One of the coolest shots in Joss Whedon's The Avengers is during the final battle when the camera zooms through the streets of New York City to find all of the members of the team working together to fight off the invading Chitauri forces. As awesome and beautiful as the shot is, however, it is obviously fabricated - but it's done in such a beautiful way that it just makes you wonder, "How the hell did they do that?" Well, the good folks over at Industrial Light and Magic are here to answer all of your pressing questions.
ILM has posted a very cool featurette on their YouTube page called "Behind the Magic: "Marvel's The Avengers" - Anatomy of a Shot" in which they deconstruct the action packed shot mentioned above. It's a through breakdown and provides some great insight into modern movie making. Check it out!
Obviously CGI has its issues and there are way too many films that abuse it, but this is an amazing example of how the technology moves the movie world forward. The final battle sequence in The Avengers would have been impossible without the work of digital artists and their work really should be appreciated.
While the company did work on the first two Iron Man movies, the next sequel, Iron Man 3, isn't listed among their in-production projects on their official website. That said, their work will be on display in multiple films next year, including G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Star Trek Into Darkness, Pacific Rim, and The Lone Ranger.
