The Third Floor’s involvement in Sony’s Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire helped craft the film’s visual narrative and journey. Collaborating closely with Director Gil Kenan and VFX Supervisors Eric Brevig and Geoffrey Baumann, The Third Floor seamlessly integrated previs, techvis, and postvis to the production workflow to craft the filmmakers artistic vision.
New life was breathed into beloved entities like Slimer and the Mini-Pufts, while introducing mesmerizing new apparitions such as Pukey, the Possessor, and Garakka. Visualization Supervisor Justin Summers states “We worked closely with filmmakers, using previs as virtual sandbox to ideate upon the look and feel of multiple sequences and explore different angles, actions and gags. The previs acted as a shooting plan for production crew, to visually show how and where the action unfolds. Information such as staging, camera information and narrative of each shot and where it will fit in the sequence and story arc, is extremely beneficial for the production crew to know, especially as there were so many otherworldly creatures which would be added in post”.
Production plate photography ©SONY
Postvis: The hungry Slimer escapes the containment unit and seeks refuge in the Firehouse attic in search of food. ©SONY
Production plate photography ©SONY
Postvis: Mini-Pufts inflicting violence on themselves ©SONY
Previs: The entity Possessor, possesses a lion statue outside of NYC public library ©SONY
Production plate photography ©SONY
Postvis: The Possessor attempts to attack Ghostbuster veteran Ray Stantz ©SONY
Garraka, the malevolent antagonist of the film, harbors an age-old vendetta against humanity, driven by a desire to obliterate all life on Earth using the power of ice. Every entity unfortunate enough to cross paths with Garraka finds themselves succumbing to a frigid demise, frozen in the icy grip of their fate. Summers adds “Director Gil had a strong vision for the design of Garraka. We began with building a model based off of concept art and then further refining it in postvis. Through previs we also explored some different approaches to how Garraka might move, from movements fairly slow and spectral to more staccato and unearthly. As a foundation we took inspiration from the way Harryhausen animated, which translated very well into Garraka. This type of movement is seen most notably when Garraka appears in Nadeem’s apartment to reclaim its horns”.
Previs: Signifying the arrival of Garakka, NYC goes from a hot sunny day to Ice Storm ©SONY
PREVIS: Ghostbusters come face to face with the formidable force ©SONY
PREVIS: Garraka fights fire with ice and freezes over the Fire Masters initial attempt at battle ©SONY
Postivs was used extensively throughout the production. With filming split between a stage in the UK and select exterior shots captured on location in New York, Summers elaborates, “We were entrusted with seamlessly blending plates from distinct locations, each captured with varying lenses, while integrating our bespoke previs environment to augment the stage setting.”
Production plate photography ©SONY
POSTVIS: Set extension of the iconic Firehouse ©SONY
