A Sanfermin Running of the Bulls with 25 bulls

17/08/2010. A bull for all needs, perfect runs, imposible passes... All this is possible in the cinema as the special effects used in Knight & Day can show us. For the filming of the Pamplona running of the bulls but which was shot in Seville and Cadiz while they attempt to emulate the Pamplona running of the bulls

Thanks to an article written by Ian Failes in Fxguide.com we can find out all the ins and outs involved in creating the special effects for the movie, Knight & Day. Where there are six bulls, finally there appear 25; where there are no bulls, a whole pack of bulls suddenly appear, and when Cameron Díaz and Tom Cruise ride their motorbike, it is better to have a whole pack of dangerous bulls around. All this is possible thanks to the digital special effects in this movie where there are more than 700 in total, according to what Eric Durst says and who was in charge of the special effects in this movie. The actual digital improvements were carried out by Rhythm & Hues who already have an Oscar for The Golden Compass and who have also participated in movies such as The Mummy III, Hulk or The A Team, among others.

The process works like this. The stand-in stunt actors Roy Miller and June Havens shoot the complicated scenes playing the parts of Díaz and Cruise. With some Pickups from Universal Studios in Los Angeles the shootings were made under the supervision of director James Mangold and the special effects technician, Greg Steele. Cruise did some of the motorbike scenes himself.

Rhythm & Hues made several film recordings by triangling cameras in HD so as to get different angle shots and real images of the bulls. Using a complicated digital process afterwards, more bulls were added to the scenes of the running of the bulls and more public were added for the bullring, or for a pack of bulls in a particular corner of the course.

In order to correctly simulate the animals, the technicians made a model of one bull and in this way they came to understand the muscle movements of the animals. With the application of the Maya method maps were made which allowed the real image to be superimposed digitally. The creation of the skin and movements of the bulls proved a big challenge for the Fx team which used technology similar to that used in movies like The Incredible Hulk or The Mummy or The Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.