STARNO provided extensive Matte Painting and historical reconstitution services for Pawn Sacrifice, the biographical drama chronicling Bobby Fischer's legendary 1972 World Chess Championship match against Boris Spassky. Set during the height of the Cold War, the film required a diverse range of international locations, many of which were recreated through digital environment work.
Our team’s primary focus was transforming local filming locations into iconic global settings from the 1920s through the 1970s. This included the complex task of turning a plate filmed in Granby, Quebec, into a period-accurate 1970s Venice Beach, California. Architectural modifications were also essential in transforming a Canadian government building into a convincing Russian Airport, capturing the specific brutalist aesthetic of the Soviet era.
Additionally, we conducted a massive historical cleanup and reconstruction of St-Paul Street in Old Montreal, digitally modifying it to represent New York City in the 1920s. These enhancements involved adding period-specific signage, removing modern elements, and extending the urban environment to match the historical scale required for the narrative.
This intricate world-building was meticulously executed by Frédéric St-Arnaud, acting as a Matte Painting Freelancer for the VFX studio Vision Globale.
In 1972, Bobby Fischer (Tobey Maguire), a chess prodigy from Brooklyn, finds himself caught between two superpowers as he challenges the Soviet Empire. Fischer’s journey from a troubled young genius to a global icon culminates in the "Match of the Century" against Boris Spassky in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Pawn Sacrifice explores the terrifying price of genius and the fragile line between brilliance and madness. Against the backdrop of Cold War politics, the film depicts Fischer’s personal struggles with paranoia and the immense pressure of being a pawn in a much larger geopolitical game, where every move on the board has consequences far beyond the tournament hall.
STARNO TEAM:Frédéric St-Arnaud
Vision Globale
Feature Film – 2014