Around 220 of the shots delivered included “Synths”, robotic soldiers that were filmed as live action on-set and then either partially or totally recreated in CG. The Synth model had to be flexible enough in its design and rigging setup to accommodate the different physiques of the stand-in actors used on-set. Other key shots delivered by Prime Focus included zero gravity sequences and extensive futuristic set extension work.
“The sequences we delivered for Total Recall all had different technical and creative requirements, for which we carefully customized our modular global pipeline to allow us to respond quickly to changes,” said Alex Pejic, PFW’s VFX Supervisor. “Fortunately I have a great relationship with Peter (Chiang), Paul (Riddle) and the rest of the team at DNeg from my time there, which helped to make it a really smooth process throughout. It was great to collaborate creatively with them on such a challenging project.”
Prime Focus World Managing Director Martin Hobbs added, “The collaboration with DNeg worked very well for us and it was a pleasure opening up our bandwidth and talent across not only London but also Vancouver and Mumbai to complete this project. The work looks absolutely stunning and is testament to the outstanding abilities of the VFX teams we have across Prime Focus World.”
Total Recall, released worldwide on 3rd August 2012, is an action thriller about reality and memory, inspired by the famous short story We Can Remember It For You Wholesale by Philip K. Dick. It stars Colin Farrell as factory worker Douglas Quaid, who is married to Lori (Jessica Biel). Bored with his regular life, Quaid is attracted by the promise of Rekall, a company that can implant memories of a virtual vacation, to turn his dream of being a super-spy into real memories. When the procedure goes horribly wrong, Quaid becomes a hunted man. The screenplay is by Kurt Wimmer and Mark Bomback and the film was produced by Toby Jaffe, Neal H. Moritz and Ric Kidney.