GW Alumnus Nominated for Oscar

GW alumnus Bill Westenhofer talks about his Academy Award-nominated work on the film “Life of Pi.”

February 20, 2013

Alt Text

George Washington alumnus Bill Westenhofer, M.S. ’95, has stalked through Gotham City, piloted a mouse-sized motorboat and stepped through a magic wardrobe—virtually, at least. The visual effect supervisor for Rhythm & Hues Studios has spent 16 years working on computer graphics and effects for motion pictures, including “Batman Forever,” the “Stuart Little” movies, “Babe: Pig in the City,” “Elf,” “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” and “The Golden Compass,” for which he won an Academy Award for achievement in visual effects in 2008.

Now, Mr. Westenhofer is nominated for an Oscar for his visual effects work on “Life of Pi,” directed by Ang Lee. Ahead of Sunday’s award ceremony, Mr. Westenhofer spoke to George Washington Today about his start animating gummy candies for commercials; the challenges of working with a tiger; and why his computer science degree from GW’s School of Engineering and Applied Science has been vital to his creative success.

Q: Were you interested in film industry work when you came to GW and SEAS as a graduate student?
A: I had hopes of working in film when I came to GW, but it was still more of a dream.  At the time, living on the East Coast did not expose you to contacts in the industry, so I really had no idea how I was going to get there when I started my degree. I figured I would study computer graphics and see where it went from there.

Q: How did you get started working on films?
A: My career really started after I attended an annual conference on computer graphics called SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics) run by the Association for Computing Machinery. I put my resume up on a job board and got called into an interview, during which I talked my way into a job with Rhythm & Hues Studios.  I started working on television commercials, making things like computer-generated gummy candies and Rice Krispies treats. From there, I started working on feature film jobs, starting with "Batman Forever" in 1995.

Q: Tell us a little about your current job.
A: My current role, which I've been doing for 16 years, is visual effects supervisor. On a film production, I am in charge of everything to do with the visual effects—from breaking down the script, to working on set to make sure the photography will work with the effects when they are put in, to finally directing the teams of animators, lighters and compositors who create the imagery you see in the finished film. My typical day is spent in a screening room, looking at all the various stages of work on the shots in progress and giving notes to the artists on creative and technical issues needed to complete it. I work very closely with the director of the movie to make sure his or her vision is achieved.

Q: What were some of the challenges you faced in creating visual effects for “Life of Pi”?
A: The two biggest challenges on “Life of Pi” were the tiger and the ocean.  For many reasons, we couldn't use the real thing in the majority of the shots. With the tiger, we wanted Suraj Sharma, who plays Pi, to make it through filming alive, so we couldn’t put him and a real tiger in the boat together. Our digital tiger, however, had to be completely real. The success of the story, in fact, hinges on whether you believe the tiger is real. We did use a real tiger in about 15 percent of the shots, where we could put him alone in the boat in a carefully controlled environment with a tiger trainer. That set the bar for our digital creation as high as we could, to push our team to deliver beyond what had been achieved before.

As for the ocean, we learned early on in testing that for a film like this—where more than three-fifths of the movie’s run time would be spent on the water—it would be impractical to shoot on the open ocean. Moving heavy camera equipment around is hard enough on a stage, and on the ocean it would have obliterated our schedule. In addition, our director, Ang Lee, wanted a great deal of artistic control of the skies and waves, so we felt it would be best to shoot all of the ocean parts of the film on a wave tank.

We had a custom one built that measured 75 by 30 meters and had a special wave-making system that could simulate open ocean “swell.” We then could digitally extend the tank water and add in custom skies on each shot. This allowed us to use sky color, cloudscapes and things like that to help set the emotional mood of every sequence—something that was very important to Ang.

Q: Do you have a favorite scene or section of the film?
A: I really like the “flying fish” sequence. It was a challenging scene technically to deal with all the thousands of fish flying in, around and onto the lifeboat. It also had a lot of “full CGI” shots—where the entire shot was computer generated, including the lifeboat—to allow us to show the fish bouncing off the tiger and into the boat and to let the camera capture the action as if it had been filmed live. But more importantly, I thought this was a very pretty scene, and one that really showed off the 3-D aspect of the movie.

Q: What are the benefits of getting a STEM degree, especially for students who, like you, are interested in creative careers?
A: My career is somewhat unique in the degree to which technology and art are blended.  The majority of people in the film business come from more of an art background—be it film school, acting, photography, etc. I think what my story demonstrates is that you can use the fundamentals that any STEM degree will teach you—namely, the ability to solve problems—in a wide degree of applications that can go beyond the stereotypical technical career. I encourage students pursuing STEM degrees to take advantage of electives and widen their horizons during college. It’s the best opportunity you're likely to have to study things outside of your major. You never know when that extra bit of knowledge could come in handy and help you pursue something you never would have imagined.

Q: How are you feeling about the Academy Award ceremony? Are you preparing remarks in case you win?
A:  I’m very excited! You work hard on a movie to please yourself, your director and, hopefully, the audience. You do your best to do justice to the novel or screenplay.  Getting nominated for an award is really the icing on the cake… and it’s some really good icing. And yes, I'll have thought about what I plan to say, just in case.