The Instigators

For the city hall heist sequence in The Instigators, we were tasked with creating the water effects for a scene where our crew, disguised as firefighters, triggers the fire alarm to gain access to Boston's city hall. While production was allowed to film inside the building, they weren't given permission to flood it. All the water from the fire suppression system to the mist in the air and the water seeping down the walls had to be created using visual effects.

To ensure the actors and environment felt truly immersed, we meticulously recreated the building's geometry using a LiDAR scan, allowing us to accurately position water emitters and animate the interaction between the water and the actors. This included overhead water emitters, downpouring streams, and pools of drainage on the walls, as well as wet map stains on the concrete beneath. The water effects were not just a backdrop but occupied the same space the actors traversed, adding depth and realism to the sequence.

CREDITS

VISUAL EFFECTS SUPERVISOR: Mark Russell
PRODUCER: Sophie-Ann Price

VFX: The Mill

VISUAL EFFECTS SUPERVISOR: Vadim Turchin, Antany Subramaniam, David Piombino
VISUAL EFFECTS PRODUCER: Nicole Melius, Sheila Lobo, Karthi Gnanasekar, Alankit Thapa, Sanchit Soi, Zahi Khan
VISUAL EFFECTS COORDINATOR: Paola Malo, Karishma Verma, Nividita Dakua

COMPOSITING SUPERVISOR: Venkata Sivakumar Mannepalli
COMPOSITING: Adwait Page, Chilka Souji, Priyanka Gupta, Sanjeev A. Gera, Asif Khurshid Ansari, Kiran Veeraswarapu, Mahesh Orsu, Sagar Gawde, Sarika Jadhav, Shubham Pavar, Vallabhapuram Pavan Teja
FX ARTISTS: Tarafder Biswajit, Herurkar Rakesh, Neeraj Kumar Patel, Rohit Kumar Sharma

LIGHTING: Aritra Kumar Sarkar, Deepa Thapa, Trinath Sarkar
ANIMATION: Amarnath Reddy
RIGGING: Garlapati Yeswanth, Sandeepkumar Madival
MATTE PAINTINGS: Gowri Velusamy, Sitaram Nilkanth Wankhede, Winnie Sharma
MODELING: Joshi Umang, Manukuru Manikanteswara, Sasi Kumar Dakoju, Yashwant Singh

ROTOSCOPING: Abhay Singh, Amey Umesh Surve, Anita Khandare, Anilkumar Chauhan, Arulraj Giriraj, Gangula Janardhan Reddy, Harshal Rane, Hetal Agarwala, Jagannatham Venkata Rakesh, Mahendranatha Reddy, Prasad Thorve, Pravin Ashok Mane, Rahul Chandrakant Jagtap, Rakesh Gharti, Ravi Kant Mishra, Sagar Suresh Ladi, Satish Yadav, Shailesh Madhav, Shamim Zamir Khan, Shanu Soni, Sudhir Balaram Jadhav, Tanmay Bera, Tribhuwan Kumar

MATCHMOVE: Avaneetharan Karuppasamy, Chetan Balasaheb Kadam, Elangovan Ganeshan, Gautam Sarode, Jaswantsingh Nikam, Jada Koteswararao, Kiran Auti, Mohammad Asif, Mukesh Gavade, Nikhil Kadam, Rahul Dusariya, Rais Pinjari, Shanu Khalifa, Shaik Jaleel Ahmed, Shubhangi More, Smijumon Viswanathan, Suman Sahu, Sushant Lavhande, Sayed Hussain, Typhan Rai, Mahesh Wagh, Bulusu Yashaswy, Kiran Kharge, Anirudh Krishna Kurve