American in Spain

A Moment in Time at IWUS Headquarters

April 20, 2009

This video represents a snapshot of what it's like at the IWUS International Headquarters all the time.

I have a mostly passive interest in film making, and particularly the art of special effects. I know how they did the time freezing effect in _The Matrix_– which is ten years old, by the way – and I know how they do the virtual camera flying through small spaces first seen in Fight Club and made ubiquitous by CSI. But for the life of me, I cannot figure out how this film was made. Computer rendering, particularly of humans, is not yet (I think!) to the level of detail exhibited in this video. They can't be using a morph between multiple cameras, like The Matrix, because the camera pans around to show where it has already been. Not to mention, there's no way you could time such a moment with so many actors so perfectly. Does anyone know how this was done? In the absence of any more clues, I'd have to conclude that the entire thing is a computer model....which would be truly astounding.