When it comes to monster movies, it's generally the monsters that get all the attention. But in the case of Cloverfield, the creature team at Tippett Studio got a big assist from the crew at Double Negative, which handled more or less every VFX shot in the film that didn't involve the monster itself. That meant collapsing the Brooklyn Bridge, sending the head of the Statue of Liberty rolling down a city street, and creating the rooftop environs of a ruined apartment building, complete with a purloined view of Manhattan from exactly the right camera angle. (Scroll down to the very end of the story to read about the VFX team's stealth operation in a posh midtown hotel.) In each of those memorable scenes, it was Double Negative that created the credible environment for the Cloverfield creature to run rampant through. We got VFX supervisor Mike Ellis and CG supervisor David Vickery on the phone to walk us through their work on the picture.
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