Quick Post: "Final Destination 4" Set Details From New Orleans

Our friends over at Shock Till You Drop had the pleasure of visiting the "Final Destination 4" set in New Orleans recently and have written up a great piece about the experience. Here are some snippets (Warning - some spoilers):

For the fourth movie, there are two big set pieces rather than just one, the first one being the catalyst for all of the bloody kills that follow, a devastating car crash at a racetrack, while the second big set piece is a deadly explosion at a movie theater that was being shot at the makeshift soundstage while we were visiting. Apparently, there's a construction site behind this movie theater and something happens there that sets off a huge explosion that sends tools, nails and construction materials (cinderblocks and rebar) flying into the theater and invariably, into the poor trio of friends who thought that seeing a good movie might take their minds off of all the death and destruction they've witnessed.

Before we left for the day, we saw them shooting the movie screen explosion which is done in four different layers that will be compiled later: the first shows the audience watching the movie, then there's the actual explosion with fire blasting out of the screen, another where giant mortars covered in green material shoot debris from behind the screen and then a shot of stuntmen on rigs being thrown around by the impact of the explosion. We couldn't actually be anywhere near the soundstage when they did the actual explosion, but we sure as heck heard it while we were outside talking to Perry, and later, we watched as they shot off the mortar blasts of debris into the empty theater.

And about the Pace 3D Technology:

Perry, Ellis and cinematographer Glenn McPherson (Rambo) had a lot to tell us and show us about the process of filming in 3D using PACE Technologies' system, which involves special 2-camera rigs where the information from each can be recorded and processed to change the "convergence" between the two cameras, which essentially decides how much of the 3D effect is translated to the viewer. Outside the movie theater set, there was an impressive set-up of nine to ten monitors that showed data from each of the camera rigs, which could be translated by the technicians from PACE. They could also view what the scenes would look like rendered into 3D by bringing tapes out to the PACE trailer which was set-up with the appropriate rendering gear to show the film's dailies in 3D. What's cool is that the converge, or amount of depth, can then be altered in the computers, although it does often involve changing things when it comes to the editing.

Be sure to check out the entire post here. Very nice work guys!