From The Archives:
Thirty years after its release, Independence Day remains one of the defining blockbusters of the 1990s, a film that helped reshape the scale, ambition and visual language of large-scale destruction in modern cinema. To celebrate this anniversary, we wanted to look back at the making of this landmark film with two of the key creative forces behind it.
For this special retrospective interview, we are joined by director Roland Emmerich and visual effects supervisor Volker Engel, whose long-running collaboration has played a major role in bringing some of cinema’s most spectacular visions of disaster, invasion and destruction to the screen.
From their early work together in Germany to Independence Day and beyond, Emmerich and Engel have built a creative partnership defined by scale, ingenuity and a constant search for new ways to make the impossible feel tangible. With Independence Day, that approach resulted in some of the most iconic images of 1990s cinema, from the arrival of the alien ships to the unforgettable destruction of the White House.
////
30 years later, what is the first memory that comes to mind when you think about making Independenace Day together, and did you realize at the time that you were creating something unlike anything audiences had seen before?
Roland Emmerich: “(Laughs) Where do I start? I brought Volker [Engel] on board because I thought he was the only person who could keep the budget under control. Another advantage was that he had access to a lot of students who were eager to work on a film, which was great. In short, I hired Volker and paired him with two highly experienced visual effects experts: Douglas Smith [Visual Effects Supervisor] and Joe Viskocil [Mechanical Effects Supervisor/Pyrotechnics Supervisor]. Together with Clay Pinney [Mechanical Effects Supervisor], they went on to win The OSCAR® for their incredible work. That said, when you’re making a movie, you never really know how audiences are going to respond. So, during production, you stay completely focused on the work, doing everything you can, day by day, to make the film as good as it can possibly be.”
Volker Engel: “As you mentioned Roland, you were immediately saying: ‘Don’t you know some young filmmakers that might be interested and that we can hire for the visual effects from the Film Academy in Ludwigsburg?’ I remember Roland saying there’s one thing that he doesn’t like. And that is if somebody says to him: we’ve been doing it always this way, like for the last 20 years. So, there needed to be some ingenuity, as Roland is a visionary. Overall, it was 325 people working on the visual effects. 10 of them were students from that particular German film school. But at the same time, they also had very important jobs, like 6 of them were in the CG department, which only had 9 people in total. Then, we had Anna Foerster [Director of Photography: Visual Effects Camera Unit) and Philipp Timme [Director of Photography: Visual Effects Camera Unit] as Directors of Photography for the miniature effects besides the motion control team that Doug Smith had.”
The Art of VFX: How did the two of you work together during pre-production to turn Roland’s ambitious ideas into effects that were actually achievable with the technology available in 1995?
Roland Emmerich: “Well, would you like to answer that, Volker?”
Volker Engel: “Yes, sure. I can. The one thing that comes to mind – and I hadn’t thought of that in a long time. We did do a very early test shoot, where we had the first photo backing blown up really large and then tried, similar to what we did during Moon 44 with the miniatures, in this case jet fighters on wires. We were testing how far we could push this. Frankly, we immediately realized not very far (laughs)…”
Roland Emmerich: “…but like for example, when we did a shot of the Air Force One, we used that technique [wires], because when you move an object very slightly, in this case a miniature airplane, it looks very much like a real aerial shot.”
Volker Engel: “Yeah. Still one of my favorite shots.”
Looking back, what was the biggest technical limitation you faced, and how did that limitation ultimately force you to become more creative?
Roland Emmerich: “In a way, the destruction scenes were naturally the biggest challenge because they were so unusual to film and execute. We used a wide range and variety of different technologies. For example, the White House explosion was created using a scale model, and we later composited the helicopter into the shot. Many of the initial moments were achieved with miniatures. The massive wall of fire rushing toward us, for instance, was created using a model that was essentially a chimney, since fire naturally wants to rise upward. We realized this was the most cinematic way to create the effect of a moving wall of fire. There were many different techniques used for different moments throughout the sequence.”
Volker Engel: “I would just add that certainly one of the biggest limitations was all of the motion control work, where we had to do all these different passes. Nowadays, with computer animation, you have a lot more flexibility. That also led us to push our computer artists. We were constantly pushing the technology while we were making the movie. So, the motion control photography was really a limitation because it’s so time consuming, and you have to do all these different camera passes that later get composited together. When we had our squadrons of jet fighters, it would have taken forever to shoot every single jet fighter for a whole squadron. Consequently, we pushed our CG department that was working inside the company POP (Pacific Ocean Post), and it was only 9 people. They delivered the goods, as they did the squadrons of jet fighters for us. Whenever you see more than two or three at the same time, those were computer-generated jet fighters, which we still composited into real backgrounds that we shot. And there were real skies that were composited, or miniature backgrounds of the alien spaceships.”
