And running the model shop for Doug Trumbull was a huge deal in my world and in the visual effects world at the time. Mark Stetson: I sort of came up quickly through the ranks in miniature effects and I think Blade Runner was my third or fourth picture. Could you give me a quick background of what you felt like your area of expertise was? Vfxblog: Prior to that you’d worked on things like Blade Runner and Hudsucker Proxy and Waterworld. It was Digital Domain 1.0 back then, and they really gave me a great team. And I was very supported by Digital Domain. I mean, it was sort of standard tent pole-ish at the time and I was confident that I could do that, but it was my first one and there was a ton I had to learn, especially about digital visual effects. Mark Stetson: I wasn’t afraid of the size of it. Vfxblog: This was your first visual effects supervisor role – how daunting was that for you? vfxblog re-visits the work, both miniature and digital, with The Fifth Element’s visual effects supervisor Mark Stetson. The film was one of Digital Domain’s huge miniature shows released that year – the others being Dante’s Peak and Titanic – while also heralding the fast-moving world of CGI in the movies. Perhaps most memorable are views of a future New York, complete with flying cars and a mass of new and old skyscrapers. Back in 1997, the visual effects for The Fifth Element were realized with a masterful combination of motion control miniatures, CG, digital compositing and effects simulations by Digital Domain. Of course, Besson’s new movie is being made possible with major advancements in digital effects and animation. Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element is now 20 years old, a fitting anniversary on the eve of the release of the director’s much-anticipated Valerian. I’d much rather set a camera looking down a street, having a cab rush towards me, and cut as it passes by, and then cut to a reverse of it passing by, and construct my film that way.’ – The Fifth Element visual effects supervisor Mark Stetson relates what director Luc Besson said to him about staging the film’s New York City shots.

‘You know, Mark, I don’t want to do these ‘fancy panning around and seeing the whole world shots’.

Gold element drawing