Speaking to ScreenRant, Dykstra had the following to say about Sam Raimi, Matthew Vaughn, and the process of adapting panels from the actual comic books:
SR: Working on a film like X-Men: First Class that is built in a world not necessarily real, what do you do to bring a sort of reality to the supernatural effects?
JD: People often ask me, “What do I do to become a visual effects supervisor?” My response is to get out more. One of the problems is that I come from an era when we had to figure out how to bolt a camera to a motorcycle or an airplane or dig a hole and find a canyon deep enough to repel into it so that we can capture images that were real. Human beings are really attuned to their senses. When you work in film, you are working with the visual and audio senses. An understanding of tactile and other components that go into the creation of those objects are important to making them look real on screen, like a plasma of energy. For instance, in X-Men: First Class when Havok sprays his energy beams it wasn’t just about making a bright light that went from point A to point B. It was having that light in itself have a sort of body and complexity that defines the energy that he was projecting. Ultimately, what it comes down to is if you understand how the real world feels and looks and sounds it is much easier to create a virtual version of the real world.
SR: Did you even bother looking at the comics or were you basically working with the director on a vision of how it would be executed?
JD: We were more biased towards the director’s point of view, but we certainly referenced scrap from all the comic books. I have to admit I wasn’t an avid comic book reader, but between Matthew Vaughn and all of the people who worked with us, they all brought to the table images and ideas and story components that were part of the original X-Men comic books. I know Matthew was trying to be very true to the comic books. It was the same thing with Sam Raimi on the Spider-Man movies. He would constantly ask, “Is this going to work for the kids who read the comic books?” That’s critical with the source material. Bringing that to the big screen at least requires that you keep a component of that chord or you lose what the comic was about.
According to
ScreenRant, "
Dykstra said he assumes there will be some good featurettes on the X-Men: First Class DVD and Blu-ray, showcasing his work with the visual effects as they apparently shot plenty of B-roll. An 8-part behind-the-scenes special feature is apparently included, and should explore some of these techniques Dykstra discussed in the interview."
Be sure to head over to ScreenRant for the full interview as Dykstra has much more to share!
John Dykstra has been around for a while. His first big break was in 1977 when he worked as the Special Photographic Effects Supervisor on Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. Since then he has been a part of almost two dozen films, including Caddyshack, Spider-Man 1 & 2, Hancock, Inglourious Basterds and most recently, X-Men: First Class.
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