How I, Tonya’s effects crew captured the film’s impossible skating shot
Film audiences are used to seeing impossible things on-screen. Computer-generated creatures and digital alterations of images are so commonplace that watching a dragon fly through an arctic wasteland to incinerate a zombie army in Game of Thrones is more notable for its narrative importance than for the sheer thrilling impossibility of the image.
But even in the current digital wonderland of Hollywood, one shot in I, Tonya stands out. Craig Gillespie’s surprisingly funny, sympathetic, Oscar-nominated biopic about disgraced Olympic skater Tonya Harding spends some time building up the impressive athleticism of Harding’s competitive skating routines — particularly her execution of the triple axel, a notoriously difficult spin.
Harding…
