DROWNING IN SPACE

A TENSE MOMENT OCCURS WHEN WATER LEAKS INTO A HELMET DURING A SPACEWALK… An interactive platform was reused for different parts of the spacewalk involving the character of Verona, played by Imogen Daines. “It was the actress in her suit,” states Deguara. “We had to replace the visor because it became quite evident early on that it wasn’t quite working as far as reflections. The bit that we’re all proud of is when there is a malfunction in the suit that causes water to get into her helmet. Water in space will go wherever it will go. It will get in your eyes and mouth. There was a lovely performance that was done. We found this cool Youtube video of an astronaut wringing a flannel and how water actually stuck to his hand, and how it was moving and undulating.” It was important for the bubbles not to obscure the eyes of the actress. “The water travels up her neck and settles on her face; that’s what is causing the choking,” explains Deguara. “It didn’t interfere with the performance at all.” Understanding the intricacies of water was critical. “The first thing that we did is we went back to basics,” states Lekanis. “How is water sticking on the surface? What are its physical properties? Keeping these things in mind, we created the simulation within Houdini. It was challenging as every shot was a simulation and continuity had to be maintained. Early on we were happy knowing that our system could support the behaviour, weight, speed and oscillation, all of these nice things that we were seeing in the reference footage.”