Scene Stealer is a recurring Calendar feature looking at the tricks and techniques used by Hollywood's behind-the-scenes armies of makeup people, visual-effects folks, costumers, cinematographers and stunt coordinators. This week's installment takes a look behind the very stormy scenes of Martin Scorsese's box-office hit "Shutter Island." The film's federal marshals, played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo, had to contend with a hurricane while conducting their investigation at the Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, but the crew had its own hurricane problems.

Inclement weather is nothing new in the movies, but the raging hurricane needed for "Shutter Island" proved to be a challenge for special effects coordinator R. Bruce Steinheimer. "Shutter" cinematographer Robert Richardson "is known for his wide crane shots," Steinheimer said. But the wide crane shots in and around the film's location in Medfield, Mass., meant that Steinheimer couldn't rely on the usual rain bars -- there weren't any big enough. He had to bring in a 140-foot-wide light truss, like the kind used in rock concerts, and rig it with water hoses to douse the actors with more than half a million gallons of water. Nine-foot-high wind machines had to be trucked in from California. "These were the biggest in the States," Steinheimer said. One set got so drenched that crew members sank up to their calves in mud and the place began to smell. As Steinheimer puts it: "I imagine this was what World War I trench warfare was like."

--Patrick Kevin Day

"Shutter Island'" photo from Paramount Pictures

Related:

Scene Stealer: Working with 'Frozen's' wolves

Scene Stealer: 'Wolfman' and the secrets of torture tech

“Avatar” picked up another award Tuesday night, but Oscar prognosticators probably shouldn't read anything into it -- “The Hurt Locker,” "Up in the Air" and “Inglourious Basterds” weren’t eligible.

James Cameron’s blockbuster was named best live-action 3-D feature by the month-old International 3D Society, kicking off its inaugural Lumiere Awards at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

“Up,” also in the running for Academy Award best picture honors, was honored as best animated 3-D feature, and another Pixar work, “Partly Cloudy,” won in the category for best short 3-D motion picture/narrative.

The International 3D Society was formed Jan. 21 with a stated mission of advancing “the achievement of professionals working in the arts and technologies of Stereoscopic 3D.” Its board of governors includes a diverse group -- studio executives, the heads of 3-D and post-production houses and even a PhD at UC Berkeley's school of optometry. The awards were voted on by more than 100 film industry 3-D experts, a spokesman for the group said.

Among other winners Tuesday were the Imax film “Under the Sea 3D” as best 3-D documentary, “G-Force” as best 2-D-to-3-D converted feature, and “Avatar’s” Neytiri (played by Zoe Saldana) as best 3-D character of the year.

-- Lee Margulies

Photo of Neytiri from "Avatar": WETA / Associated Press

In the wake of the blockbuster success of "Avatar," 3-D is all the rage in Hollywood -- and not just for big action movies either. A 3-D documentary called "Cane Toads" generated buzz in Sundance, and there's chatter that Ang Lee could make his next project, the adaptation of boy-on-boat bestseller “The Life of Pi,” in 3-D. (There are plenty of large-scale animals on the boat with the main character, including a 450-pound Bengal tiger).

As one Oscar-winning effects guru said at the annual bake-off, the gathering of the Academy's visual effects branch narrowing down the contenders, "dramas are where [3-D is] heading."

The main purpose of the bake-off, held recently at Kate Mantilin's restaurant in Beverly Hills, is to whittle down a list of seven pictures (initially chosen from a list of 271 eligible films) to three titles that will be nominated for the Oscars. Presentations were made over the course of the dark, stormy night -- an appropriate tone for an evening featuring end-of-the-world epics, killer robots, wizards and general destruction.

"Avatar" is all but guaranteed one of the three Oscar slots, which left “Star Trek,” “2012,” “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” “Terminator: Salvation,” “District 9,” and “Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen" battling it out for the other two positions.

It was almost as interesting to note the films that didn't make the cut. Fanboy favorite “Watchmen" never made it as far as the bake-off despite arriving at theaters as one of the most anticipated effects films in recent memory; several artists, including some who worked on the Zack Snyder film, agreed that the middling reception to the film undermined its chances. "District 9," however, impressed despite being a much more modestly budgeted film. “It was physically impossible to see the difference between the background, humans and synthetic creatures,” one member remarked.

Before the presentations started, visual effects branch chairman Richard Edlund -- who picked up Oscars for the original “Star Wars” trilogy -- reviewed the red light rule, which requires presenters to wrap up when the light goes on. Some are more willing than others to follow that regulation. When James Cameron last appeared at the bake-off 12 years ago for “Titanic," he had a novel solution: When the red light flashed by the podium indicating his time was up, he casually reached over and unscrewed the light bulb.

-- Liesl Bradner