Apes Release Date May 10, 2024 Runtime 145 Minutes Director Wes Ball Writers Patrick Aison, Josh Friedman, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver Prequel(s) Rise of the Planet of the Apes, dawn of the Planet of the apes movie, War for the Planet of the ApesKevin Durand
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