VFX house produced 365 shots for latest entry in thriller series
Bluebolt produced 365 VFX shots for Prime Video’s latest entry in the Jack Ryan universe, Ghost War.
It was principal VFX studio for the film, with Richard Frazer as overall VFX supervisor for the project. Frazer worked with director Andrew Bernstein from pre-production onward to develop and design the visual effects for the film’s key sequences, which include major explosions, gunfights, multiple complex CG urban environments spanning London, Dubai and New York, CG vehicles, aircraft and boats, and the dramatic cracking and collapse of the entire glass floor of a skyscraper just before the explosive finale shoot out at the top of a 24 storey tower.
As well as traditional VFX, Frazer played a key part in planning the complex ‘Glass Floor’ sequence on a shot-by-shot basis and helped oversee the virtual production elements of the LED volume work.
The Glass Floor sequence centres on a dramatic moment in which an entire glass floor cracks and collapses, leaving one of the heroes suspended through the resulting hole. The sequence was filmed at a nightclub within Dubai’s One Za’abeel, a real glass-floored structure 20 storeys above ground. Following principal photography in Dubai, Frazer helped plan an additional UK studio shoot involving extensive stunt rigging and bluescreen work on large glass floor panels.
To realise the sequence, the team created a fully CG recreation of the set, presenting a significant VFX challenge: every surface was made of glass, creating complex layers of reflections throughout the environment. Houdini was used to simulate the floor’s cracking and collapse, while the bluescreen photography and CG environment were seamlessly integrated with footage captured at the practical location.
A key location for the film’s explosive finale was the top of the Damac Tower in Dubai - a real skyscraper actively under construction during the filming of the movie. Permission was acquired to film there and BlueBolt augmented the design of the tower with multiple additional floors to allow for the extended journey of our heroes to its top. Since the exterior of the fictional server floor needed to be seen - BlueBolt created an additional 24 floors of CG top-up tower which had to be added in wherever there was an exterior shot of the building.
Since the server room didn’t exist in the real location, it was constructed on a blue screen stage in London. This required around 230 VFX shots, adding in the Dubai city skyline outside and helping to augment the heavy SFX requirements including muzzle flashes, massive CG glass smashes and explosions. The action beats include a massive pallet being swung through the windows, requiring a CG helicopter gunship dramatically shooting up the floor with a minigun - with interior and exterior views. The majority of exterior views were fully CG.
Meanwhile, the boat chase through the Marina in Dubai was enhanced by numerous additional CG boats - for heightened danger. Several camera and safety boats following the action during filming needed to be removed, with CG water added back in their place. Face replacement was also used on shots involving stunt performers. The chase culminates in a dramatic crash into the wall of a bridge. Practical protection required on the shoot day to prevent damage to the structure was digitally removed later.
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