'‘Good Night Oppy’ Filmmaker Ryan White on Recreating Famous
Filmmaker Ryan White on Recreating Famous
The heartwarming
documentary follows and chronicles the true story of Opportunity, the famous NASA rover delivered to
The mission
was expected to last 90 days, yet it survived for over 15 years
White was
able to conduct interviews, edit and work on VFX from his Los Angeles base while
He weaves
archival NASA footage, current interviews, and CGI magic courtesy of Industrial Light & Magic
However, his
toughest challenge he says was showing the landing, which turned out to be a collaborative
The scene
nicknamed “EDL” showed the entry, descent and landing of the Mars rover and intercut archival
“Once the
robot reaches Mars, she’s doodling along, it’s not like we can create a
Previous missions
had failed, and there was pressure for this to be a success
Initially, the
scene was going to be the documentary’s cold open
“We started
to realize you don’t understand the stakes unless you’ve given something around it
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