The monster that destroys New York City in Cloverfield, Paramount’s box office record-breaking movie in current release, was created by visual effects and animation company Tippett Studio. Tippett Studio’s team, helmed by visual effects supervisor Eric Leven and the creative leads Tom Gibbons, Chris Morely and Steve Reding, completed key dramatic and complex visual effects shots involving the monster and the deadly parasites, integrating them within photographic and digital environments.
Jules Roman, CEO of Tippett Studio, said, “The monster, which so far has been kept tightly under wraps by the filmmakers, is garnering praise from film critics and fans alike for its fearsome contribution of murder and mayhem to the movie. We’re very proud of this latest star in Tippett’s historic cast of creature characters.”
“We loved working on ‘Cloverfield’; it was a fantastic opportunity to breathe life into a monstrous 25-story character shown from a unique perspective,” adds Eric Leven. “An incredibly tight budget and deadline made the show challenging, but great collaboration with the director, producers, and J.J. made it a lot of fun, too. What boy doesn’t grow up wanting to make giant monster movies; smashing buildings, stomping on tanks, and blowing things up?”
Tippett’s crew was responsible for scenes including the carpet bombing of 10 blocks of Manhattan, an entire sequence – composited together to look like a single shot dedicated to the deadly parasites, digital rats and a full CG shot of the creature in all its glory lasting over 60 seconds. In order to feel like it was part of one continuous take, multiple shots were stitched together to give the movie the aesthetic feeling of found footage shot by an amateur.
Phil Tippett, visual effects pioneer and founder of Tippett Studio stated, “It’s about time. The planet earth can always use a good monster.”
Visit the company’s official website for more info.
