
--
Rising Sun Pictures served as a principal visual effects provider for The Eight Hundred; the epic war film from director Guan Hu and Huayi Brothers Media and Haining Seventh Image Movie & Media Co Ltd. The film centers on the true story of the 1937 Battle of Shanghai where a Chinese battalion mounted a determined defense of the Sihang Warehouse from the invasion of the Japanese army. Working in collaboration with BangBang Pictures, Beijing, and overall VFX Supervisor RSP's Tim Crosbie, RSP contributed scores of richly detailed, seamless visual effects to support the film's riveting combat scenes, all set around a massive warehouse complex near the city center.
The Eight Hundred, sets a new standard for production value in Chinese cinema. The lavish production spanned more than three years and included the building of an exact-scale replica of the 6-story, concrete Sihang Warehouse riverside structure, where much of the action takes place. Principal cinematography by DP Cao Yu (ASC) was captured in 6.5K with ARRI Alexa 65 camera systems.
The majority of RSP's work focused on a lengthy sequence representing the battle's decisive third day. The Japanese unleash a vicious aerial attack on the Chinese soldiers on the roof of the warehouse. The fighting is witnessed by thousands of foreigners and Chinese civilians from the relative safety of Shanghai's international Concessions, now called The Bund, located just across the river from the warehouse.
The studio's team created CG set-extensions, showing the ruined city of Shanghai to augment production footage of the practical warehouse set. That included thousands of individual buildings and other structures, many in ruins, as well as debris, fire, smoke, snow and other atmospheric elements. Additionally, they animated fighter aircraft and an airship as well as a CG horse running through the interior of the warehouse.
RSP's set extensions were monumental in scale. Crosbie notes that the warehouse set was more than a kilometer in length and that over two kilometers of green screen, 15 meters high, was used around the perimeter. RSP was given responsibility for the largest key shots in the film because of its deep experience, especially with war-themed historical recreations, says Crosbie. The RSP team did such a great job hitting the mark early on for the look that we needed to tell the story. It made my job so much easier when I could present shots to Guan Hu that usually hit and often exceeded his expectations.
VFX Supervisor Tom Wood, who led the project for RSP, says that the CG sets not only had to be large, they also had to be finely articulated and rigorously accurate due to the sweeping camerawork employed in the sequence. The camera travels with planes and an airship moving over the landscape so details that begin in the far distance are later seen close up, he explains. We had to build out houses to a distance of five kilometers from the warehouse.
Guan Hu's production team supplied RSP with many photos of 1930s Shanghai, before and after the battle, and other reference media. The film's art department also built a 3d model of the city at the time of attack to use as the basis for building the practical set as well as initial previs needs. RSP's team used that material to ensure that homes and buildings were accurate in terms of style, color and texture, and that the layout of the city was historically accurate.
The research conducted by the production team was very impressive, recalls CG Supervisor Julian Hutchens. They supplied us with loads of material. We took all those ingredients, ingested them one by one, rebuilt them and adjusted them to scale. We took considerable care to render those thousands of buildings and the associated props. It pushed the instancing to the limit.
Once the general layout of the environment was established and key buildings set in place, artists worked to hone details. We looked at everything closely to see if anything was missing, notes Hutchens, like slate planks between floorboards and busted bricks on the edges of walls. To heighten realism, we varied the color and shape of rubble, or added a car or a bicycle. It was quite fun.
Integrating CG and effects into the live action plates required special care due to the super high resolution of the production footage and the distinctive style of the cinematography. It was shot with a very short shutter speed, says 2D Supervisor Guido Wolter. That meant there was very little motion blur. Most action films use fast camera moves. People are running around and debris is falling. The action is distorted making it easier to blend things. Here, every detail is crystal clear, like a still photograph.
As a further complication, Wolter adds, many of the shots in the battle sequence are long some extending for more than a thousand frames. We had to double down in our attention to detail because the audience is going to see it all, he observes. They have time to explore every shot.
The final results, according to Wood, are very convincing. He believes that audiences will feel that they are witnessing living history. The film quality is amazing, he says. Guan Hu does a wonderful job in choreographing the action, going back and forth between different characters and different aspects of the battle.
In addition to the battle sequence, RSP worked on several shots showing views of the devastated city from the perspective of Japanese aircraft. They also contributed to a few more fanciful scenes. In one instance, CG artists animated a white horse that gallops through the interior of the warehouse. (In the context of the story, the horse plays an allegorical roll.) Another scene involved a dreamlike flashback to an ancient Chinese battleground, a reference to an event in history that's very
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
30/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/07/2026
At IBC2026, GlobalM will showcase the latest evolution of its software-defined media platform, enabling broadcasters, telecom operators and media organisations ...
30/07/2026
At the 2026 TAB Show, Digital Alert Systems will highlight and demo the new DAS-Link AIR, an over-the-air common alert protocol (CAP) dissemination system for ...
