"This is a fascinating new application of an existing technology," Harlin says. "I created fully animated sequences to show people at every stage of the process -- for the budget, to the stunt men and effects people, to the actors and designers. It's an unbelievable tool and the implications for the way films — especially action and effects films — are made is really revolutionary."
After trying out different camera lenses and angles in the computer. filmmakers determined how each and every shot would be executed and divided the work accordingly. For example: Harlin wants to crash a race car into a wall, see it flip through the air and slide to a certain position on the track. The animatics rendering of the crash sequence is shown to Harlin's production team, which includes Jennings, director of photography Mauro Fiore, first assistant director Myron Hoffert, stunt coordinator Steve Lucescu, racing unit coordinator Steve Kelso and special effects coordinator Cohn Chilvers. Each department then explains what it can do safely.
Stunts and Racing: "We can drive right up to the wall, but we can't crash into the wall at that high a speed."
Special effects jumps in: "We can pick up the car from there and rig it to crash, but we can't guarantee it will flip the way you want it to flip."
Visual effects: "We can take the car from the crash and make it flip how you want it to flip and do anything else you want it to do."
"This was not only an efficient process. it was fun," Harlin recalls. it's creative and collaborative. And the results speak for themselves."
Key to many of these sequences is the creation of computer-generated models of the race cars. "What we've done is take a model of a real race car and sent it oft' to be 'digitized,' where the physical model is scanned into the computer," Jennings explains. "Next, we modify the computer image to add all the graphics and decals so it is an exact replica of the real car. Then we add the CGI car to live footage we've shot and animate it to move like a racecar.
Distinguishing live cars from digital ones became a bit of a contest between Harlin and his visual effects team. Jennings and his crew performed extensive tests with digital cars, mixing a CGI car in with four or five real cars, until they eventually stumped even Harlin. "They offered me $1,000 if I could pick out the CGI car and I guessed incorrectly three times." he said. "And the last time I was still guessing."
Harlin estimates that nearly seventy-five percent of his car sequences are real and the remainder are digitally created. "This film could be done completely practically, with no visual effects," Harlin says, "but our ability to digitally modify the action and cars enhances the live racing footage, allowing us to move the camera seamlessly and show you new things in new ways.
For example, Harlin applied the dazzling three-dimensional visual effects first introduced in feature films in "The Matrix" to various sequences in "Driven." Cinematographer Mauro Fiore notes there is an important difference between the way in which 'Driven" created its dynamic camera movement around slow-motion events and the techniques used in "The Matrix."
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