VOTD: ILM Featurette On The New York Long Take In Joss Whedon's 'The Avengers'

In Joss Whedon's The Avengers, the director has two long takes that feature all the members of the team. The first is in the research lab on the Helicarrier where Loki's plan to disband the team goes into play. The second takes place during the Battle of New York where the team completely get in sync with their combat. Speaking with Whedon during the release of the film, he explained the choice as follows;

I did know I had a couple [long takes] that I felt were integral, one because it was a way of showing how disjointed they all were and one to show how united they all were.

That second one, with people flying around the city, jumping on enemies and more, wasn't actually shot as a long take. Obviously. It was the result of countless man hours at Industrial Light and Magic as effects were placed in the shots and each was stitched together. A brand new video has come online that explains the creation of this shot, shows some animatics and more. Check it out below.

Thanks to Comic Book Movie for the heads up.

Here's the description from the ILM YouTube channel.

While "The Avengers" posed many visual effects challenges, one of the larger challenges was pulling together the "tie-in" shot during the third act of the film. Rather than frames, this single shot is measured in minutes on screen and is one of the longest effects shots in the film. It incorporates both practical special effects and extensive digital visual effects by ILM. The New York City environment that serves as the setting for this shot (and virtually the entire alien invasion) is computer generated by the visual effects team at ILM.