‘Holdovers’ Visual Effects Team On the Unexpected Moments Supported By VFX

Editor’s Note: This article focuses on the work provided by the visual effects team on Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers. It does not intend to diminish the efforts of other departments also contributing to the excellent film. That includes the work of the special effects crew who provided the bulk of the snow for the film. Adam Bellao (Special Effects Supervisor) and team hauled over 500 tons of snow to dress sets each day and create the visual atmosphere required for the film. The visual effects team interviewed here evened out snow coverage when the shoot encountered warmer weather. Filmmaking is a collaborative effort, and Awards Daily highly values all departments contributing to the success of a film like The Holdovers. 

Matt Akey (VFX Executive Producer), Andy Chang (VFX Supervisor), and Nico Del Giudice (On-Set & VFX Supervisor) created the special effects in Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers. On the surface, the Academy Award-nominated film looks like it contains all practical shots when, in reality, it boasts many seamlessly inserted effects that aid in the overall storytelling. Their work included creating a harsher looking winter as well as removing newer buildings and cars that take away from the film’s 1970s aesthetic. They also share how Alexander Payne’s clear directorial vision made the whole job easier.

Awards Daily: In looking at the clips of the scenes you worked on, there was some snow on the ground in some of the scenes. How did snow already being there help or perhaps make your work harder?

Nico Del Giudice: I joined with the text scout in pre-production and everyone was hoping for the best and looking at the weather apps every day and hoping for a storm and there would be practical snow. So when there was practical snow it was great but when it wasn’t you had to lay out some snow blankets that would cast practical light from the sun onto the actors, which is great for natural lighting when recreating on the actors.

Andy Chang: Yes, some of the plates were shot when there was little to no snow, and in some shots, white polystyrene sheeting was added on the set. This isn’t just to complicate our work; it’s actually beneficial because it serves as a reference for white balance and lighting, which is essential when we recreate the snow on top of it. This approach helps us accurately determine the color and shadows of the white snow under different lighting conditions.

Matt Akey: it was kind of an interesting ebb and flow weather-wise. They wanted to utilize naturalism and everything in-camera as possible. Not even using snow blankets because they had the assumption based on the weather. When Nico was there though they needed more and got more and then in a couple of weeks it was melting. They sent me pictures they were shooting and the whole thing was a white-out (which you can see in some of the shots). Then a line producer, who was a friend of mine, called and said they had a problem that everything melted off today. There was no way to blanket and create enough to match the last couple of week’s exteriors of the school.

This was going to become a bigger deal and so I flew up about two days later and they were getting ready to do some of the establishing shots. You see in our breakdown and in the movie there’s the scene where all the kids are starting to go home for break. And the lead actor is on the porch looking out over the bus, looking at the parents pulling up. That was the first day after the melt off, so before everything was white on that lawn and our job was to make it exactly the same. We had sky and cloud work and, of course, the lawn. Alexander even wanted smaller pieces like mail boxes, gates, or signs. Things that would have touches of snow on the top of them. Little details of making it look like it had been snowing all night and no one had touched it.

Awards Daily: So one scene I am curious about is when Paul Giamatti is pulling the football out of the snow and throwing it. He looks like he is really digging through snow. Was that real or you guys?

Andy Chang: The snow seen in that shot is entirely real, captured in-camera.

Matt Akey: We didn’t have to do a lot when Paul was knee deep in the snow. The one scene where there was some interaction we had to match as to if it was practical when the kids all run down to the river bed and one kid bullies another and throws his hat or glove in the river. That whole scene we added snow to the dock, as his feet are interacting with it. We also added a ton to the trees because everything felt like spring after the melt-off and they wanted it to feel deep in winter. So there was the interaction with the character in the snow and some 3D work creating ground planes and adding trees. A lot of it was, there is something here and we are adding to it. We talked a lot about the snow, but one of my favorite parts of how our team creativity came around was that Alexander and his team were big on historical authenticity.

There were some exteriors of Boston, both neighborhoods and parking lots, and Alexander would ask, what would that parking lot have looked like? What kind of painted lines would there have been for parking stalls? What kind of signage and flashing walk or don’t walk lights would there have been? In addition to the snow work and making things look a little more grungy and dirty to give it that post-snow slush of a city after a snowfall look, we did a lot of work with the production design to do reference imagery and digitally enhanced where it needed to be authentic. A lot of invisible work was taking new thermostats off walls and putting old ones on. Removing cameras and monitors off the campus scenes since it is a working school.

Specifically, there was one shot where it is part of the montage when Paul is driving the kid to Boston and they’re on the expressway and you can see across the bay the Boston skyline. Alexander didn’t just want to get rid of new buildings, he wanted to know what would have been there and find it for the shot. So we got to be part of that and we had to do a lot of research, pulling up a lot of archival images–looking at satellite images from Google Earth now–and then being able to present to Alexander Payne what it would have looked like then. Once he saw that’s what it would have been he loved it and we went with that.

Awards Daily: Making it snow looked like a huge part of your work. How did you decide on the movement and style of it?

Andy Chang: Making the snow appear in our shots was a significant part of our work. To decide on its movement and style, we studied non-VFX shots from the same sequence, which fortunately had some naturally occurring snow on different days. This gave us insights into the true physics of snow movement. For unique shots, we designed the snow’s appearance based on our understanding of the film’s timing, and then presented these ideas to Alexander Payne for his feedback. For environmental shots without snow, we first created the scene, added wetness to the ground, and simulated snow accumulation on trees, rocks, and roadsides. We then relied on Alexander Payne’s direction to adjust the snow levels, ensuring they were neither too much nor too little for the film’s cut.

