The Grand Budapest Hotel VFX Breakdown

Wes Anderson teamed up with Look Effects to give his critically acclaimed latest work, The Grand Budapest hotel it's stylized, retro 60's look. Using a mixture of miniatures, stop motion, matte paintings and excellent compositing, the VFX house was able to capture the distinct visual charm that Wes Anderson movies have come to be well known for.

The addition of stop motion characters and the amount of miniature work during some of the scenes was a nice callback to Fantastic Mr Fox. Haven't seen the movie just yet, but I've heard nothing but good things about it. It's also the first Wes Anderson film to ever break $100 million on a limited release.

Wes Anderson - Centered

Created by Kogonada, a South Korean filmmaker and regular contributor to Sight & Sound, Centered is just another of his projects centered around dissecting the signature cinematographical nuances of iconic directors. Back in 2012 he brought us a similarly themed analysis of Stanley Kubrick's usage of one point perspective, but this year he takes a look at Wes Anderson's usage of meticulous center framing (Done in collaboration with Robert Yeoman). There's a real love of symmetry present here, and I've always had the feeling that Anderson goes through some real painstaking effort to stage the characters in each shot as if they were pawns on a chess board.

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Upon first glance of the trailer to The Grand Budapest Hotel, it becomes evident right away that this is a Wes Anderson. His distinct style shines through, with his use of color, music, and pacing.  Personally, Anderson is hit or miss with me. His last endeavor with Moonrise Kingdom left me bored and uninspired. But this latest trailer, starring Ralph Fiennes, Saoirse Ronan, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, and of course Bill Murray, has piqued my interest and looks like it might be a fun one. Set to be released in March 2014, so we have a while to find out.