When they need sinking ships or thrashing sandstorms, Hollywood calls on Gerd Nefzer. In Denis Villeneuve's Canadian-American production Dune – for which he won an Oscar – he even brought sandworms to life.
Gerd Nefzer is a modest, down-to-earth guy. In jeans and a sweater, he seems like the nice man next door.
His company is based on at Studio Babelsberg, and at first glance there’s nothing to indicate that they are Oscar winners. That was in 2018 for special effects in the film Blade Runner 2049. Now Nefzer has won his second Oscar for special effects in the visual effects category; this time for the science fiction film Dune.
And even though he’s been there before, he was excited before the award winners were announced. “It’s absolute madness. Just getting there and walking the red carpet is incomparable,” he says about his feelings around the awards. (
Watch the moment.)
When people talk about special effects, they don’t mean computer effects; Nefzer is a craftsman. He dug deep into his bag of tricks for the cinematic epic Dune and it demanded a lot from his company. The staff spent months meticulously refining the many special effects.
The film takes place on a desert planet where, for one, men had to sink into the sand. There’d never been anything like it before and it was a true conundrum. The solution was to put steel plates in the desert sand. “Under the plates we assembled strong, vibrating motors that could be regulated. We then buried them half a meter deep in the desert. The vibrations cause the grains to separate and loosen their density so that people slowly sink into the sand,” explains Gerd Nefzer.
The fact that it eventually worked was due to craftsmanship, ingenuity, and a bit of luck. He only saw the result himself on the screen: “We thought it looked okay. But we weren’t completely convinced. When I see it on film now, it’s just great, and a lot of people are talking about it because it was just such a brilliant idea.”
In another scene, 20 palm trees had to be ablaze over several days of shooting. Of course, they couldn’t burn down that many real palm trees; another way had to be found. Nefzer’s solution was to manufacture 300 palm leaves of steel and seemingly set them on fire with the help of gas that was piped in around them. It was a mammoth task. The shoot involved operating two 5,000-litre propane tanks and alcohol pumps. It took 25 employees to keep the fire burning.
But why go to such elaborate efforts when everything can be done today with CGI? It’s very different, says the 56-year-old, when a spaceship really disappears in a sandstorm and is actually on location and not in front of a green wall. “It’s also a different feeling for the actors to really play the scene in a real place.”
By now, Nefzer has perfected the art of film effects. It took almost 30 years of experience, which is how long the company in Babelsberg has been around. It all started with a rented garage for a few fog machines. The company grew and grew, more and more large commissions came in until today the Nefzers have become an integral part of Babelsberg, says the former agricultural technician, who runs the company together with his brother-in-law Uli. The Nefzers have been involved in practically all Babelsberg productions over the past 29 years. He and his employees are celebrated for this in the trade press, so a second Oscar wasn’t such a surprise.
But it’s also an incredible feeling to be there yourself, Nefzer said beforehand. “You really find out that evening when the person pulls the piece of paper out of the envelope and says ‘The Oscar goes to....’ That’s the most moving moment. Then, when the name is announced and you’ve won – that’s just the happiest moment, goosebumps, it’s incredible.”
by Ivo Ziemann "Gerd Nefzer gewinnt Oscar für visuelle Effekte," 28 March 2022, RBB24
translated and published with permission
image: courtesy Warner Bros.
