For his film EDDINGTON, director Ari Aster needed to show a private jet approaching out of the sun and flying over the desert. His desire was to work with a miniature, using practical FX, as he has done in many of his films.

The team at FX WRX found a large off-the-shelf model jet they could use as a starting place. The 4' wingspan model was extensively refinished with over 40 coats of white lacquer. Each coat was meticulously wet sanded by hand to give the model a highly polished scale appearance. The miniature also had functional navigation and strobe lights installed.

VFX Supervisor John Bair of PhospheneFX joined Christopher Webb for the motion control shoot at FX WRX studio. Ari Aster was able to personally manipulate the jet on camera using the in-house motion control system. The camera was then flown on the studio's motion control crane to bring further action to the shot. These movements were designed to match pre-vis animatics from PhospheneFX while also allowing for hand operated input.

For the shots of the jet approaching out of the sun, quartz space heaters were used in front of the camera lens to generate visible heat distortions which could be amplified in post. John Bair also shot a key element of his son which was composited into the cockpit to provide a silhouette of the pilot in the window.

Read a full article about this project in Befores & Afters VFX Magazine.