PRECINCT 13 - PRWebww1.prweb.com/prfiles/2005/01/17/198788/MrXEffects...Jan 17, 2005 · create story-driven visual effects, as seen in Dawn of the Dead (2004) and Resident Evil:

Mr. X Inc. • www.mrxfx.com • 35 McCaul Street, Suite 303 • Toronto, Ontario M5T 1V7 Phone: (416) 595-6222 • Fax: (416) 595-9122 • E-mail: [email protected]

MR. X TAKES NO PRISONERS IN ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13!

Some Complain About the Weather – Mr. X Does Something About it

Toronto, Ontario. January 18, 2005 – Visual Effects studio Mr. X has turned Spring into

Winter – and provided 290 visual effects shots – for the highly anticipated 2005 action film

Assault on Precinct 13.

In this exciting remake of John Carpenter’s cult classic, Officer Jake Roenick (Ethan

Hawke) must cobble together a force made up of cops and criminals, trapped inside a soon-to-

be-closed police station on a snowy New Year’s Eve, to save themselves from a mob looking

to kill gangster Marion Bishop (Laurence Fishburne). Mr. X was charged with the formidable

task of helping to transform the entire setting of the film by applying brutal winter weather

conditions and raging blizzards.

“It is always exciting to have the opportunity work with great filmmakers and have our

work impact the very mood and feeling of a film,” comments VFX Supervisor Dennis

Berardi. “Much of Mr. X’s role on this picture was to provide greater scope to the fantastic

job the production team, as led by Paul Austerberry and Laird McMurray, did in building and

dressing the set. Our digital enhancements allowed for wider shots of the environment that

would be nearly impossible to dress.” Where production created the set, Mr. X helped to

establish the world by providing digital trees, buildings, skyline, snowdrifts, and falling snow

as the finishing touches. “The challenge is always to realistically integrate our work with the

practically shot elements – and in the larger sense, to create effects that have great impact but

at the same time don’t call attention to themselves.”

For Immediate Release – January 18, 2005 Contact: Angela Mitchell, (PR, Mr. X)

904.982.8043 (U.S.), [email protected]

Mr. X Effects Takes No Prisoners in Assault on Precinct 13 ! Page 2


To help establish a sense of desperation for the film’s protagonists, Director Jean-

François Richet wanted to convey a feeling of isolation for the precinct. In one particularly

ambitious shot, a virtual camera travels from an interior, second-story office of the Precinct,

and then far out the window and into the landscape of the gusting snowstorm, establishing the

remoteness of the precinct’s location in relation to the rest of civilization. Aside from the

interior shot of the office, all other elements in the shot are wholly CG, including buildings,

lampposts, terrain, roads, foliage, power lines, falling snow, the skyline, and more. “To achieve

the level of detail necessary for photorealism, parts of the CGI precinct, which would appear

very large on screen, needed to built, quite literally, brick by brick, on computer,” explains CG

Supervisor Kristy Blackwell. “Cracks, weather damage and other imperfections were

modeled into these CG bricks, and in order for the brick’s textures to hold up onscreen, the

source images used were at times up to 14K in size, seven times that of normal film

resolution.”

“The sudden blizzard is a major plot point in this film and becomes a character in and of

itself,” explains Aaron Weintraub, Compositing Supervisor. One of the more challenging

compositing effects was the creation of a “veil of snow,” using a combination of practically

shot elements and 3D particles in an effect that is subtly and gradually intensified throughout

the film until its exciting climax. 3D snow banks, debris, icicles, and (for close-up shots of the

actors outside) a visible breath element were also added in order to complete the winter effect.

Other visual effects included a wide variety of environment matte paintings and cityscapes,

shot and explosion enhancements, laser sights, sniper scope POV’s, and CG grenades, icicles,

swords, and snow. The Mr. X team was led by Visual Effects Supervisor Dennis Berardi,

along with CG Supervisor Kristy Blackwell and Compositing Supervisor Aaron

Weintraub, and used such tools as Maya, Renderman , and MentalRay for the 3D work, as

well as Shake, Flame, and Inferno for compositing.

