“I kept telling the animators to think of the shark as a big diesel truck” – Scott Anderson

Come this Friday we will see a different kind of horror thriller hitting screens with The Shallows up for release. What sets this film apart is in the fact that while in today's day and age when the genre of horror flicks relies heavily on the occult and dark arts, The Shallows focuses on a different kind of horror. 
Directed by James Collet-Serra starring Blake Lively the film follows the story of a surfer stranded 200 meters from shore who has to depend on her wits to survive an attack by a great white shark. Like any films that features animals, The Shallows too had to its share hardships when it comes to shooting. Here is where Scott E Anderson, the film's visual effects supervisors literally became the man of the film. Bollywood Hungama caught up with Anderson for a quick chat about what went into making the great white in The Shallows.

Did you have any reference material before you started working on creating a shark?
Jaume Collet-Serra (Director/Executive Producer) and Diana Ibanez (Visual Effects Producer) did a lot of research. Through Jaume's notes and our conversations, Diana and he put together a research package - moments of shark that Jaume liked, general actions and behaviour of sharks. That really was our basis of library.

What was the greatest challenge apart from creating a realistic character?
I kept telling the animators to think of the shark as a big diesel truck with lots of power and torque, versus a high-revving, German-engineered car. It's big and sleek, with a graceful, powerful way of swimming. We use that mass when she's attacking the buoy or hitting anything else - she's got a huge, heavy size to her. Jaume had a real sense of what he wanted for the film's thriller and scare factor - sometimes, it's sneaking up where you don't expect it, and other times it's a big, heavy shark coming for you. He was very much playing with that, so getting that real-but-scary balance was very important.

You and your team also managed to pull off a massive amount of water simulation. What was that like?
Though the team did use a sea bob during production to move some water, the size of the shark required an even greater amount of displacement, which was created digitally. Years ago, you'd never think of tackling this kind of project on this scale. It's amazing how many of our companies were able to help us with both the shark animation and the extensions of water and water simulation.

Did you create set extensions of the location?
The parts of the film that required a more controlled environment than Lord Howe Island were shot in a water tank, with the environment added in digitally. We created a virtual, aquatic world. It was a massive undertaking - probably three-quarters of the movie involves visual effects. During production, Jaume captured a beautiful, 360 environment from the position of the rock island that Nancy is on. That 360 environment became our virtual world that covered everything from sunny day to cloudy night to early morning, all of the times you see in the film.