You touched upon it, Roland. The film is famous for its large-scale destruction sequences. Can you tell us more in detail the story behind the miniature city setups and the famous tilted-city technique used to create the illusion of a wall of fire racing through the streets?
Roland Emmerich: “Volker.”
Volker Engel: “Yeah, that was Joe Viskocil, who came up with that idea, and he pitched it to us. He said: ‘Well, we can just build buildings on a tabletop miniature, but we then tilt it 90 degrees because fire always wants to get up. And so, you have an explosion on the bottom, but the camera is on top of the ceiling and is looking down onto the miniature.’ You, as the audience, don’t know where you are. It just looks like you’re looking down a street, and the wall of fire comes towards you. In reality, it was actually rising upwards towards the ceiling where we had the camera. That was the basic idea of this. But it was really great because it was hugging all these buildings. All the interaction that we needed was there and Clay Pinney and his team added to that realism with their large-scale special effects in the live action shots that cut seamlessly with the miniature shots.”
Roland Emmerich: “There was a lot of ingenuity in this film. Take the chase scene between the alien craft and Will Smith in his fighter jet, for example. It involved all kinds of different techniques. I think that’s what I like most about it: the ingenuity and the problem-solving. As Volker mentioned, Joe came up with the idea of the wall of fire, and we found a way to make it happen.”
Were there any effects tests, accidents, or unexpected discoveries during production that ended up improving a sequence or changing your original plans?
Roland Emmerich: “When you’re making a movie, improvisation really comes into play when you’re working with actors. For example, we did a lot of improvisation with Will [Smith] and Jeff Goldblum, and it brought so much more fun to the film because they were both on a roll. That was a great approach, and I think it elevated the movie overall, because you simply can’t write moments like that. Even if you get the visual effects sequences exactly right, that’s not enough. Without a likability factor, audiences won’t care about the scene, no matter how dazzling or spectacular the visuals are.
Independenace Day had an incredibly likable cast with fantastic chemistry. At the time, we had plenty of battles with the studio over casting. More often than not, our preferred choices were met with resistance, as the studio would simply say no (laughs). Dean Devlin [Co-writer and Producer] and I fought really hard to get the actors we believed in (laughs). In the end, it was absolutely worth it, and it paid off.”
Volker Engel: “I can only add that it’s the screenplay. Everything we do visual effects wise that improves over time only works if it’s organically integrated in the story that comes from the screenplay.”
Which shot or sequence gave you the most sleepless nights, and what finally allowed you to solve it?
Roland Emmerich: “You have to answer that, Volker (laughs).”
Volker Engel: “I would say – and it’s probably expected for me to say – the explosion of the White House. That gave me some sleepless nights. But at the same time, I also have to say what was very important for me: every step of the way, Roland had my back and I could count on his support. That was something that I always felt because, don’t forget, I was 30 years old when I started this gigantic movie, having never done anything that big before. And you need this kind of reassurance. That I could always, if there was something I wasn’t sure about, go to Roland and we could discuss it. For instance, we would look at a Polaroid and he would give me directions. So, we had this constant exchange and conversations. That was very important. It was generally a great team spirit. Doug Smith, our Production Supervisor Bob Hurrie [Production Supervisor: Visual Effects Camera Unit] and I had a great work relationship. The White House explosion, of course, was difficult because it was such a huge set up. What I realized only the day that we set it up was that several dozen journalists were invited, and there were these rafters that were being set up. They were the audience to actually witness, how the White House explodes. The day before we did the White House explosion, Joe Viskocil told me how he wants to set up these explosions: it was a succession of three different explosions. It was a real choreography that was very important. I asked him to do a test just on a wall of the White House and test this succession of explosions. We found out the morning, when we looked at the material that we needed to make a slight adjustment between two of these explosions so that it would work really well. We did this adjustment. Then, that evening, we did the actual explosion, and we only had to shoot it once.”
At a time when digital tools were still relatively limited, were there moments when practical effects delivered results that you feel would be difficult to replicate even today?
Roland Emmerich: “You answer this Volker, as you are the technician (smiles).”
Volker Engel: “I would only say that some of the pyro we did, like the White House explosion. This massive organic explosion, this shape – all the stuff that comes flying towards you – I think this is very hard for a computer to simulate. Don’t get me wrong, you’d get a perfect explosion nowadays, but there is a reason why this specific shot is being shown over and over again. It’s one of these great moments in cinema history. That would be an example I would say.”
