When Bond wasn’t blonde yet: Pierce Brosnan not only drank martinis during his time as 007, he also went kitesurfing. (brava_67/Flickr; Jens; Natalia80/Adobe Stock)
One of the most popular film series has nothing to do with superheroes, but rather with a secret agent in the service of His Majesty. We are of course talking about James Bond alias 007.
Now it’s on 007.com an interview with visual effects specialist Mara Bryan published. The woman worked on all four James Bond films with Pierce Brosnan as visual effects boss. Also in the last Bond film to date No Time To Die
she was involved.
In the conversation, she chats about the challenges she and her team have faced over the years. One of the biggest has to do with an iconic kitesurfing scene from a film that’s over 20 years old.
But let’s start with the first Bond film with Pierce Brosnan…
GoldenEye and Die Another Day: cliff jumping, invisible Aston Martins and tsunami surfing
In modern blockbuster films, computer-generated effects are ubiquitous. An important milestone was the first Jurassic Park film from 1993 with 60 VFX shots. Current major Hollywood productions such as Avengers: Infinity War or the second Avatar film have around 3,000 VFX shots.
▶ GoldenEye: When GoldenEye, the first Bond with Pierce Brosnan as 007, appeared in 1995, visual effects were still comparatively young. The budget and number of visual effects were correspondingly clear. Bryan says:
»I started with a budget of around £40,000 (over $45,000) for a few optical effects and gradually had to fight for the budget, around 150-160 shots [für GoldenEye] to make it digital.”
The latest Bond film No Time To Die
starring Daniel Craig had 1,486 VFX shots
When asked which shots posed the biggest challenges for GoldenEye, she answers:
»As Bond falls over the edge of the cliff in the Pilatus PC-6 (a plane). We could do that much better now, almost 30 years later. Also the sequence where Bond is hanging on the satellite dish in Arecibo. That was difficult because there were so many [Aufnahmen] of it.”
See the two scenes from the cliff jump and satellite dish below.
Link to YouTube content
Link to YouTube content
▶ Die Another Day: The last Bond film with Pierce Brosnan was Die Another Day
from 2002. One of the shots that gave Bryan sleepless nights during this production is the kitesurfing scene. She says:
“I’m not sure if they [die Kitesurfing-Aufnahmen] have worked. […] I think we were too ambitious. I’m not sure we approached the concept of kitesurfing properly, especially given the limits of technology at the time.«
The video right here below shows the scene Bryan mentioned.
Link to YouTube content
One of the most difficult things about visual effects: water. Similar to the current Godzilla film from Japan, water simulation in the kitesurfing scene posed a particular challenge. Bryan explains further:
»[…] digital water simulations were still very new. The software for this was still very immature. To create the water effects, custom computer code had to be written. «
The recording off Die Another Day
which Bryan is particularly proud of, has to do with the unseen Aston Martin from the film.
»I thought the invisible Aston Martin was very successful. Whether you like the idea or not is another matter, but I thought we pulled it off pretty well. […] We looked into military technology. We also installed LED screens on the side of the vehicle. The LED screens projected what was on the opposite side of the vehicle.
Link to YouTube content
▶ No Time to Die – No time to die: Finally, what the latest Bond film No Time To Die
From 2021, Bryan highlights the demanding work on the car sequence in the Italian city of Matera.
»[…] Matera was of course a big deal when it comes to practical effects. But there were also a lot of digital effects. We had CG versions of all the cars and the little bombs that came out of them. We added tire tracks everywhere and retouched the film crew. If the Aston Martin was a stunt car, we had to remove the stunt driver.”
See the corresponding scene in the YouTube video.
Link to YouTube content
In addition to Bond films, Mara Bryan has also worked on blockbuster films such as James Cameron’s first Avatar film, the modern science fiction classic District 9 and the video game adaptation Tomb Raider with Angelina Jolie. It remains to be seen what visual treats the visual effects of the next 007 film will have.
Apropos Visual Effects: Fans are disappointed: Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer comes away empty-handed at the Visual Effects Oscars
What do you all mean? Can the effects from the Bond films of the 90s and early 00s still keep up with current visual power? Do you still find the trickery from almost 30 years ago impressive, or do the sometimes outdated effects take you out of the film’s plot? Whatever your opinion is, please write it to us in the comments below.
