Erik Henry and Jeff White are the VFX supervisors behind Percy Jackson and the Olympians. They have the unenviable task of helping bring Rick Riordan’s words on the page to life for the upcoming television series. Recently, we had the opportunity to speak to the pair about working in this modern mythological world.
Both previously worked on more mature projects with Henry listing Black Sails and Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan on his resume while White worked on several superhero films and shows and The Witcher. For Percy Jackson and the Olympians, they needed to strike a balance for adults and younger viewers. Henry’s approach was to “[h]ave something that an older audience can look at and say, ‘that is so well done, I’m going to keep watching,’ and the younger kids don’t run out of the room because you made it too scary.”
“There’s really something to engage across all ages. That’s what’s so fun with this story,” White added. “I think a lot of parents can relate to it as far as raising kids and kids can relate to it as far as Percy’s journey. Our job was to surround them with this world that, whether it’s in the real world or it’s a fully fantasy environment, always felt very realistic and authentic to the characters”
Since Percy Jackson and the Olympians is highly influenced by mythology, viewers can expect many creatures and beasts to show up. Henry discussed how the crew captured the Chimera’s fire-breathing and it involved some heavy weaponry. “We’re going to set it up so that you can take in a flamethrower and actually use that. We’ll put you in the right spot for the various shots. Being able to incorporate that in, to me, makes that scene so much more powerful and real because the set is really hit with real fire and in this instance, at full scale, 1:1.”
Fans of the books can get excited for some of Percy’s iconic equipment. Henry talked about the work behind his trusty ballpoint pen/sword, Riptide. They wanted “to make it different than any other sword that you would find…We didn’t want it to be a lightsaber. It had to be right and interesting.”
Earlier in the day at the press conference, White shared his colleague’s approach. “Erik had the great idea actually of maybe a thin line of it forms at the middle and the handle spools up and grows out of the pen. It’s not an easy thing to make a ballpoint pen transform into a sword.”
Then, there are Percy’s flying shoes, which Henry was really impressed with. “When the shoes are first given, so I’m not giving anything anyway since everyone knows them from the books, when they’re first given to Percy, the person who gives them says ‘Maia’ and the wings come out and they flap,” he said. “I think that it’s just a lovely, elegant, the animation that was done by the ILM team on that is exquisite…having shoe laces form the wings. And they’re old. When you open the box, you look at them and it looks like they are hand me downs. You get this lovely aging…so the final look in that sequence is so wonderful. I just love it.”
Percy Jackson and the Olympians premieres Wednesday, December 20, on Disney+.
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