Television has seen a lot of change in recent years and that doesn’t apply solely to the United States. Ayrat Islamov has been working in feature films and television for nearly two decades in Russia. As a CG supervisor, Islamov has been a key player in the ascension of what is possible in both of these and has earned his renown as one of the most proficient and gifted artists in the field.
From Action to Comedy to Drama and nearly all points in between, Ayrat has been instrumental in enabling producers, directors, and actors to inhabit the worlds and characters that have become so beloved by audiences within and outside of Russia. Whether the silverscreen, the small screen, or even a tiny portable screen, if you’re watching a production that originated in Russia, there’s a good chance of seeing the impressive handiwork of Ayrat Islamov.
Londongrad was a thrilling Action Adventure show which received a Best Television Series nomination at the APKIT Awards as well as a Georges Award nomination for Best Russian TV Drama of the Year. In the series, Oxford University student Mikhail Kulikov lives in London and heads the Londongrad agency which serves to solve the problems of wealthy Russian residents of London. Londongrad HQ resides along the Thames river in the show but in reality is filmed in Moscow. The grandness of the office and it’s authentically British setting was manifested with some actual filming in London but was fully realized through the efforts of Ayrat.
Filmed in a Chroma key pavilion, the Londongrad office was then enhanced with computer graphics for the creation of the ideal setting of the agency. Mr. Islamov describes, “I received footage from London. It was a panoramic video from a skyscraper on the Thames. This was filmed by five cameras at the same time, in a circle, in different inclusions. This allowed me to get one big video for the lanterns outside the window of the Chroma key pavilion. Several video panoramas were stitched together: a sunny view outside the window, a cloudy view outside the window, dawn-sunset, night.”
What most fans remember about the show are the monologues of Mikhail which broke the fourth wall. These signature moments of Londongrad allowed the main character to consider and present to the viewing audience multiple possible scenarios for fixing the problems of his clients. Known for its lack of repetition, these moments were when Ayrat placed elements of infographics and motion design on top of the densely edited footage, creating a signature style for the show that has mass appeal.
Adaptation is a comedy television series that flips the perspective of many American shows of its ilk. Ashton Ivey is a CIA agent sent to obtain a Russian gas technology secret. Accompanied by two other Americans (played by SAG Nominee Peter Jacobson of Primetime Emmy Award Winning Series House and Good Night, and Good Luck-nominated for six Academy Awards, and Bruce Lester-Johnson of Steven Spielberg’s Oscar Nominated Ready Player One and DC’s Justice League) Ashton falls in love with the beautiful Marina and finds a true blue best friend in Valera, a down-to-earth Russian guy.
As the show’s VFX Supervisor, Ayrat materialized snow ridden Siberia for actors who were comfortable in a warm studio but one of his most memorable contributions is the manner in which Ashton communicated with the CIA back in the US.
He divulges, “The filmmakers came up with an amusing way to link Ashton’s spy to the CIA department. To make it impossible to trace the data transmission channel, the CIA developed an online game that was in the public domain where any user could play it. Ashton’s virtual hero in the form of the elven queen Rosilda met with the Dwarf and transmitted messages by correspondence.
I had to develop the design of the game and the interface of the correspondence service. It took a lot of time to approve the concepts of the image of Rosilda and the Gnome. They had to be both comical and natural. In terms of dynamics, I had to completely repeat the character animation typical of games, in the same style.
When the character rendering was ready, work began on creating the game’s interface. The interface of the correspondence had to be designed in such a way that the viewer could understand who and with whom was corresponding. The interface lay on top of the film and was synchronized with the actions of the actors. A very important criterion was to create such a version of the interface that it would be well read at the same time on different shots that differ in lighting from light to dark.”
The tone of the 2020 Detective Series Volk (“Wolf” in Russian) possesses a much darker tone than either of the previously mentioned productions. The story revolves around a former Russian intelligence officer who is freed from an Arab prison by a man who wants his assistance in finding the killers of his son. As one might presume, Islamov’s role as VFX supervisor on Volk was in support of the military fights and gunplay that took place in each episode. Making the battle scenes even more impressive is the fact that they take place along two timelines; that of present day as well as 1943 Moscow.
When one particular WWII battle scene did not contain the intensity that the director aspired towards, it was Ayrat who elevated it to its final gut wrenching form. From artillery fire to brain exploding suicide shots, it was often Islamov and computer graphics to the rescue. Ayrat quickly professes that there was no challenge greater than taking modern day Moscow back three-quarters of a century.
He recalls, “Filming was carried out on the bridge near Red Square for about four days. Modern Moscow has changed a lot since this time, which required me to remove all the modernity that was in the frame such as road markings, traffic lights, road signs, cars, buildings in the background that did not exist in 1943, TV antennas, air conditioning units, and much more. That isn’t the most glamorous part of my work by reversing time is impressive when you actually see it on screen.” Impressive is the ideal description of what Ayrat Islamov achieves on a daily basis for all the productions with which he is involved.
Writer: Coleman Haan