Thor: Ragnarok might contain plenty of surprise celebrity cameos and Marvel Comics Easter eggs, but it also has a unique connection to one of Taika Waititi’s past film.
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Mild spoilers for Thor: Ragnarok below!
New York Times writer Dan Kois recently shared a bit of information that was cut from his profile on Ragnarok director Taika Waititi. As he revealed, the technology used to make the slo-mo flashback scene between Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and Hela (Cate Blanchett) came from a familiar place – Waititi’s What We Do in the Shadows co-star Stuart Rutherford.
It’s called DynamicLight, it’s brand new, co-developed by @stuetr, whom fans of WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS will know as everyone’s pal Stu pic.twitter.com/F3HxMWSamT
— Dan Kois (@dankois) October 20, 2017
As fans of Shadows will remember, Rutherford appeared in the film (as well as the original 2005 short film) as Stu, an unsuspecting friend of the film’s clique of vampires. While some have argued that Ragnarok has a direct Shadows reference (with Korg mentioning a trio of vampires), Rutherford’s contribution to the film was actually behind the scenes.
Rutherford went on to co-develop Ragnarok‘s slo-mo capture technology, which is called DynamicLight. The technology reportedly gives the ability to shoot at around 1,000 frames per second, largely thanks to a ring of lights that fire in a specified sequence.
Rutherford told Kois about his first day on Ragnarok‘s set, during which he was acquainted with the full scope of the Marvel Studios film.
“We [Rutherford and his co-developer Carlo Van de Roer] flew into the Brisbane airport at like 5 a.m. and went straight to the studios to check in and make sure our equipment was there and hadn’t broken or anything.” Rutherford recalled. “We ended up on the side of a shot going on, in one of the big studios, I think it was… Cate was there, Karl Urban was there. It was a massive shot.”
According to Rutherford, the process was a little daunting, and a prank pulled by Waititi didn’t seem to help.
“We’re kind of standing around waiting for our ten-person meeting, very nervous.” Robinson explained. “And I look down and there’s this laser light going around and around on my chest. And I’m like ‘Who’s messing around with the equipment?’ And I look around and Taika’s ducked behind a couch, pointing the laser at me.”
You can read Kois’ entire thread on Ragnarok‘s use of DynamicLight here.
Thor: Ragnarok is in theaters now.
