It isn’t easy to produce a movie based on a video game. Not only are you competing with blockbusters such as the Tomb Raider and Resident Evil franchises, but also the very nature of these games demands an action-packed, FX-rich film.

If you are Vancouver’s Brightlight Pictures, currently coproducing a feature version of Atari’s Alone in the Dark video game with Germany’s Boll KG, then costs certainly top your list of challenges. Whereas Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life was made for a reported US$90 million, Alone in the Dark has a total budget of approximately $20 million. Knock off the salaries for stars Christian Slater and Tara Reid, the cost of shooting in Vancouver and other incidentals, and the total budget available for about 300 FX shots is about $5 million.

Making this money count was behind Brightlight’s decision to turn to Toybox, the video and audio post division of Command Post & Transfer.

‘We have worked with them for many years,’ says Shawn Williamson, Brightlight’s principal and Alone in the Dark’s producer along with Wolfgang Herold. ‘Their vision of the film’s FX meshed well with that of director Uwe Boll [House of the Dead].’

‘Toybox has locations in Vancouver, Toronto, and Los Angeles,’ adds Jonathan Shore, the film’s associate producer and Brightlight’s VP of operations and post-production. ‘They’ve done some pretty exceptional work for A-list films such as The Butterfly Effect and Fight Club.’

Alone in the Dark tells the story of Edward Carnby (Slater), a skeptical detective unraveling a deadly paranormal mystery. As the movie’s promotional website puts it, ‘just because you don’t believe in something, that doesn’t mean it can’t kill you.’

As one might expect from its origins, Alone in the Dark contains ample amounts of action and gore and monsters galore. The hefty FX workload forced Toybox to assign more than 40 people to the project, including 12 freelancers. ‘It’s kept us very busy,’ says Mike Ellis, Toybox’s VP of FX and digital film.

A core element of Alone in the Dark’s FX is the 3D monsters that interact with Slater and Reid, who plays archaeologist Aline Cedrac, Carnby’s ex-flame who helps him on his latest case. ‘[The creatures] are a big part of the picture – we see them onscreen a lot of the time,’ says Shore.

Because of the frequent interaction between real-life and digital elements, a lot of pre-visualization was required to ensure that everything blended properly in post.

For this reason, Toybox is more than just Brightlight’s FX house – it has also been the studio’s creative partner throughout production.

‘We were there during the initial story meetings to help the writers craft a script that was paced for FX scenes,’ says Toybox Vancouver 3D animator Doug Oddy, who is serving as one of Alone in the Dark’s FX supervisors. ‘We helped with the storyboarding, took a hand in scouting locations, and even aided with the fight choreography. Once the shoot started last June in Vancouver, Toybox had someone on the set every single day. We also helped the second unit by providing lists of shots that we needed for the FX.’

Shooting on Alone in the Dark wrapped on Aug. 28, 2003. At press time, the film was in the midst of its 19-week post-production cycle at both Toybox’s Vancouver and Toronto locations.

‘The high-speed data connections between our two facilities lets us share assignments easily,’ Oddy says. ‘It’s as if we’re in the same building, just on different floors.’

Toybox is posting Alone in the Dark using an arsenal of FX systems, including Alias|Wavefront Maya, Discreet’s inferno and flame, Side Effects Software’s Houdini, and Pixar’s RenderMan. Both the Vancouver and Toronto locations use Silicon Graphics NT workstations running Unix and Linux operating systems.

Budget restrictions mean that Brightlight isn’t spending big on unimportant sequences, especially any that might end up on the cutting-room floor.

‘We have to be very careful about when and why we use FX,’ says Shore. ‘For instance, we’re saving a lot of money for the big battle scene [at the movie’s climax], which promises to be an action-packed extravaganza and pure eye candy. But throwaway shots? Forget it – we can’t afford to spend money on them.’

Only time will tell if this strategy will make Alone in the Dark look like its blockbuster brethren. At press time, Brightlight was still searching for a distribution deal for the film.

-www.compt.com (Command Post & Transfer)

-www.alone-in-the-dark.com