Despite not being a major action movie or a sci-fi blockbuster, is famously known for its catchy soundtrack and its unexpected success. With a budget of $84 million, the musical drama managed to collect $435 million and snatch a Golden Globe for Best Original Song, a Grammy for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media, and multiple other nominations. What's less known about the movie is that it used a huge amount of visual effects, even during sequences that show no clue of having any digital elements.
Directed by experienced VFX artist Michael Gracey in his directorial debut, The Greatest Showman adapts the real-life story of P.T. Barnum, the famous nineteenth-century businessman who's often credited with creating modern show business after he founded Barnum's American Museum. The movie puts a more upbeat spin on the titular showman (played by musical veteran Hugh Jackman), who resorts to unusual performers when his wax figure exhibition flops. Along with his wife Charity Hallett (Michelle Williams) and his playwright partner Phillip Carlyle (Zac Efron), Barnum faces vicious attacks from his detractors and the disapproval of his critics to bring his so-called "freak show" to tremendous success.
rejuvenating an actor with CGI and motion capture technology, which superimposes a young version of an actor's face on him and matches his performance.
The nineteenth-century sets were the part of the movie that needed the most CGI. Some shots used miniatures with CGI enhancements while others used portions of life-sized sets that were further complemented with digital extensions. Dozens of scenes implemented fully digital trees, roads, buildings, bushes, snow, clouds, and even wall decorations to better capture the mood of the era across The Greatest Showman's locations. Each one of these elements was carefully modeled and arranged inside their respective scenes, which were shot either on location or in a studio stocked with green screens. When characters look through a window, the exterior is actually a green screen that's later composited with the shot of what they're looking at (which is also composed of a blend of digital and real-life elements). At some point, the circus tent is completely created in post-production, with only the actors running toward it in front of a large green screen.
The visual effects in The Greatest Showman prove that CGI can do way more than creating high-octane intergalactic battles and godly superheroes. Just like Mamma Mia's CGI confetti, Michael Gracey's musical drama took advantage of clever digital techniques to achieve the finest level of detail. The proof of its success is how Charity's blue scarf in the movie's most emotional kiss scene - which was superimposed on her in post-production - can go completely unnoticed, while the sequence where the circus catches fire - which was mostly practical and actually forced the production to stop and evacuate the set - can easily be mistaken for CGI. Thankfully, some of the extras were retired firemen and nobody was hurt during that sequence, but the line between reality and movie magic has now been forever blurred.