Nico Del Giudice: Alexander was very specific on the falling snow; it was really just getting through different iterations and versions. It really was just getting out as many versions as we could. Just being specific about the look of one shot and distributing it to other shots.

Awards Daily: The film is famous for having a feel of a 1970s film in its visual video style. How did that style affect your guys’ work?

Nico Del Giudice: Alexander lived through a portion of this time and was able to recall things from his memory, his exact experiences, like how televisions looked at the time, the look for that was very specific. Another example is the scene where they go into the movie theater, how the films displayed on those screens, and get authentic projectors. Also the aesthetic for certain buildings. We had to paint out modern pieces on them. Then there are scenes where we’ve got vehicles that are accurate and then you get a modern Toyota Camry driving through and those would have to be painted out as well. We just wanted to live up to Alexander’s vision for that historical time period. He was pretty specific about those details.

Andy Chang: From the early stages, Alexander Payne and the colorist focused on developing the film’s visual style. Color grading was a key part of this process, along with the addition of heavy film grain to the final scenes. These elements contributed significantly to achieving the 1970s film look that Alexander was aiming for, effectively capturing the style he envisioned.

Awards Daily: You have both touched on this, but what was the discussion with Alexander Payne about what he was looking for in the film? It sounds like he was very involved in the look of almost everything.

Nico Del Giudice: Yeah, it was one of those things. As soon as I met Alexander I knew that he had a vision and an idea of what exactly it should look like. It was really nice going in as the supervisor because there is little guesswork involved. Honestly, the words just come right off the page, and knowing Alexander’s films you just totally get his style. Alexander knew what he wanted, every location that we went to he was, like, I see this. The production designer had a great vision as well; it was a collaboration definitely between all the departments. When you are following a director who has a vision and knows what he wants, it makes things a lot easier as opposed to doing the guesswork.

Andy Chang: From the outset, Alexander Payne expressed his desire to add snow to various scenes, entrusting us with the initial design of its appearance. We then collaborated closely to fine-tune the snow’s look in different scenes. His involvement was crucial in determining the snow’s appearance throughout the project. For final approvals, Alexander Payne personally attended screenings at our Los Angeles office to review the shots, visiting as many times as necessary.

Awards Daily: In making all the ice and snow it is so seamless on the sets that I just assumed were real. How does doing a project like this compare to something where special effects are more “in your face”?

Nico Del Giudice: To be honest, I think a lot of people have issues or discontent with more visual effects-heavy films where it stands out, outside of some niche projects and superhero films. There is this whole other side to visual effects that has this seamless approach where nobody ever sees it. It is great, being an unsung hero in a giant project. I love seamless visual effects. I think that it’s an art form in and of itself. This perfect film where you want to honor their vision and make it as seamless as possible. For a lot of seamless visual effects, nothing extremely stands out. Paul’s eye had that contact lens in it, and there was paint out to make sure we don’t see the iris and the pupil through that contact lens. Or when the boy is crying in the bed, adding snot or adding tears. There is certain cosmetic work that happens. The prosthetic that Dominic Seesa wore for his dislocated shoulder, and just taking the highlight off the shoulder prosthetic and making it look a little more skin toned. These are all just seamless visual effects that people wouldn’t think, “Hey, that’s visual effects!”

Andy Chang: This project centered on creating believable and realistic snow. Our focus was on matching the digital snow to the real snow in non-VFX shots, blending them seamlessly. The outcome of this integration worked quite well, resulting in a convincing and seamless snowy environment.

Awards Daily: What can you tell us about Crafty Apes, your company?

Matt Akey: We are a full service visual effects and design company. We are around 400 people in North America and the UK at the moment. We do on-set consultation for visual effects work, collaborating with filmmakers. We go through the whole production in case anything needs to be added digitally.

Awards Daily:  Is there any other aspect that you guys think I missed that was interesting or important to you?

Matt Akey: I think the main focal point for us is to collaborate with auteurs and filmmakers that are passionate about integrating special effects as part of the production design process all the way through the film. We do anything from small removals on a cop show to inserting screens to create a whole new environment. We do creature work as well having done work with both Marvel and DC. But the most exciting work is working with filmmakers who want us to help create photorealism and invisible visual effects. Last year we got to work with Meg Ryan and the director on her film What Happens Later, doing similar work and some fantasy work in that film. We are working with Jason Reitman right now, we worked with Theodore Melfi on Hidden Figures, and Damien Chazelle on La La Land. Those kinds of collaborations bring us lots of joy (all of our clients are great), but the ones that come in that say, Hey, we have a vision for this, help us design this in a way that we see or we don’t see everything that we’re going to shoot in-camera.

At the end of the day the greatest compliment we get in these collaborations is what Alexander told us at the end of The Holdovers at the wrap party: “I know there are a few hundred shots here and no one will know that you were here.” That is everything I could have asked, to make it authentic with some of the challenges the production posed with the weather and beyond that. Our whole thing is filmmaker-friendly, creative sandbox, and looking five movies down the road at how we can be their partners for all the different genres that they are working on.

Andy Chang: We are immensely proud of the work we accomplished together and are gratified by the positive reception it has received. Collaborating with Alexander Payne was not only a professional highlight but also a source of personal joy. It’s noteworthy that Alexander Payne personally reached out to me to express his appreciation for our work on The Holdovers: “I will remain forever grateful for your beautiful work on The Holdovers, and I hope you and your team can feel some pride and ownership in the largely positive response it’s getting. I really loved working with you all and send my warmest regards (and holiday regards) your way.”