The Fabelmans

It was an honor to work with Steven Spielberg for the second time — one of my all-time favorite directors.

The Fabelmans is Spielberg’s most personal and autobiographical film. ILM Singapore assembled a small, A-Team of artists to deliver a range of subtle yet powerful VFX work. Our contributions included face replacements, crowd augmentation for the opening sequence, set extensions — and even some tornado chasing!

Two of the most challenging shots I worked on were the cinema crowd replacement and the tornado sequence. In the crowd shot, over 80% of the audience was digitally generated, requiring careful integration to blend with the crowd in the plate.

The tornado shot, seen from inside a car, was filmed entirely on the LED volume — without bluescreen. We had to remove the original plate and replace elements like the treetops, all while matching lighting and atmosphere to maintain realism. This project was a great example of how invisible VFX can support storytelling without ever distracting from it.