MPC complete effects on 'Colosseum - Rome’s Arena of Death'

MPC created the digital visual effects for BBC One’s forthcoming landmark history documentary, 'Colosseum-Rome’s Arena of Death', which is to air in October 2003.
This prime-time one-hour documentary for BBC Specialist Factual, co-produced with BBC Worldwide, is directed by Tilman Remme, (The Making of Adolf Hitler, Battle for Berlin, Nazis - A Warning from History).
The programme throws new light on the way gladiators fought and trained and reveals how many of them were the super-stars of their age. It revolves around the true story of Verus, who rises from slave to star gladiator, but then faces the ultimate challenge. The film also explores the building of the Colosseum, where gladiators thrilled and titillated the 55,000 spectators in the most violent and deadly spectator sport in history.
MPC’s VFX Supervisor, John Leonti, attended the five week shoot in Tunisia, before overseeing a post production team during a three month period. One of the key effects required was crowd replication – both for the spectators inside the Colosseum and for marching armies. Several techniques were used to create the crowd replication. One was to shoot 150 extras in camera in the Tunisian arena. Another was to use in-house proprietary software to generate the 55,000 strong crowd. These elements were then composited together in Shake.
The scenes that show the building of the Colosseum were created using a mix of live action, 3D geometry and matte paintings. The Tunisian auditorium only provided the lower seating tiers, so the tiers above this were created using a 3D model built in Maya, which was used as a basis for a matte painting. Crowd replication was then added to this.
Other matte painting effects created by MPC included the big vistas overlooking Rome, street extensions and Rome burning – for which live action flames and smoke were also added.
For the gladiator scenes with the lions, just one lion was shot live action in Tunisia. Different takes of the lion were seamlessly composited together in Shake, giving the impression of numerous lions roaming menacingly around the arena.
“Working with John Leonti and MPC was a real pleasure,” commented director Tilman Remme, “We greatly benefited from the team’s experience and creative input - they became an integral part of the production team. I am delighted with the shots that MPC produced.”
(GB)