STARNO provided Matte Painting and environment enhancements for Ashes in the Snow, the powerful film adaptation of Ruta Sepetys' New York Times best-selling novel. Set against the harsh backdrop of the 1941 Siberian landscape, our work was essential in recreating the desolate and freezing environment of the Soviet labor camps.
The primary focus of our intervention was the digital creation of extreme winter conditions. We integrated realistic snow onto numerous plates, ensuring the atmosphere felt biting and immersive. Furthermore, our team performed extensive digital construction, modifying existing structures to fit the period and extending vast mountain ranges and remote villages to enhance the scale of the epic journey.
The seamless integration of these digital environments helped emphasize the contrast between the brutal reality of the deportation and the ethereal beauty of the protagonist's art. This intricate work was carried out by Frédéric St-Arnaud as a Matte Painting Freelancer for the VFX studio Filmmore.be.
In 1941, Lina Vilkas, a 16-year-old aspiring artist, has her life forever changed when she and her family are deported to Siberia during Stalin's brutal dismantling of the Baltic region. Despite the inhumane conditions and the loss of her home, Lina finds solace and strength in her art.
As she documents her harrowing experience through drawings, she risks everything to send secret clues in the hope that they might reach her father's prison camp. Ashes in the Snow is a poignant story of resilience, the power of creativity, and a young girl's unwavering hope to break the silence of history and honor the millions of lives lost during the era.
STARNO TEAM:Frédéric St-Arnaud
Filmmore.be
Feature Film – 2018