After a lifetime of loving and appreciating movies and over a decade-and-a-half of professionally writing about them, I'm still utterly wowed by their magic. In order to achieve a proper effect or look, filmmakers come up with some weird and ingenious solutions, and I'll never stop being dazzled when I learn about the ways that ideas are brought to life on the big screen. This story about how a wave of Astrophage is depicted in the new blockbuster Project Hail Mary is an absolutely perfect example.
The official IMAX Instagram account has posted a video of directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller commenting on a particularly stunning moment in their latest big screen feature, and their description of how it all came together is amazing. The scene in question is when Ryan Gosling's Ryland Grace is doing an EVA while the Hail Mary is in the middle of a Petrova Line, and we see Astrophage represented as swirling, pink points of light all around him. It's a cinematic image that drops your jaw… and Miller's description of how the effect was created is utterly delightful. Said the filmmaker,
