Toronto: Adam Shankman’s film version of Hairspray, due to hit theaters July 20 via Alliance Atlantis in Canada, adds a cinematic dimension to the popular stage musical. The Toronto-shot movie features extensive dance scenes in which characters in billboard photographs come to life to boogie alongside star John Travolta.
In one scene, Travolta, in heavy prosthetics as Edna Turnblad, mother of lead character Tracy (Nikki Blonsky), walks down the street, passing a number of promotional posters for The Dynamites, a popular female dance trio. When the scene erupts into one of the film’s major dance sequences, featuring nearly the entire cast, The Dynamites join in on the action, dancing within billboards, bus shelter posters and murals.
To bring still shots of The Dynamites to life, the filmmakers turned to Toronto VFX shop Intelligent Creatures.
The Dynamites were filmed dancing on a stage in front of a green screen. The dancing characters were then inserted into shots in green screen spaces representing the billboards, posters and murals, and composited with designed backgrounds.
‘[The dancing Dynamites] have a three-dimensional quality. We played with drop shadows and color so it would feel like the girls were popping out in front of the artwork,’ says Intelligent Creatures CEO Lon Molnar.
One of the shots that comes to life starts as a mural painted on a brick wall. Molnar explains that to keep the look as authentic as possible, it was important to retain the painterly feel of the figures, as well as the textures of the brick.
‘We took some really high-resolution reference photos of the quality of that actual painting, and replicated it digitally. So when we made those shots come to life, we made sure we still gave them that painted effect,’ he explains.
Overall, Molnar says the biggest challenge of working on Hairspray was the exact timing and choreography demanded by a musical.
The shop is still at work on the film, with delivery scheduled for May.
The company also recently wrapped assignments on the Fox fantasy Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, starring Natalie Portman and Dustin Hoffman, and is currently working on The Weinstein Company’s action drama Spring Break in Bosnia, starring Richard Gere, and the Disney family comedy The Game Plan, starring The Rock.