Mini-Review by Todd Vaziri Producer, VFX HQ
tvaziri@gmail.com

Tom Hanks stars in Steven Spielberg's latest directorial effort, the enormously ambitious SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, which follows a group of soldiers during and after the D-Day invasion of Normandy.

The vast majority of ILM's effects for RYAN can be described as 'war enhancement,' with ILM providing various effects that could not be accomplished on location during shooting. The wide vista shots of tanks, blimps, and soldiers populating Omaha beach are excellent, with ILM's usual flair for grand, expansive landscape shots. Other work in the film includes dozens of bullet hits, blood enhancement, and other pieces of battle action that would have been too dangerous to perform live, or too difficult to precisely choreograph.

ILM's effects were supervised by Stefen Fangmeier, who also supervised this summer's SMALL SOLDIERS.