Cutting Edge Delivers Post for Warner Bros' 'Our Brand Is Crisis'

Carving up the big screen this year, Cutting Edge was recently commissioned to execute the VFX for Warner Bros feature film Our Brand is Crisis, starring Sandra Bullock and Billy Bob Thornton.

The film centres on a Bolivian presidential election and sees campaign strategist Jane Bodine (Sandra Bullock) come out of retirement to beat the opposition, her professional nemesis Pat Candy (Billy Bob Thornton). It becomes a down-and-dirty battle between political consultants, where nothing is sacred and winning is all that matters.

There were 267 VFX shots with the major work comprising of 3D crowd creation to enhance the rally and riot scenes, and matte paintings and digital environments. The film was shot in New Orleans and Puerto Rico, and Cutting Edge’s job was to make the environment look like Bolivia.

Cutting Edge VFX supervisor Jonathan Hairman said: “The bus sequence was our greatest challenge on this show. Director David Gordon Green and I worked closely on set to see how we could add tension to the bus sequence, which led to us adding CG cliffs to be revealed at the final turn.”

“Originally a 30 shot sequence, it ended up being over 200 shots, including 122 VFX shots, which involved taking bus plates shot on a green screen stage, compositing them onto background plates shot in Peutro Rico and adding a 3D cliff and matte paintings to turn this into Bolivia’s famous death road,” Hairman added.