By CHRIS McGOWANImages courtesy of AppleTV+.After having worked together on two MCU Spider-Man movies Homecoming and Far From Home and having had a great time doing so, writer-director Jon Watts and VFX Supervisor Janek Sirrs teamed again on Wolfs, an action comedy in the fixer category that is light years away from the MCU. Regarding Watts, Sirrs recalls, I think I helped with his baptism of fire into the Marvel VFX world, so perhaps he felt he owed me one. Either way, I think we both have a similar dark sense of humor and an appreciation of the absurd. He probably thought I was a good fit for Wolfs given its black comedy undertones.Previously, Sirrs shared an Oscar for The Matrix as Associate Visual Effects Supervisor and shared nominations for Iron Man 2 and The Avengers as Visual Effects Supervisor. For The Matrix, I originally came on board to help out with a show that was already up and running, but the role dramatically expanded once I arrived on site, Sirrs says. On both of those Marvel shows I was the Overall Production Supervisor, [arriving] during early development stages, running all the way through until the last shots were delivered in post.Brad Pitt and George Clooney in the freezing cold of New York. Despite shooting in the middle of winter in New York, it only snowed about 30 minutes total, so, for consistency, nearly every shot with snow in the final movie has digital snow in the air and/or on the ground.Because we werent allowed to film on the real [Brooklyn] bridge itself, we recreated select limited portions a construction site at the base, a gangplank running through the arches, the catwalk above a cross street, the ladder that leads from the catwalk to the top and the roadway up top as partial set pieces surrounded by bluescreen that were then digitally extended. All these partial sets were built in the overflow parking lot at Six Flags Magic Mountain amusement park just north of Los Angeles [in Valencia].Janek Sirrs, Visual Effects SupervisorIn the Apple TV+ film Wolfs, two lone-wolf, super-efficient rival fixers (George Clooney and Brad Pitt) are called in separately to clean up the seemingly accidental death of a twenty-something man (the Kid) in a very high-end hotel room. The panicking guest is Margaret, a Manhattan district attorney (Amy Ryan) who fears a huge scandal and has contacted an unnamed fixer, identified later only as Margarets man (Clooney), to cover things up. Meanwhile, Pam (the owner of the hotel, voiced by Frances McDormand) has viewed everything through hidden cameras and called in another fixer, referred to as Pams man (Pitt), to tidy up.The film relied solely on storyboards, many of them mocked up by director Jon Watts using a 3D storyboarding program called Frameforge.Most reluctantly, the two professionals are compelled to join forces despite their egos and bickering. (Clooney and Pitt previously worked together on the Oceans trilogy.) Complicating matters further, the Kid (Austin Abrams) was carrying a backpack full of drugs that belongs to the Albanian mafia. Plus, the Kid wasnt actually dead; he was merely overdosing. After waking up, he escapes, clad only in his underwear, and Jack and Nick must chase him down freezing New York City streets. To clean up a mess that just keeps growing, Jack and Nick must also deal with various unexpected factors such as when they get sidetracked by a Slavic kolo dance at a wedding and are recognized by Dimitri, a Croatian mobster (Zlatko Buric). The cast also includes June (Poorna Jagannathan) and the Kids dad, Richard Kind.In addition to writer/director Watts, the production included Larkin Seiple (Cinematography), Jade Healy (Production Design), Andrew Max Cahn (Supervising Art Director), and Conrad V. Brink Jr. and Elia P. Popov (Special Effects Supervisors). Plan B Entertainment and Smokehouse Pictures co-produced with Apple, which has signed Watts to direct, write and produce a Wolfs sequel.Clooney and Pitt talk to blood-covered (Amy Ryan). Interiors were mostly a stage build shot at the Ace Mission Studios in downtown Los Angeles.We had originally thought that the car-flipping moment would be the trickiest, requiring more extensive digi-double work than we ultimately needed. What saved us from uncanny valley hell was deciding early on that wed never need to show the entire stunt in one unbroken moment and could split it into several smaller, more manageable chunks. Added into the mix was Austin [Abrams] game-for-anything attitude, which meant that we never had to deal with any sort of digital face replacements.Janek Sirrs, Visual Effects SupervisorThe primary vendors that handled the bigger scenes were Framestore and beloFX. Framestore essentially did the major stuff in the first half of the movie, while beloFX focused on the latter half. Capital T took care of all the other miscellaneous smaller FX across the whole picture. Rodeo FX was also brought in to specifically handle the final diner scene, Sirrs explains. No previs was done on show at all. Instead, we went all primitive and relied solely on good old-fashioned storyboards. Director Jon Watts actually mocked up many of his own boards himself, using a 3D storyboarding program called Frameforge.Pitt and Clooney threaten the Kid (Austin Adams on the bed) to find out the origin of the stolen drugs in his backpack. In Wolfs, two lone-wolf rival fixers (Clooney and Pitt) are called in separately to clean up the seemingly accidental death of the Kid in an upscale hotel.Exteriors, except for the final warehouse shoot-out and the Brooklyn Bridge partial set work, were filmed on location in New York, which meant