Andrew Becomes VFX Advisor for “CRASH”
C. Andrew Nelson has been tapped as a visual effects adviser for the film CRASH – The Life & Times of Ray “Crash” Corrigan. The feature, which is currently in development by indie mogul Craig Scott Lamb, tells the amazing and almost unbelievable true-life story of actor Ray “Crash” Corrigan. Corrigan was the star of numerous movie serials, westerns, and feature films all throughout the heyday of classic Hollywood. A larger than life character, Corrigan was friends with the likes of Clark Gable and was a much sought after stuntman and expert ape suit performer as well.
“The incredible challenge for a film like this,” says Nelson, “is that so much of the story takes place in and around Hollywood of the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s. Sadly, very little of that Hollywood still exists or if it does it doesn’t look quite the same. My job is to figure out how through today’s VFX technology we can recreate that Hollywood of yesteryear without it being obvious.”
Nelson says a project like this takes careful planning and lots of creativity. “Unlike a Transformers or Avengers movie where a good chunk of the box office draw is to see the effects, on a film like Crash we need to be very clever and very subtle. The effects are there only to support the story, not to be the star of it. All we want to do is recreate the time period in a totally believable way so that viewers immediately accept that they have been transported back to old Hollywood. The moment an audience is aware of the effects we’ve lost that audience. Our goal is to make it look like all we did was go on location and set up some cameras to shoot. If people leave the theater saying to themselves, ‘Hmm…I didn’t know that place was still around,’ then we’ve done our job right.”
Also on board for the project are Oscar winning make-up maestro Chris Walas and legendary ape suit expert Bob Burns. “It’s an honor to be working in such esteemed company as these guys and everyone involved in this film. We each watched a lot of Corrigan’s films growing up. Ray’s life story has never been told on film and it’s a story that needs to be told. We’re all very jazzed to be working on it.”
Check back here soon for more info on this terrific project.