Sky Captain is a truly impressive piece of cinema, and the production process alone must be admired for its ingenuity and craftsmanship. More specifically, the manner in which the film was made from scratch should be praised. After producing the six minute short film, Conran had been given approval to take the concept to a whole new level. Given the task of making a feature length film, producers hired over 100 artists, designers, modellers and compositors to create a multi-layered 2D and 3D background. On top of this layered background, live action scenes with actors would be added in post-production. Essentially, the entire world of the film would be created and the actors would never have to leave the studio. This kind of film making had never been done before. The use of layered backgrounds and computer graphics was by no means new, but to produce an entire film using such techniques was groundbreaking and daring. Ten months before Conran made the movie with his cast, he shot it entirely with stand-ins in Los Angeles and then created it in animatics so the actors had an idea of what the film would look like. With the animatics as a guide, grids were created to map camera and actor movements with digital characters standing in for the real actors. The grids were made into actual maps on a blue screen stage floor to help the actors move around invisible scenery. Using blue screens has since become vastly popular with film makers, but during production of Sky Captain it was used to an unprecedented extent. The finished product is a computer generated world which appears both realistic yet stunning. The actors blend seamlessly with the layered backgrounds and interact with their surroundings as if they were actually in each situation. From a modern perspective, the techniques may seem commonplace and the film can appear somewhat dated, but it must be acknowledged that Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow was at the forefront of cutting edge technology. A strong cast, great visuals and above-all an excellently executed concept are all reasons Sky Captain should not be forgotten.