Mr. X continues to build upon its successful track record of partnering with filmmakers to

create story-driven visual effects, as seen in Dawn of the Dead (2004) and Resident Evil:

Apocalypse, as well as dozens more.



Exciting upcoming projects for Mr. X include such anticipated titles as The Greatest

Game Ever Played and Ice Princess for Disney, A History of Violence for David

Cronenberg and New Line, and Where the Truth Lies for Atom Egoyan, among many

others.

About Assault on Precinct 13

Scheduled for U.S. release on January 19, and worldwide theatrical release on January 21,

2005, Assault on Precinct 13 is a suspense-filled remake of the 1976 John Carpenter film,

produced by Jeffrey Silver. Set in a soon-to-be-demolished police station on New Year's Eve,

the film tells the story of a small group of policemen and prisoners led by a jaded captain (Ethan

Hawke) who must form an unlikely alliance in order to prevent the staged riot and killing of an

infamous mobster (Laurence Fishburne) being held there. The cast also includes Maria Bello, Drea

de Matteo, John Leguizamo, Gabriel Byrne, Brian Dennehy, Ja Rule, and Matt Craven.

Who is Mr. X?

Bringing together a unique mix of artists, filmmakers, VFX supervisors, and programmers,

Mr. X specializes in partnering with filmmakers to provide story-driven visual enhancements.

The artists and creative minds at Mr. X are known for their superb, photo-realistic

achievements in CGI, their skills in digital matte painting, VFX compositing, and Post/VFX

supervision, as well as for their realistic digital creations of epic-scale and otherwise

impossible stunts. With a studio equipped with a rare mix of the latest imaging technologies,

the team at Mr. X is committed to pushing the limits of the digital realm, and in making the

impossible, possible.

With credits on dozens of distinguished projects including Resident Evil: Apocalypse,

Dawn of the Dead (2004), Wrong Turn, Blizzard, Ararat, The Sweet Hereafter and

many more, Mr. X helps to define the very look and feel of a film.

For more information on Mr. X , please visit their website at www.Mrxfx.com, or for

pictures or interviews, please contact Dennis Berardi at (416) 595-6222, or via e-mail at

[email protected] .



For public relations materials, bios, or further backgrounders, meanwhile, please contact

publicist Angela Mitchell at (904) 982-8043 or [email protected].

Note: For a complete list of Mr. X titles and credits on Assault on Precinct 13 , please refer

to the credits list to follow. Images from Assault on Precinct 13 are also attached – please do

not crop, and credit © 2005 Focus Features/Rogue Pictures whenever these images are

used for your story.

# # #



Digital Visual Effects by Mr. X Assault on Precinct 13 (2005)

Visual Effects Supervisor Dennis Berardi Visual Effects Sarah McMurdo Coordinator Dev Singh CG Supervisor Kristy Blackwell Compositing Aaron Weintraub Supervisors Noel Hooper VFX Compositors Rob Del Ciancio

Barb Benoit Kris Brockman

Bonnie Dickson Brian Lui

Bryan Jones Jef Lonn

Seth Martiniuk Vicki Silva Tamara Stone 3D Animators Aaron Pozzer Brian Anderson

Daniel Mizuguchi Hoa Tran Jeremy Dineen Karl Sisson Kyle Yoneda Matt Ralph Mike Mulock

Sean Cohen Shane Glading Operations Manager David Singer Tape Operators Mike Diltz Systems Administration Vladimir Popovic In-house Accountant Linda Rose Office Administrator Andreea Denes

# # #



Images, Mr. X and Assault on Precinct 13 Please feel free to use these logos and images when discussing our project:



Further Pictures and Logos (Before and After) 1. The shot before Mr. X’s Visual Effects bring the blizzard to Precinct 13

2. The same shot after Mr. X works its visual effects magic

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PRECINCT 13 - PRWebww1.prweb.com/prfiles/2005/01/17/198788/MrXEffects...Jan 17, 2005 · create story-driven visual effects, as seen in Dawn of the Dead (2004) and Resident Evil: