PORTLAND, Maine — Eric Saindon grew up in Gorham, thought hard about becoming an architect, then ended up in the movie business, where he has achieved a stratospheric level of success.
Does that last part sound like hyperbole? Consider this: Saindon is the visual effects supervisor for “Avatar: The Way of Water,” which will be released on December 16 and is quite possibly the most technically ambitious movie ever made.
The expectations for the film are daunting, not surprising given that the first “Avatar” is the top-grossing film of all time.
Saindon’s first big break came when he was asked to work on visual effects on the first “Lord of the Rings” movie. That film had 220 visual effects shots. “The Way of Water” has 3,250.
“Pretty much every shot in this movie is a visual effects shot,” he said. “And a big visual effects shot.”
Creating these effects is, of course, not the work of one man. I asked Saindon how big a team he oversaw. “About 1,400 people on just the visual effects side,” he replied.
The number is so immense, I had to laugh. “We’re pushing the boundaries on this movie,” he explained. “We needed a lot of people. We needed a lot of computer power.”
“Avatar: The Way of Water” has a run time of more than three hours, and it wasn’t finished—really, truly finished—until about a week and a half ago. Saindon watched it with director James Cameron; the two have worked so closely on the project that their offices are next door.
“When it ended,” Saindon said, “He looked at me and said, ‘What do you think?’ And I said, ‘Do you have any notes for me?’ And he said, ‘Nope.’ And I said, ‘Then I love it!’” Saindon laughed at the memory. “That was the nail in the coffin. It’s done, we’re sending it, it’s over.”