The Red Sea

The Red sea sequence was shot across 4 different beaches on Fuerteventura. The scene includes a combination of live action plates with environment and crowd extensions as well as full CG shots.

The draining of the Red Sea in front of the Hebrews eyes was done by combing FX generated surfaces with many live action elements shot at river locations in Vancouver and London. For some camera angles SFX created the disturbed surface using jet-skis that were placed out of camera. MPC added 300,000 CG crowd birds giving the sequence an extra feel of frenzy and drama Director Ridley Scott wanted operatic and performing skies throughout the scene, ramping up the drama to the point where the wave approaches on the horizon. The environment, compositing and roto teams worked together to create and combine the CG dark skies with particularly sunny backlit live action FG actors and extras.

The wave

The look and movement of the wave was defined early on by Ridley Scott’s sketches and concept art from the production team. To create and art direct the 160ft tall wave MPC started off with an animation rig that defined the shape, position and speed of the wave. MPC worked with Scanline FX and their Flowline water simulation software to create churning water travelling in front of the wave and breaking water on the waves lip. The wave finally hits Ramses and Moses and they are pulled under the water. Stunt elements were shot for both characters that were placed into MPC’s digital environment and the crashing wave. Live action elements were shot on the underwater stage at Pinewood and combined with digital crowd elements for the underwater shots