a series of long, cold winter nights running around Chinatown and parts of Queens and Brooklyn, Sirrs recalls. The warehouse exteriors were filmed in the thankfully much warmer warehouse district just east of downtown Los Angeles. And the ensuing warehouse interior action was shot in one of those warehouses. Pretty much every other interior was a stage build shot at the Ace Mission Studios in downtown Los Angeles.Bluescreen was used for the Brooklyn Bridge portion of the chase sequence. Sirrs explains, Because we werent allowed to film on the real bridge itself, we recreated select limited portions a construction site at the base, a gangplank running through the arches, the catwalk above a cross street, the ladder that leads from the catwalk to the top and the roadway up top as partial set pieces surrounded by bluescreen that were then digitally extended. All these partial sets were built in the overflow parking lot at Six Flags Magic Mountain amusement park just north of Los Angeles [in Valencia]. This meant we could have real cars driving through the upper roadway set. Sirrs adds, The obvious big VFX scenes were the chase through Chinatown and the immediately following Brooklyn Bridge action. But the shoot-out outside the warehouse is pretty much 100% VFX-enhanced in terms of the weather conditions. We did utilize LED projection for the various car interior driving scenes, but only as simple flat screens projecting process plate, not any sort of 3D volume.Pitt and Clooney threaten each other in the wedding party scene where they are recognized by Croatian mobster (Zlatko Buri) surrounded by cameras, lighting and sound equipment in a behind-the-scenes shot.The Brooklyn Bridge action and surrounding driving scenes were probably the most complicated scenes of the film, logistically. Stunt driving in New York is very restrictive these days, with essentially all vehicles having to follow the normal flow of traffic and not exceed posted speed limits. Taken together, that makes constructing a high-speed chase scene a little bit challenging. The final result relied upon a combination of practical stunt driving and digital vehicles for the faster, more extreme moments, Sirrs explains.Stunt driving in New York is very restrictive these days, with essentially all vehicles having to follow the normal flow of traffic and not exceed posted speed limits. Taken together, that makes constructing a high-speed chase scene a little bit challenging. The final result relied upon a combination of practical stunt driving and digital vehicles for the faster, more extreme moments.Janek Sirrs, Visual Effects SupervisorSnow, both falling and settled on the ground, was an invisible effects challenge. Despite shooting in the middle of winter in New York, it only snowed for real for a duration of about 30 minutes total, Sirrs notes. Shooting permits only allowed SPFX-crushed ice to be put down on sidewalks, not on the streets themselves, and wind conditions in the street made using SPFX foam snow towers erratic at best. So, we really didnt capture the desired weather look in-camera. In the final movie, nearly every shot that you can see snow in has a healthy dose of digital falling snow and/or digital snow ground cover. Snow accumulation also had to track across the entire picture, starting from clear to a more winter wonderland look by the time we reach the climactic shoot-out.The Kid (Austin Abrams) executes a flawless flip over a moving car, with the help of one digi-double shot, bluescreen, a buck and wires and Abramss game stunt work.Director Jon Watts consults with Pitt and Clooney, who previously worked together on the Oceans trilogy. Exteriors, except for the final warehouse shoot-out and the Brooklyn Bridge partial set work, were filmed on location in New York. The final shoot-out and warehouse exteriors were shot in Los Angeles.Behind the scenes on Wolfs with writer/director Jon Watts, a veteran director of films in the MCU, including three Spider-Man films.The scene of the Kid leaping and flipping over a car was a particular challenge and involved VFX and Austin Abrams doing his own stunt work. With the exception of one digi-double shot, everything is ultra-high-speed composites of Austin on a bluescreen stage being hit with a soft foam, blue, car-shaped buck and flipped on wires, combined with plates of the real car driving slowly through the Chinatown street location, Sirrs describes. On stage, we could light Austin brightly enough to shoot at roughly 1,000 fps, but on location we were limited by how much light we could physically cast onto the street, and so we had fake slow motion by shooting at 24 fps and driving very slowly. Adding slow-motion digital falling snow atop everything was the final step in selling the frame-rate trickery. We had originally thought that the car-flipping moment would be the trickiest, requiring more extensive digi-double work than we ultimately needed. What saved us from uncanny valley hell was deciding early on that wed never need to show the entire stunt in one unbroken moment and could split it into several smaller, more manageable chunks. Added into the mix was Austins game-for-anything attitude, which meant that we never had to deal with any sort of digital face replacements.The most satisfying VFX scene for Sirrs was the Kid flipping over a car for sheer comic value. Abrams endured a great deal to make the scene work. Sirrs comments, If it wasnt bad enough that we forced Austin to run around the freezing Chinatown streets at night completely exposed to the elements, we then added insult to injury by running him down with a car.