Towering
over and around the human characters of New Line Cinema's tornado
disaster film “Into the Storm” is its intimidating main
character—the storm itself. “I think it’ll be exciting for the
audience to go inside this massive tornado with its horrific power of
destruction and, at the same time, see its beauty,” director Steven
Quale says. “With advances in sound and visual effects, it’s now
possible to do that in an incredibly visceral and realistic way.”
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| Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. |
Quale’s
a firm believer in the notion that “sound is 50% of the moviegoing
experience” and enlisted Oscar®-winning sound editor Per Hallberg
(“Skyfall”) to give the storms their concussive power. The
visuals were hatched on hundreds of computers spread across among
leading visual effects houses, all working from high def video
references and a detailed previsualization (“previs”) Quale put
together with VFX producer Randall Starr.
Effects
have come a long way since the 1996 tornado thriller “Twister,”
and Quale has been on the frontlines of their evolution, so he knew
going in that the realism and detail he wanted for this film was
achievable. “In our film, you’ll see four different, unique
tornadoes, and the tension escalates until you see this giant,
two-mile-wide tornado coming straight at you like some massive,
unstoppable beast,” Quale describes. “These are probably some of
the most difficult visual effects to accomplish because this is not a
science fiction movie where you can create your own universe to have
a unique particle effect and special rays that cause destruction.
Everybody knows what clouds and trees blowing in the wind look like.
So we had to create these tornadoes and these digital cloud
formations with total realism on every level, but also make sure that
everything we shot in live action would match those dark, stormy
skies exactly.
Hence
the darkened silk screens, wind machines and rain towers that have
been a constant on set. “You just have to keep track of what the
storm is doing at that moment in the film,” Quale adds, “and
constantly remind everybody that there is a big tornado in the
background.”
Green
screens are no problem for “The Hobbit” movie veteran Richard
Armitage who plays the lead role. “Oh, I’m very used to that,”
he laughs. “And Steven has a very strong image of what kind of a
monster this storm will be and how the characters are scaled against
it.”
Even
though the storm is the film’s main event, Quale sees the
characters as its heart. “We can use sound and visual effects to
put you inside the storm, but what really brings you into the
experience is the characters themselves,” he reflects. “We’re
taking this journey with them, and experiencing this terrifying event
through their eyes. So for us, true realism comes down to the
performances, and Richard, Sarah Wayne Callies and all the actors are
bringing so much real emotion to the film, which will make the
experience of this giant, terrifying storm all the more visceral and
real.”
From
New Line Cinema, in association with Village Roadshow Pictures, comes
the tornado disaster film “Into the Storm.” Steven Quale (“Final
Destination 5”) directs the film, which is produced by Todd Garner
(“Knight and Day”).
In
the span of a single day, the small American town of Silverton is
ravaged by an unprecedented onslaught of tornadoes. The entire town
is at the mercy of the erratic and deadly cyclones, even as storm
trackers predict the worst is yet to come. Most people seek shelter,
while others run towards the vortex, testing how far a storm chaser
will go for that once-in-a-lifetime shot.
Told
through the eyes and lenses of professional storm chasers,
thrill-seeking amateurs, and courageous townspeople, “Into the
Storm” throws you directly into the eye of the storm to experience
Mother Nature at her most extreme.
“Into the Storm” is
distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment
Company.
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