Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ Visual Effects Team Reveals Moments They’re Most Proud Of

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is now playing in theaters, and the project is the latest to have a Wētā FX team working behind the scenes. ComicBook recently had the chance to chat with Visual Effects Supervisor, Erik Winquist; VFX Producer Danielle Immerman; and Animation Supervisor, Paul Story. During the interview, the Wētā team members spoke about Owen Teague’s performance in the film and revealed how the previous trilogy helped the Kingdom production go more smoothly. We also asked Winquist, Immerman, and Story if there are any moments in the film they are especially proud of. 

“For me, you spend so long designing the character, designing the process, and ‘How is this all going work?’” Story began. “And for me, there’s sort of one shot that came together. It’s where Noa finds his dad and his eyes are welling up and he’s sort of sitting over him. That was one of those early shots where it’s like, ‘Yes, this is going to work, this is Noa.’ [Director Wes Ball] is on board and it’s just one of those moments where you think, ‘Yeah, it’s one of my favorite shots,’ because everything sort of just comes together, and it’s going to work.”

“A single shot, that’s a really hard one to put my finger on,” Winquist explained. “There’s so many moments that just blew my mind. There’s an early one when Noa wakes up from his dream when he’s at the campfire, and he first sees Eagle Sun sitting there on the branch. Just the reality, both of how well that matches and how well you can see Owen in that performance, but also just how tactile and real it looked. It was just… I had to take a moment just to acknowledge that at some point in dailies like, ‘Gang, let’s just look at this for a second. This is what we’re making together.’” 

“But on a more selfish note, one that I’m really proud of for different reasons is, there’s a shot you would’ve seen where the wave breaks over the rocks and we’re out on the sea, we’re looking back towards the beach … We knew we needed something to get us to the beach, but there was never really a plan formulated to make that, and so we kind of had to make that happen. And there was a drone shoot that didn’t quite get us what we needed for that one shot. And so two weeks later, my long-suffering wife, Rebecca, and I went back down to this beach on the southern end of New Zealand and I took my drone, and I shot that shot with just the two of us on this beach and now it’s on IMAX screens.”

“I’d say one of my favorite shots would be, I call it ‘the shower curtain shot,’ Immerman added. “It’s where Sylva walks through the waterfall and the water’s all coming off his face. I knew that that was, for an effects artist, that’s like the coolest shot to own. And the guy that worked on it, he worked on it for a very good amount of time, but because he cared about it and he knew how cool it was, and it was a moment when you see it and you go, ‘That’s cool.’ But, I mean, I love it all.” 

Stay tuned for more from our interview with the VFX team behind Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. You can learn more about Wētā FX here.