Director Robert Rodriguez has broken down We Can Be Heroes' visual effects in a behind the scenes video for Netflix's superhero movie.
The video starts off with a look at the scene in which A Capella uses her powers to cause the guards at Heroics Headquarters to float in the air, allowing We Can Be Heroes' young leads to climb up them like a staircase and escape. As Rodriguez explained in the video, he shot part of it in his studio in Austin, TX with green screen backdrops and the rest at the local city hall, which had the high ceilings that the sequence needed.
From there, Rodriguez broke down the scene where Guppy easily tosses around a handful of guards. The character Guppy is the daughter of Sharkboy and Lavagirl from Rodriguez's 2005 film The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl and possesses the ability to manipulate water and other liquids, in addition to having "shark-strength." In the end, Rodriguez split the sequence into several shots and used wires to send some of the actors flying through the air, before speeding it up in post-production to create the illusion that things are happening much faster than they really are.
The next segment of the video focused on the character Noodles, who can stretch his body and limbs to incredible lengths. In a key scene from We Can Be Heroes, Noodles elongates his torso and arms while also expanding his face to make him appear to be more adult-like. As Rodriguez explained, this effect was created by having Noodles actor Lyon Daniels wear an oversized jacket, which was then filled with an inflatable balloon to make his chest seem stretched out. Later, during post-production, Daniels' face was digitally filled out and sound effects were added to make his super-stretching more convincing.
In addition to writing and directing, Rodriguez also served as the cinematographer and editor on We Can Be Heroes. He's known for being a one-man-band filmmaker who does everything from writing the music to supervising the visual effects on his directorial efforts, including movies like Spy Kids, Sin City and Machete. This has allowed Rodriguez to continue making effects-heavy films like We Can Be Heroes at a much lower budget than the average studio tentpole.
Directed by Robert Rodriguez, We Can Be Heroes stars Priyanka Chopra, Christian Slater, Pedro Pascal, Sung Kang, Boyd Holbrook, Taylor Dooley, YaYa Gosselin, Akira Akbar, Haley Reinhart, Andy Walken, Andrew Diaz, Brently Heilbron, Hala Finley, Isaiah Russell-Bailey, Lotus Blossom, Lyon Daniels, Nathan Blair, Vivien Lyra Blair, Adriana Barraza, Brittany Perry-Russell, Christopher McDonald and Dylan Henry Lau. The film is streaming on Netflix.
Source: Netflix