How BlueBolt delivered 365 VFX shots for Jack Ryan: Ghost War
Led by BlueBolt’s Richard Frazer as overall production VFX supervisor, BlueBolt was principal VFX studio on Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War – Amazon’s feature-length film continuation of its action series. BlueBolt delivered 365 VFX shots to support the break-neck-paced action, incorporating major explosions, gunfights, multiple complex CG urban environments spanning London, Dubai and New York, CG vehicles, aircraft and boats and the dramatic cracking and collapse of the entire glass floor of a skyscraper just before the explosive finale shoot out at the top of a 24-storey tower.
As overall creative lead for the VFX, Frazer worked closely with director Andrew Bernstein from pre-production onward to develop and design the visual effects for the film’s key sequences. He played a central role in planning the complex ‘Glass Floor’ sequence on a shot-by-shot basis and helped oversee the virtual production elements of the LED volume work.
Delivered by BlueBolt, the Glass Floor sequence centres on a dramatic moment in which an entire glass floor cracks and collapses, leaving one of the heroes suspended through the resulting hole. The sequence was filmed at a nightclub within Dubai’s One Za’abeel, a real glass-floored structure 20 storeys above ground. Following principal photography in Dubai, Frazer helped plan an additional UK studio shoot involving extensive stunt rigging and bluescreen work on large glass floor panels. To realise the sequence, the team created a fully CG recreation of the set, presenting a significant VFX challenge: every surface was made of glass, creating complex layers of reflections throughout the environment. Houdini was used to simulate the floor’s cracking and collapse, while the bluescreen photography and CG environment were seamlessly integrated with footage captured at the practical location.
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