The Motion Picture Production Industry Association of B.C. gathered on February 21 at Stage 6 Studio to honour this year's Oscar nominees and recipients from B.C.

MMPIA chair Peter Leitch and IATSE 891 business agent Phil Klapwyk spoke about the need to highlight talent in B.C. and presented certificates at the event.

Vancouver's Aircover Inflatables—comprised of Mike Branham, Mike Kirilenko, Dave McIntosh, and Steve Marshall Smith—received the technical achievement Academy Award for the creation of the Air Wall, an inflatable green or blue screen to shoot scenes in front of (and to later add visual effects to).

"We were looking for a way to make these big walls safe and more versatile," Smith told the Georgia Straight, explaining that the product took about eight years to develop. It was first used on the 2014 U.S. production Godzilla (which was partly shot in B.C.).

In addition to being faster and cheaper to install than constructing a wall, Smith said it's also safer.

"If the winds get too strong, we can deflate it," he pointed out.

He added that the wall can be set on an angle appropriate for specific shots, or can be lowered to let more light in. So far, it has been used in England, Ireland, Australia, and the U.S., and he hopes it will become the industry standard.

Kirilenko added that it can also be used on trailers so it can be used, for example, in areas where construction is not possible or if a road needs to be cleared for emergency vehicles.

The foursome received their award at the 88th Scientific and Technical Awards presented in Los Angeles on February 13.

Another group of four received nominations for their work on Alejandro González Iñárritu's The Revenant.

Cameron Waldbauer, nominated for visual effects, explained that unlike effect-laden films on action-packed blockbusters, his work on things like snow, smoke, and wind were intended to be as seamless and innocuous as possible.

"When you look at the other nominees in our category and there are three of them, like big, blockbuster visual-effects movies that can't be made without visual effects, and for us, this movie was supposed to look like it was made no visual effects.…You're not supposed to know we were there."

One of his challenges was maintaining an even level of snow in all scenes, as he noted that even though it snowed on their Alberta locations, the snow often vanished quickly. He also worked on effect such as how torches carried by horse-riders lit up snow and trees in a forest.

However, one of their main challenges was trying to achieve the level of quality the director was seeking.

"He's extremely detail-oriented and if you miss those details, then he's not going to be happy with your product and it drives us to be perfectionists basically," Waldbauer said.

Robert Pandini, nominated for makeup and hairstyling, echoed how Iñárritu's exacting standards made them work at an intensive level.

"Every detail was very important to him," Pandini said. "He wanted to know a backstory to every person that was going to be on camera, why their hair was the way it was, which typically doesn't happen in our business."

Pandini, who worked on everyone's hair except for Leonardo DiCaprio, said he did a great deal of research to prepare and used tools from the time period in order to maintain authenticity.

"All the haircuts I did on all the trappers, I never used scissors, I never used standard combs. I used stuff as much from the period as I could: straight razors were used, mixed my own grease and my own products in order to make them look weathered and very organic and very raw, and it's difficult in my business to not overproduct someone's hair to make it look like it's just a helmet so I had to come up with stuff to make it still move and stay supple."

Set decorator Hamish Purdy, nominated in production design, said he faced the challenge of conducting visual research of a time period before photography existed.

"The research that was necessary to figure out exactly what things looked like in 1822 was a big part of it [the challenge]," he said. "This is all pre-photography so there's no record of what things look like other than paintings and in journals that we read so there was a lot of extensive research before we even started filming and producing all the set-dressing and props necessary for the movie."

Meanwhile, sound-mixing nominee Chris Duesterdiek said he was challenged by getting equipment to the remote locations, which were difficult to access.

"We couldn't do it the normal way—we had to reduce our size and sort of be sound sherpas in a way," he said. "And most everyone on the movie turned into sherpas because you had to figure out 'How do you get this gear up go-trails and up rivers?' and places where trucks couldn't get to."

These British Columbian nominees will find out if they've won in their categories when the 88th Academy Awards are held on February 28.