CGNews takes a closer look at VES Awards nominee ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’. Each year the VES Awards recognize outstanding visual effects within film, animation, television, commercials and video games. The nominees for the 7th annual VES Awards were chosen earlier this month by panels of VES members who viewed submissions at the FotoKem screening facilities in Burbank.

Over the next two weeks CGNews will feature each film nominated within the ‘Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Motion Picture’ category. The films nominated in this category are: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Chronicles of Narnia – Prince Caspian, Hellboy II – The Golden Army, Cloverfield and Iron Man.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
‘I was born under unusual circumstances’ …… And so begins ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’, adapted from the 1920 story by F. Scott Fitzgerald about a man who is born in his eighties and ages backwards. A man, like any of us, unable to stop time.

The film begins in 2005: an elderly lady on her deathbed tells her daughter the story of a blind clockmaker named Gateau, who was once commissioned to make a majestic clock for the main train station in the city of New Orleans.

Whilst working on the clock, Gateau received the terrible news that his son had died fighting in World War I. In a desperate hope that the clock could help bring back those who had died in the war, Gateau continued work on his clock, and intentionally designed it to run backward.

‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’, takes the viewer from moments at the end of World War I in 1918 and on into the 21st century; and follows the life journey of Benjamin Button that is as unusual as any man life can be’s.

Directed by David Fincher, ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’, is a ‘time traveller tale of the people and places he bumps into along the way, the loves he loses and finds, the joys of life and his sadness of death, and what lasts beyond time.’

The film required extensive post production work to create the visual effects for the metamorphosis of the character of Benjamin Button from old man to infant. The director used a camera system called Contour developed by Steve Perlman to capture facial deformation data from live action performances.

‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ has also been nominated for 13 Oscars and 11 Baftas in 2009.

CAST
Brad Pitt as Benjamin Button
Spencer Daniels as Benjamin Button age 12
Cate Blanchett as Daisy Fuller – adult
Elle Fanning as Daisy Fuller – age 6
Madisen Beaty as Daisy Fuller – age 11
Taraji P. Henson as Queenie
Julia Ormond as Caroline
Jason Flemyng as Thomas Button
Mahershalalhashbaz Ali as Tizzy
Jared Harris as Captain Mike
Elias Koteas as Monsieur Gateau
Ed Metzger as Theodore Roosevelt
Phyllis Somerville as Grandma Fuller
Josh Stewart as Pleasant Curtis
Tilda Swinton as Elizabeth Abbott

CREDITS
Directed by : David Fincher
Produced by : Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, Ray Stark
Written by : Eric Roth
Music by : Alexandre Desplat
Cinematography: Claudio Miranda
Editing by : Kirk Baxter, Angus Wall

The Visual Effects Society (VES)
is the entertainment industry’s only organization representing the full breadth of visual effects practitioners including artists, technologists, model makers, educators, studio leaders, supervisors, PR/marketing specialists and producers in all areas of entertainment from film, television and commercials to music videos and games. Comprised of a diverse group of more than 1,600 members in 17 countries, the VES strives to enrich and educate its own members and members of the entertainment community at large through a multitude of domestic and international events, screenings and programs.

The 7th VES Awards will take place on 21 February 2009 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, CA.

Related Links
www.visualeffectssociety.com

www.benjaminbutton.com