The Briefing Room

Zach Helm-Directed Release Features VFX-Packed Finale

Award-winning VFX company Frantic Films has been tapped by writer/director Zach Helm to contribute a number of visual effects shots for the forthcoming Walden Media and Mandate Pictures feature film release, Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium. Frantic Films was a key VFX provider for the movie’s final, most fantastical sequence, completing extensive post-viz on the Natalie Portman, Dustin Hoffman and Jason Bateman-starrer. Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium is being distributed by 20th Century Fox and hits theaters November 16, 2007.

Written and directed by Zach Helm, Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium is the story of strangest, most fantastic, most wonderful toy store in the world. In fact, it’s a magic toy store and everything in it comes to life - including the store itself. The Emporium only asks one thing of its customers; you must believe it to see it. When Mr. Magorium, the store’s extraordinary 243 year-old proprietor (Dustin Hoffman), announces that he will at long last hand over the reigns of his wonder-expanding store to his unconfident young manager, Molly Mahoney (Natalie Portman), the store decides to throw an unusual tantrum. As a skeptical accountant named Henry (Jason Bateman) comes in to audit the Legos® and Lincoln Logs®, not to mention the Whodathoughts and Whatchamacallits, the once sparkling, color-saturated Emporium is suddenly embattled by mysterious changes. The playful toys are all still there, but they’ve turned gray and quiet – and only Mahoney and Henry can revive them if, with the help of a superdexterous 9 year-old (Zach Mills), they can find the source of magic inside themselves.

Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium was never intended to be a VFX movie, but featured in-camera effects and toys being animated via animatronics and puppetry. The original final sequence featured a tightly orchestrated scenario in which Natalie Portman’s character makes the toys spring into action. However, after the filmmakers screened the original ending, they decided they wanted a more magical finale than the mechanically driven toys could achieve, so the Frantic Films team was brought on board to create this digitally in post.



Said Chris Bond, President and Creative Director, Frantic Films, “We quickly realized the new ending would require us to create a sequence for which there were no conventional elements. We rebuilt 75-80 percent of the entire finale scene in CG, and I think moviegoers will be hard-pressed to believe upon watching it that it wasn’t storyboarded that way. The most dramatic and visible effect was the use of Flood, our proprietary fluid technology, to simulate the particles in the room, which created an energizing and dynamic environment for the finale.



Under the direction of Frantic Films VFX Supervisor Glenn Neufeld, the studio did extensive scene reconstructing, particle work and fluid simulation in virtually every shot, as well as final compositing. The artists also added 3D birds, a sunny, holographic effect spilling through the shop’s stained glass window, and ample amounts of pixie dust sprinkled throughout. The result is a snowstorm crescendo as the toys are brought to life by a simple wave of the Molly character’s hand.

The VFX team’s process involved doing detailed analysis of each shot using the copious amounts of reference photography taken on set, to catch everything that appeared in frame. The artists then had to continuously sample various times in each sequence to see what was in each scene to figure out what had to be digitally removed and how to reconstruct the scene with digital elements for the final clip. The studio also had to work in parallel with Russian-based VFX studio Dr. Picture, the vendor responsible for the toy animation. This was particularly challenging as the two studios were working in parallel, and it wasn’t always certain which toys would be flying around in each scene until the final composite. Because Frantic Films was building something in the digital realm that never existed on set, collaboration and creative trust among vendors was key.

Frantic Films used Autodesk 3ds Max for modeling, Frantic Films Software’s Flood and Autodesk Particle Flow for particle fluid simulation, and eyeon Fusion for compositing.

About Frantic Films

Headquartered in Winnipeg, Canada, with offices in Vancouver and Los Angeles, Calif., Frantic Films has been operating divisions that provide visual effects for film and television, live action production and VFX software development since 1997. Frantic Films’ award-winning visual effects teams have worked on films including Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer, Grindhouse, Superman Returns, X-Men 3, Poseidon and many others. The company’s software tools were developed to solve complex production challenges on in-house feature effects projects, and are also in use at many leading 3D animation and effects facilities worldwide. Frantic Films’ live action division creates and produces Gemini Award-winning programs for Canadian and international television networks. For more information, visit http://www.franticfilms.com/.