The Forgotten Battle is the latest project to reunite director Matthijs van Heijningen and our Paris studio. Following 20 commercials and 60 awards, this is our first collaboration on a feature film.
The film tells the story of a harrowing WW2 event that marked The Netherlands. Tracing the story of this battle, Matthijs chose to collaborate with the team in Liege to immerse the viewer in history. The VFX needed to contribute to the historic accuracy to render the battles, vehicles, and environments as they were at the time of the battle. The site’s topography had been highly impacted after WW2 and the key challenge given to our team was to reproduce these areas.
Our main role was to help the director to recreate the story of the Battle of the Scheldt on October 2nd, 1944 as accurately as possible. As part of this historic event, set extensions, severed limbs, and explosions were required, and our teams did a lot of research to ensure a realistic result. “The Forgotten Battle was an incredible adventure from start to finish.” – Laurent Creusot, VFX Supervisor
The aerial battle scene in particular, which is a 110-shot VFX sequence, required historical accuracy in terms of scenery, geomorphology, weather, and the speed of the aircraft/gliders in the battle.
Every detail was thought out and analysed, we knew exactly where we wanted to go and how to get there.”
Laurent Creusot, VFX Supervisor
