For the Ang Lee film Taking Woodstock, digital effects studio Mr. X composed a total of 138 shots that helped recreate the scene at Woodstock in 1969. The goal of the 45 artists on the team was to generate a sense of realism – even when visualizing an acid trip.

‘The acid scene was meant to reflect what people actually saw when they were on the drug,’ says VFX supervisor Brendan Taylor, ‘as well as capture a feeling of elation, because, in the end, the character cries in happiness.’ According to Taylor, the instructions they received from director Lee were ‘You have to earn those tears.’

In the end, not only was Lee pleased with the result, former users of LSD hailed the sense of accuracy. ‘According to our experts, who will remain nameless, we were very close,’ Taylor jokingly admits.

Other effects composed at the Toronto-based shop included a background matte painting for crowd scenes, using images of the present-day Woodstock site. ‘Pretty much the only thing that is natural is the ground the actors are standing on,’ says Taylor.

But the most complex challenge was the mud-surfing scene. ‘They didn’t have enough extras, so we had to put people in the background,’ says Taylor. The process was complicated by the fact that much of the footage was actually shot by extras using handheld Bolex and Eclair cameras.

‘You see,’ as Taylor explains, ‘normally in the visual effects world we know what lens they use, the height, the tilt – a whole bunch of things before we bring it into the computer – but here we knew none of the parameters. It was really difficult.’

While solving such problems is what he is most proud of, Taylor reserves his biggest compliment for Lee, who ‘recreated the most difficult thing, which was an emotion and a time when people felt differently, walked differently, acted differently, and believed they could change things.’