Task 4: The Production Process

Avengers Assemble

Casting for the film began with the capture of Robert Downey Jr in 2008 as Iron Man. In 2009 Samuel L Jackson(Nick Fury) Chris Hemsworth(Thor), Tom Hiddlestone(Loki) and Scarlett Johansson(Black Widow) were signed up to the cast.

Joss Whedon, a fan of the Avengers comics, was named as director of the film in July 2010. The casting process continued with the announcement of Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo and Clark Greg. They would play the roles of Hawkeye, The Hulk and Agent Phil Coulson.

The introduction of Chris Evans(Captain America) would complete the main cast members roster.

In 2011, Cobie Smulders, Stellan Skarsgård, Paul Bettany and Gwyneth Paltrow were added as supporting characters. However Whedon wasn’t going to have the cast members from the individual films saying ‘You need to separate the characters from their supporting acts in order to create the isolation you need for the team’.

Pre-production

Pre-production This is part of the storyboard for

The Avengers. These scenes show Iron Man and Thor fighting over who get possession of Loki.

Part of The Avengers script where Dr Banner returns and smashes a Chitauri Leviathan in the nose.

FilmingPrincipal photography began on April 25, 2011, in Albuquerque, New

Mexico. The following month, secondary filming took place about an

hour outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Production relocated to Cleveland, Ohio in August 2011, where

filming transpired over a period of four weeks. Filming also took

place in the large vacuum chamber at the NASA Plum Brook Station

near Sandusky, Ohio.

Principal photography concluded in New York City, where filming

occurred over two days. Filming locations in New York City included

Park Avenue and Central Park.

The Canon EOS 5D Mark II and Canon EOS 7D digital SLR cameras

were used for some shots, and high-speed shots were captured on

35 mm film with an Arriflex 435. About his visual approach, Seamus

McGarvey remarked, "Joss and I were keen on having a very visceral

and naturalistic quality to the image. We wanted this to feel

immersive and did not want a 'comic book look' that might distance

an audience with the engagement of the film. We moved the

camera a lot on Steadicam, cranes and on dollies; and we chose

angles that were dramatic, like low angles for heroic imagery."

Post-Production•In December 2011, Disney announced the film would be converted to 3D.•In January 2012, it was reported that the film would be digitally remastered for IMAX 3D and open in IMAX theatres on May 4, 2012.•In a may 2012 interview, Joss Whedon said it was his decision to include Thanos in the post-film credits, although he was not identified in the film.•An additional postscript involving the Avengers eating shawarma was shot on April 12, 2012, a day after the world premiere.•The film contains more than 2,220 visual effects shots completed by 14 different companies.•ILM is the lead company and they were responsible for creating most of the New York city landscape. They creating around 10 blocks of the city.•Disney and Sony Pictures agreed for OsCorp Tower from The Amazing Spider-Man to be included in the film, but the idea was dropped because much of the skyline had already been completed.•Method Design in Los Angeles created the film's closing credits and also designed a custom typeface for the Main Title of The Avengers.

New York Skyline with OsCorp Tower