Napoleon
“HE'S JUST AN INCREDIBLE ARTIST”
REVEALING THE VFX BEHIND RIDLEY SCOTT'S NAPOLEON
Charley Henley, MPC’s VFX supervisor for Napoleon, takes on the 'no CG' debate and why working with Ridley Scott is so inspirational
Ridley Scott’s Napoleonis an epic, beautiful film filled with historical detail. It’s also a movie that caught the eye of ‘VFX haters’, those who feel too much CG is ruining movies (it’s not), and that debate around the denial of using CG in visual effects continues to circulate in the on-screen world.
There’s artistry involved in every frame of Napoleonand some of the most intense use of CG will go unnoticed by many. To find out what’s real and what is, in fact, masterful use of VFX, we spoke with MPC’s Charley Henley, the visual effects supervisor for the film, who has a long-running relationship with director Scott that dates back to work on Alienprequel Prometheus.
We open our interview at the very beginning, discussing Scott’s industry-renowned storyboards. Before anything is filmed, the director draws his own immaculate panels. “He was trained at art school, and he draws his storyboards beautifully,” reflects Henley. “He draws these storyboards, and you just look at them and go, ‘I really want to help make that. It looks amazing.’”
Henley tells me how these small illustrated panels feature “amazing composition”. He adds: “There’s something original in it. It’s full of little details and so it’s very exciting and inspiring from a VFX point of view, he’s got such an amazing eye and artist’s view of everything visual, and basically he’s just an incredible artist.”
In VFX terms, Scott’s eye for a shot and talent for photog raphy ensures every scene is beautiful even before the effects team get to work. VFX artists can start the project knowing his vision is going to be on a grand scale; his eye for the “big picture” and “what’s really important” means “he sees the light and shape and form so well. I think that’s what creates the great images,” says Henley.
Together with Napoleon’s cinematog rapher Dariusz Wolski, the VFX team know the footage they get is going to be good from the beginning; there’s no uphill struggle to make something bad look good using CG. “[Wolski] queued into what Ridley likes, and the team really understands the aesthetic and tunes into that from costumes right through to set design and the cinematography,” says Henley. “And you really just try and carry through that.
“Everyone tries to see through Scott’s eyes and carry that to the end. There’s a quality level all t
