Ariel Shaw is a Filipino-American special effects specialist, who created the special effects for this summer’s, Final Destination 5. Since beginning his career over 20 years ago, Ariel has worked on over twenty-five films and has a prestigious Academy Award nomination to his name.
Recently, Amped Asia and several media outlets were able to interview Ariel about his career and his thoughts regarding Final Destination 5. Check out the interview below.
How did you first begin working with the Final Destination series? Well around 12 years ago I was doing a lot of work with New Line and I was invited to meet James Wong and we hit it off right away. He and I were set to work on a film called Flight 180. We shot what we believed was a wonderful, fun film. We thought it would be just a nice little one-off film. It was a thriller without a killer. New Line loved it and they renamed it Final Destination and created possibly one of their most successful franchises. I worked on it again with James in Final Destination 3, and then again on Final Destination 5.
Which scene gave you the most satisfaction in Final Destination 5? - by Bradford The bridge sequence definitely. The scene was like a mini 2012. To see it realized is something special.
How has the technology changed since Final Destination 1? We explored many things since Final Destination 1 with CGI. Technology has given us the ability to make our CGI even more realistic and also to make everything faster.
Are you surprised by the success of the franchise? After the first one, we knew we made something special. After the first one came out, we weren’t surprised at all with the success. A lot of people liked it and there was a lot of great buzz about the film. But when we were making it we had no idea it would be successful.
Will they make Final Destination 6? I have a hard time believing that they won’t make a Final Destination 6. The film franchise is just so successful and also technology is making things even better with each film. I believe they will make another Final Destination, although I can’t say for sure.
What was something that was particularly difficult to create on the set of FD5? Probably to shock the audience. To shock an audience today is very very hard, and I think we succeeded on FD5. We’ve gotten more jumps than in any other movie. We lulled the audience into a complacency and then we shocked the audience.
So what made you decide you wanted to be a visual effects artist as opposed to holding a different industry job? Started out as a photographer, I went to school at Rochester institute of technology. Then I started to do videos and I worked for a few different companies. In ‘89 i went to Disney and I did Rescuers Down Under and eventually ended up getting an Academy Award nomination, and because of that I decided to segue into more visual effects. It was a natural transition. I like it because we start at the very beginning. In pre-production. Then we go all the way to the end, until after the shoot.
Thanks a lot for doing the interview Ariel! Good luck with Final Destination 5.
Also be sure to check out Final Destination 5 in theaters!
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