30/07/2026
OpenDrives Named to the 2026 CRN Storage 100 List
Company Recognized Among the 50 Coolest Software-Defined Storage Vendors for Unlimited Capacity, S3 Hybrid M...
30/07/2026
New Scene Search capability in VIDA Content OS makes video content itself searchable, letting broadcasters and streamers find key moments across millions of ass...
29/07/2026
In this series, Grass Valley explores the seven paradoxes shaping the next era o...
29/07/2026
Thats a wrap on Season 1 of SVG Students to Watch! Across the country, these stu...
29/07/2026
The agreement will move Gotham Sports App subscribers to DAZN during the 2026-27...
29/07/2026
Longtime digital-media leader expands role overseeing conference branding, video...
29/07/2026
By Bailey Pennick
One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Festival is having a front-row seat for the bright future of independent filmmaking. ...
29/07/2026
Organisation team up with TI:ME USA
Founded in 2019 with the aim of helping educators to embrace new music technology, Technology in Music Education (TiME U...
29/07/2026
Doubling & chorus processor gets an overhaul
Acon Digital have just launched the latest version of their free voice-doubling and chorus plug-in. Multiply 2 ...
29/07/2026
New Pultec-inspired pedal revealed
The latest addition to the Origin Effects line-up brings the legendary Pultec EQ into pedal format. Based on the EQP-1A, ...
29/07/2026
SBS Appoints Chief Commercial Officer and Director of Marketing and Audiences
29 July, 2026
Media releases
SBS is pleased to announce the appointment of Ni...
29/07/2026
Rohde & Schwarz showcases unified next-generation broadcasting ecosystem at SET ...
29/07/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({...
29/07/2026
Streaming Hits 48.6% of Total TV Usage in May
YouTube Leads in Media Distributo...
29/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/07/2026
Industry veteran joins Amagi to drive growth in Europe's leading broadcast market and advance cloud-native broadcast, FAST, and AI-driven operations.
LONDO...
29/07/2026
Work is ongoing to specify how to run RIST over WebTransport. This will deliver secure, stable, broadcast quality video playback and origination to any platform...
29/07/2026
Offline Files Makes the Drive Shelf Searchable on Mac
Brie Clayton July 29, 2026
0 Comments
A local Mac app for finding files, photos, and footage acr...
29/07/2026
Blackmagic Design Announces New UltraStudio Mini 12G
Brie Clayton July 29, 2026
0 Comments
New extremely portable Thunderbolt 4 capture and playback ...
29/07/2026
Brightline Lighting, a premier manufacturer of energy-efficient lighting systems for broadcast, videoconferencing, government, education and corporate applicati...
29/07/2026
Applications open for IFFI/WAVES Film Bazaar in Goa - Producer Delegation 28 July 2026
Image credit: Four Years Later
Screen Australia has opened applications...
29/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/07/2026
Foundry today announced that Academy Award-winning creative studio DNEG has implemented Hiero to support its editorial workflows. Part of the Nuke product famil...
29/07/2026
The Latest Addition to the Brand's StudioPro Ecosystem Combines Simple Deployment, Cloud Control and Professional Grade Wireless Reliability
QuickLink, a l...
29/07/2026
The Secret Master Adjustment Layer Hack in After Effects
Graham Quince July 28, 2026
0 Comments
Trish Meyer (who literally beta-tested the original Af...
29/07/2026
Post Completed with Blackmagic Cloud for Shane Kosugi's Feature Film SEEK
Brie Clayton July 28, 2026
0 Comments
Cannes Indie International Film Fe...
29/07/2026
Isabeau Miller Named Chair of Berklee Songwriting Department The Berklee alumna, who previously served on the Songwriting faculty, will begin her new role on ...
29/07/2026
Luxembourg, July 29, 2026 - SES, a leading space solutions company, was selected by LATAM Airlines to provide multi-orbit inflight connectivity service to its g...
29/07/2026
Wednesday 29 July 2026
Hayu is coming to Sky, bringing fan-favourite franchises...
29/07/2026
RT launches Unsolved, a true crime podcast, presented by crime journalist Barry Cummins and presenter Katja Mia.
Unsolved is a weekly podcast exploring unsol...
28/07/2026
LiveU, the pioneer in IP-video transmission and cloud-based remote production, today detailed its historic performance records set during the 2026 FIFA World Cu...
28/07/2026
The NFL franchise rebuilt their off-site content operation for an era when teams...
28/07/2026
Longtime partners expand viewer choice, data-driven analysis, access, immersive ...
28/07/2026
There is a unique moment before every major production. The audience never sees it.
The cameras are ready. The talent is preparing. Directors review the final...
28/07/2026
The CW Network and ESPN have announced their highly anticipated streaming agreement to bring CW Sports' live events to the ESPN App will officially launch o...
28/07/2026
As more than tens of thousands of spectators filled Paris' Champ de Mars and...
28/07/2026
Appear's X Platform played a central role in Chile's first large-scale c...