Feature Film VFX
Apollo 13: Survival
Revenant
When you’re retelling one of the most legendary space missions in history, you need to do it just right. For Apollo Thirteen: Survival, which launched on Netflix on the 5th of September 2024, doing it right meant creating a truly immersive storytelling experience, and building a visual package that seamlessly integrated with the documentary’s archival material. It was paramount to us here at Revenant that we combined our creativity with a genuinely thoughtful use of resources on this particular project.
We worked alongside the team at Insight Film, Producers Clive Patterson and Hugh Davies, and Director Peter Middleton to deliver CG animation, high level compositing, and FX to the nail-biting story in a way never seen before.
The film is a time capsule of rare audio and visuals from the shuttle, NASA’s control centre, and the astronauts’ families. Our team worked to enrich this archival atmosphere and aid the storytelling in a historically accurate way with a blend of era-specific visuals and crisp, clean shape language. For example, delightfully grainy infographics reference those used at the time, and image transition shots move in the style of a 1970’s carousel slide projector. The result is a seamless combination of the extraordinary archival NASA footage with our veracious and authentic visuals package.
“We had access to a wealth of original archives, including interviews, family photos, and detailed information about NASA's computers. This provided us with a deep understanding of the technology of the era and the design elements associated with press campaigns during the incident. These insights formed a strong foundation on which to build the visual effects package, ensuring it was both authentically and respectfully aligned with the story” says Kev McCrae, Creative Director at Revenant. “Peter Middleton's passion for the project was a significant driving force for our team, inspiring us to create visuals that were truly bespoke, original, and seamlessly integrated into the film. It was an absolute joy to work on this project with such a dedicated team.”
This project is exemplary in its matching of VFX to era, mood, and story, all created in such a bespoke, hands on manner that there is an invisible blend between the archival footage and the content we created. We’re proud to submit it as an example of the remarkable tactility that can be achieved with VFX when a close-knit, talented team approaches a project with originality.
Crew
Writer & Director - Stuart Langfield
Producer - Kieran Smyth
Producer - Stuart Langfield
DOP - Leon Brehony
Cast - Ling Tse, Aidan Jolliffe-Byrne, Roxi Hofmann, Michael Jean-Marain
Title Design - Antihero Studio
Choreographer - Konstantin Koval
Score & Sound - AEPH
Colour - Nadia Khairat
Key Grip - Graham Pittaro
Grip Assist - Richi Holt Jnr
Wardrobe - Heida Senkute
On-Set VFX - Jack Lang
Camera - No Drama
Special Thanks - Jen Mackie, Will Farquhar, Honor Anderon, Andrew O’Connor, David Bell
VFX Credits:
Studio: Revenant
Creative Director: Kev McCrae
Managing Director: Pam Nelson
CG Supervisor: Joe Lawrenson
Creative Supervisor: Scott Taylor
Executive Producer: Debbie Ferguson
Producer: Sean Ewins
Animator: Luke Angus
CG Artist: Ignasi Casas
Compositor: Abby Barr