Is there a particular anecdote from the production that perfectly captures the spirit, ingenuity, and determination of the visual effects team?
Roland Emmerich: “It was a group of incredibly talented and ambitious people who came together to make it all work. That spirit and determination carried through the entire filmmaking process, which was both unique and innovative. Without someone with Anna Foerster’s skill set, the technical computer expertise of Doug Smith, and Volker’s groundbreaking work, none of it would have been possible, or as special as it became. We were also able to make the film for $72M, while other productions had already spent well over $100M. That over $25M difference came down to being highly efficient, effective, and disciplined with every dollar. At the time, there was no possible way to do this type of epic size, scale and scope digitally. You had to rely on physical miniatures and use models. That was a remarkable craft in its own right, but it’s an art form that has largely disappeared today.”
Volker Engel: “Our approach was, shoot everything for real as much as you can. In this case, with a lot of miniature work and then combine it digitally at the end. That was the perfect way to go. And because you mentioned the Air Force One shot, Roland in the beginning, talking about ingenuity. Anna used this so-called zero-gravity arm to make it look like it was shot possibly from another plane. And then Philipp had the idea of putting a halogen light bulb on top of the matte box of the camera, which was out of frame, and then dim this light up when the sun came out behind the wing of the plane. But the sun was only visible on the photo. We got a lens flare, which normally you try to avoid, but in this case, we wanted it to make the shot look more real. We did in fact do this shot completely in-camera. There is no compositing involved at all.”
Roland Emmerich: “We did a lot of stuff in-camera (laughs).”
Volker Engel: “True (smiles).”
When you watch Independenace Day today, which shots or sequences are you still the proudest of, and why do you think they have stood the test of time?
Roland Emmerich: “I think the destruction scenes are definitely among the highlights. Many of the cockpit sequences were also filmed in in-camera, which was a different approach. Instead of relying on Blue Screens and shooting endless background plates, we used painted backdrops. And the results worked remarkably well.”
Volker Engel: “Yeah, that’s a great example. That was definitely a huge money saver not to do everything with Blue Screen.”
Roland Emmerich: “In a way, it was already like kind of a volume stage.”
Volker Engel: “Besides the explosions, I remember one thing very well, which is not talked about very often. We have this nuclear blast in Houston. There is a tank with a bunch of guys inside. This tank was also shot completely in-camera. It’s standing on a bridge, and there is all this stuff flying towards it when the explosion happens. It’s another one of these in-camera shots that I think works very well. It was just one of these instances, where good lighting, good pre-planning and storyboarding led to that result.”
Roland Emmerich: “This is also a reason why everything looks so real and still holds up: good planning. Don’t forget, we only had… (thinks) How many visual effect shots did we have, Volker?”
Volker Engel: “I believe it was 432.”
Roland Emmerich: “Yes. Today, it would be 2000!”
Volker Engel: “Yeah (nods).”
Roland Emmerich: “We had a lot of these shots, where we used painted backgrounds. And I think they look more real than what you see today.”
Volker Engel: “I agree. Better than many Blue Screens.”
Looking back on your collaboration after thirty years, what do you think young filmmakers and visual effects artists can learn from the way Independenace Day was made?
Roland Emmerich: “There’s always a cheaper way and a more expensive way. Start by trying the cheaper way (laughs). For me, that’s the main reason we were able to make a blockbuster like Independenace Day for $72M. We were very strategic and took a pragmatic approach. You always have to figure out the smartest way to get it done. That’s also why the film has only 432 visual effects shots. Today, almost everything is done with visual effects, and that’s one of the main reasons – along with above-the-line costs of course, particularly talent compensation – that movies have become so much more expensive.”
Volker Engel: “From a visual effects point of view, I’m looking at a sequence like the interior of the mothership when I’m rewatching the movie. It works really well with this great atmosphere and real textures because everything was built. So, my advice would be, start first with something organic. Don’t go to computer animation 100% immediately. Use some textures that are real, which we did because obviously we build miniatures. That is something that, if you look at that sequence, works very well and has been copied in some other sci-fi movies. And when you see something like that, that also makes you proud that other filmmakers saw it the same way.”
Roland Emmerich: “Exactly.”
A big thanks for your time.
And a special thank you to my friend Jean de Meuron for his incredible help for this interview.
Be sure to watch the film on Disney+ / Hulu.
© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2026
