Forrest Gump used a lot of VFX in its film, from the spring sequence to the end. Still, they were also used for four different reasons: to magnify the environment, to lengthen the shot, to create movement, and to highlight the character.
How did they do the special effects in Forrest Gump?
In Forrest Gump, the VFX team used a number of techniques to give the shot the effect the director wanted, including hiding cameramen behind props and scenery to get telephoto shots of the helicopters passing in the background.
To avoid Tom being run over by the truck, the filmmakers filmed him running alone and then merged him with the truck.
The special effects team had to get creative while filming the ambush sequence because they had to blow up two soldiers without hurting anyone. They also had to carry a 90-kilogram Michael T. Williamson out of the jungle while napalm exploded behind them.
The pyro shots were composited with the actors, and the birds flying out of the cornfield were 100% CGI. The feather sequence was shot by first filming the entire shot without the feather and then superimposing its position over the footage and animating it.
Footage
Principal photography occurred between August and December 1993, primarily in Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Visual effects were used to integrate Hanks into archival footage and to develop other scenes.
Tom Hanks plays Forrest Gump, a man with a below-average IQ who encounters many historical figures and events throughout his life. Michael Conner Humphreys plays Forrest’s younger self, and Robin Wright plays Jenny Curran. In the film, Hanna R. Hall plays Jenny Curran, and Gary Sinise plays Lieutenant Dan Taylor. The latter loses his legs in a robbery and falls into a deep depression. The film stars Haley Joel Osment as Forrest Gump Jr, Sally Field as Mrs. Gump, Geoffrey Blake as Wesley, Siobhan Fallon Hogan as Dorothy Harris, Richard D’Alessandro as Abbie Hoffman, and Grand L. Bush, Michael Jace, Conor Kennelly, and Teddy Lane Jr. as the Black Panthers.
Tom Hanks was originally up for the title role but turned it down. He also said that it took him three days to learn how to play the role and that footage from that time could not be recorded.
Ken Ralston and his team at Industrial Light & Magic used archival footage to incorporate Hanks into the film.
In December 2011, Forrest Gump was selected for inclusion in the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry because of its use of archival footage.
