Here's what 'Arrival' looks like without the giant alien landing sites
The big landing site wasn't there in this beautiful shot.
But the fog was real.
"That shot was a total gift: All that fog appeared out of nowhere," Bradford Young, the cinematographer on "Arrival" told Variety. "We cleared a ridge line and there it was, that fog rolling off the St. Lawrence. It was like, ‘Hold on, is this really happening?’ That’s all in camera. It’s one of those happy accidents where the movie gods are looking out for you. An aerial shot that was just going to be the most mundane shot in the history of cinema turns into something really special.”
They also designed the ship's underside, for when the human characters go in.
But of course, that wasn't real either.
Not only were these tanks CGI'd into the shot ...
... but so were the skid marks next to them.
You might notice something else about these comparisons.
The shots in the finished movie are always a lot darker.
Check out that alien landing pad looming in the background of this army base.
It's gone!
The base looks like it has a lot of people standing in it.
But for this shot, the people were added digitally, along with a few buildings.
This traffic jam is quite a sight.
But it's totally fake.
And what about this scene?
The sun, shadows, and landing pad are all CGI.
In this shot, there's a ship looming over some warships with a city in the background.
Those are just regular boats, and there isn't even a city behind them.
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