“So it was with some regret that we sent all of the film equipment back to Los Angeles and went completely digital. As if by happenstance, Lubezki's decision to eschew celluloid on the movie came as ARRI Rental was releasing the first of its ALEXA 65 large format camera systems.
"So ... you are basically storyboarding but with human beings. We were 3D shaping the thing, understanding the thing." Once they had everything on film, it was the computer experts' turn to take over and "paint in" what would end up being an incredibly realistic bear over the blue body suit.
The Revenant is a one camera perspective shot in three modes of operation (handheld, steadicam, or crane) which created its seamless rhythm and language. The ability to move the camera around gave Alejandro a lot of freedom to do single choreographed moves to capture the scene's action.
Deep Dive into the VFX Behind "The Revenant" / Before & After CGI Breakdown
Was it really cold filming The Revenant?
Because they were shooting in the mountains for the majority of the shoot, the weather was terribly cold, even freezing at times. Some actors had to get into cold rivers, and DiCaprio himself claimed that he endured "possible hypothermia constantly."
Why does Leonardo DiCaprio look at the camera in The Revenant?
In the conclusion of the film, our protagonist Hugh Glass takes one last glance at the camera. My theory is that the camera (much like Hugh's wife) represented Death. And in his final moments, his final breaths, he looks at the one thing chasing him throughout the entire movie: Death.
What happened to Leonardo DiCaprio while filming The Revenant?
Leonardo DiCaprio says he came down with the flu a few times while filming 2015's “The Revenant,” which is no surprise given the subzero temperatures. On the plus side, he got to take his method acting to the next level by using his sickness to make his performance seem more authentic.
Another interesting factoid is that the director wanted a shot of Glass witnessing an avalanche as part of his epic journey. Rather than creating this using CGI, the crew used planes to drop explosives on the mountain and trigger an avalanche, and then captured it on film using a crane on Fortress Mountain.
The song "Six Weeks" by Of Monsters and Men is "inspired by the true tale of American frontiersman Hugh Glass, seemingly left for dead after killing a bear that attacked him." Michael Punke's 2002 novel, The Revenant, is a fictional retelling of Glass's encounter with the bear and search for revenge.
Fame Focus did a Youtube VFX breakdown of The Revenant and said that ILM's approach was that the bear had to be “continuous, up close, and messy”. The result was a CGI bear that was so authentic, you could see its muscles ripple and shudder as it tore at Hugh Glass's flesh.
The bear in the mauling scene was not present on screen, but was the result of expert CGI provided by Industrial Light and Magic. A scene later in the film, however, wherein Hugh Glass had to cut open and climb inside a bear carcass for warmth ... that was stirringly real.
The screenplay by Mark L. Smith and Iñárritu is based in part on Michael Punke's 2002 novel The Revenant, which describes frontiersman Hugh Glass's experiences in 1823, and which is based on the 1915 poem The Song of Hugh Glass. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy.
Did Leonardo DiCaprio almost died filming The Revenant?
You'll remember that DiCaprio also had to endure near-death experiences to win his first Oscar for The Revenant, which he casually filmed at the same time as this harrowing doc, in the spare seconds he had between escaping hypothermia.
The shoot has been described as a “living hell” by whistleblowers, with actors subjected to extended delays and multiple crew members quitting under brutal conditions. “I would say the film is a happy accident of a very bad decision,” Iñárritu told Rolling Stone in a pre-Oscars interview.
Shot chronologically on an 80-day schedule that took place over a total principal photography time period of nine months. This unusually long production time was due to the cold weather conditions, the remoteness of the locations and director Alejandro G.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, some of Alejandro G. Iñárritu's film is actually based on a 2002 work of fiction about Glass' journey. But the main plot points of the film are real: Yes, Hugh Glass existed, he did get attacked by a bear and survived.
The book&movie The Revenant is based on a real expedition in the 1820s. Hugh Glass was mauled by a bear. There was never any mention of him having family. But he was abandoned, and forced to make a 200mile trek (the fort they set out from was abandoned...so, hugh had to hobble further along).
The new movie 'REVENANT' features a shocking scene of a wild bear raping Leo DiCaprio! The explicit moment from Oscar winning director Alejandro Inarritu has caused maximum controversy in early screenings. Some in the audience escaped to the exits when the Wolf of Wall Street met the Grizzly of Yellowstone.
Loosely based on the oft-retold, unreliable 19th-century real-life survival tale of Hugh Glass, The Revenant was a famously grueling production, shot in three different countries (the United States, Canada, and Argentina) amid unforgiving weather conditions, in part to accommodate its director's insistence on using ...
The next day, Fitzgerald digs a hole into the frozen ground to bury Glass in. While waiting for Glass to die, he talks to him, wondering why Glass is still clinging to life. He then tells Glass that he will kill him if he wishes and tells him to express this desire by blinking.
At some point, his wife was killed; Glass' son is a teenager and now his hunting partner, both working as guides for a group of trappers in the Dakotas. This kind of sets him apart from the rest of the men, and we get the feeling that he and his son are seen as hunters and guides, but not one of the group somehow.
What happens to Hugh Glass at the end of The Revenant?
There is no uplift for Hugh Glass as the fierce cold continues to rot his body and soul. There is only the sound of his breathing. That is because he does not die. Hugh Glass lives on in this perpetually unfair mortal coil while his wife, much like the indigenous people she represents, fades away.
How much was Leonardo DiCaprio paid for The Revenant?
DiCaprio's superstardom following Titanic ensured that his base paycheck jumped almost 10 times what he earned for Titanic in later years. As such, he was paid around USD 20 million per movie for films such as The Beach (2000), Blood Diamond, The Aviator, Catch Me If You Can, The Great Gatsby and The Revenant.
