Dangerous Liaison
As visual effects supervisor at Renaissance Pictures, Harrison Ellenshaw acts as the liaison between the production and post-production departments of both Xena and Hercules, often a tricky task. The seasoned FX expert reveals to Joe Nazzaro the part he plays in bringing monsters and magic to life on screen.
Official Xena Magazine: Issue 07
While the wizards at Flat Earth are busy creating the computer-generated monsters for Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess, industry veteran Harrison Ellenshaw acts as visual FX supervisor at Renaissance Pictures head office in Los Angeles.
The son of Oscar-winning matte artist Peter Ellenshaw, Harrison used to spend his Saturdays watching his father painting glass shots on the Disney lot before becoming a matte painter himself. After working on such big-budget blockbusters as Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back and The Black Hole, Ellenshaw moved on to the task of visual FX supervising with the ground-breaking film Tron, eventually taking over the helm at Disney's Buena Vista visual effects department.
With nearly three decades’ worth of experience under his belt, one might think Ellenshaw was a tad overqualified to oversee the special effects on Hercules and Xena. But the opportunity was too good to pass up. “During my previous tenure at Disney, we dealt with film visual FX at that time,” Ellenshaw recalls, “and previous to that, I had been a visual FX supervisor and had always worked on film. So yes, it seemed a little bit odd to some people that I should go and do this. But the opportunity came up and they were looking for somebody to look after their visual FX on Xena and Hercules, primarily Xena, because they wanted to open the fifth season with a very FX-heavy show, which was Fallen Angel. They had just lost their visual FX person a few months earlier, and needed somebody, so I was put forth.”
Explaining his work as visual FX supervisor, Ellenshaw reveals that his responsibility is to help tell the story through the use of various elements that are added after an episode is shot. "That can be everything from a glow to an arrow flying, to adding wings to a person so that they can fly,” he remarks. “All those things basically fall under the heading of visual FX. What we keep our focus on is what is the intent of the scene, and how are we trying to help it along? Once we’ve decided that, we take it to somebody who can implement the technical tools to put it together.”
Ellenshaw actually shares supervising duties with George Port, his counterpart in New Zealand, where principal photography takes place. “After it’s photographed but before it's edited, it comes back up to us here in LA and we basically put it all together. We add music and sound and visual FX and cut it all together and add the titles, so it’s split very simply.
“The responsibility for a visual FX supervisor down there is to go to pre-production meetings and determine which shots will have visual FX added, and how the production should shoot them, to help us up here,” Ellenshaw explains. “When we get the ‘plates’ up here, which are the shots with the actors in them where we’re going to add a visual effect, they come to us and we look at them and say, 'Oh good, they shot it this way, or they tied off the camera here, which is what we wanted to see them do.’ If they didn't, I'd get on the phone to George and say, ‘We got a shot that was done this way, and that’s not helpful, so keep that in mind for the next time.’”
Ironically, after signing on as visual FX supervisor, Ellenshaw’s first job was to get on a plane for New Zealand for the filming of Xena's fifth-season opener, Fallen Angel. “George was on the case already, and they had done some decent preparation, so I was basically able to go in and put my blessing to it. I also did some sketches and paintings on my own to show them what this environment would look like, based upon what I had seen from Rob Gilles and the art department down in New Zealand, who had done an incredible job building these great looking sets. All I really had to do was provide a background and an environment for that.”
Featuring nearly 300 complicated FX shots, Fallen Angel turned out to be a massive piece of work for all involved. “The tough part was the creation in post-production of elements you didn't see in production,” notes Ellenshaw, “such as backgrounds, clouds and those tall rock formations that literally go up for miles. Those were all built as computer graphics in the computer, and then people were put into this environment after being shot against the blue screen. We had to get rid of the wires that may have been hanging them up, or the armatures that were manipulating their wings. We also had to make a decision whether to have real wings or if we would do them in computer after the fact, so we did a little of both.
“There were also long shots that have computer graphic angels in them, that were built in the computer,” he continues, “and those had to be added to the same kind of environment. On top of all that, it all had to match and have the same consistency. Anything that takes you out of the story is not a very good thing, so that's something that we really take into consideration. Generally, I was very pleased; I thought the guys at Flat Earth did an incredible job.”
Although Hercules recently wrapped after six successful seasons, the FX work on Xena has increased this season, averaging 40-50 shots an episode. “Following Fallen Angel and Them Bones, Them Bones,” Ellenshaw recalls, “we have a sea battle that's coming up, and a lot of somewhat unique FX in the episodes that took place in China. That made for a very different-looking show, both in terms of the fireballs and the FX that happen when they get into their fights.
“We’re now working on some shows that have different freeze-frame things where the people freeze and you still see the leaves and the wind blowing; you don't just lake the film and stop it. I’d say probably half the FX are reality-based and most people wouldn't notice them: crowd multiplication, armies of thousands made up of 50 extras, that kind of thing. The chakrams and the things that fly through the air are generally 3-D and have to be composited into the background. We did a show that takes place underwater and there’s some really neat stuff there, like walking through a membrane of water, a la The Phantom Menace, so there's a varied amount of things.”
With the better part of a season now under his belt. Harrison Ellenshaw feels he made the right career decision by signing on with the Xena family. “In almost 30 years in the business, I’ve never had this much fun!” he declares. “I'll stick around as long as they’ll have me!”