There’s something extraordinary about finding a way to visualise someone’s wildest imaginations. This is especially true when taking a fantasy book and adapting it to the big screen.
Sebastian Reichhold, an FX technical director with the London-based studio One of US, had to figure out how to make the impossible possible for Disney’s 2018 fantasy film A Wrinkle in Time.
“There’s a particular effect that goes throughout the movie. It was a distortion of reality, because the characters travel through the fifth dimension through time and space, and we had to visualise that,” said Reichhold at the Sharjah International Children’s Film Festival (SICFF).
“First, we were stunned, like, what? We came up with some ideas working closely with the director, and we found a way,” he added.
For Reichhold, who is specialised in dynamic simulations, fantasy has always been an important genre. His credits include Star Trek: Beyond and three episodes of Game of Thrones.
“It is part of the reason I’m doing what I’m doing. The new technology age is very important to me, because we are able to create almost every imagination we could possibly have in our heads. We can create worlds,” he said.
The film series Lord of the Rings, adapted to screen from the works of JRR Tolkien, has been the most formative piece of media for him.
“No questions asked. I cannot tell you exactly why, but I was always interested in medieval fantasy worlds — I think that’s because of the strong medieval background in the Western world,” he said.
Fittingly, Reichhold is now working on the upcoming biopic film Tolkien, about the life and times of the late English author. The film stars Nicholas Hoult.
