--- description: Christopher Nolan ditched the CGI in favor of truckloads of real dust title: Exclusive: How the 'Interstellar' Team Created Dust Storms image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2653b6b21e34654f/6987848ef887dc66f5e8ab49/935831_full.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [movies](/tag/movies/) ## movies Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Watch How the _Interstellar_ Team Created Those Terrifying Dust Storms: Exclusive  by [Daniel D'Addario](/author/daniel-daddario/)  ## Daniel D'Addario Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 27, 2015 2:00 PM CUT  Matthew McConaughey in INTERSTELLAR. Matthew McConaughey in INTERSTELLAR.Paramount  by [Daniel D'Addario](/author/daniel-daddario/)  ## Daniel D'Addario Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 27, 2015 2:00 PM CUT _Interstellar_, Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi spectacular from last year, was widely praised for its visionary use of special effects to imagine far-off planets, and a dessicated future Earth. The film, which was featured on the cover of TIME in November, won an Oscar for its visual effects last month. Those visual effects weren’t just CGI. As this exclusive video shows, the process of creating the dust storms that bedevil earthbound Jessica Chastain was laborious, focused on the movements of the wind and the tossing of very real dust. The dust storms, and all the rest of _Interstellar_‘s imaginings of a dystopian future, will be available to view on Blu-Ray and DVD March 31. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3741187/interstellar-movie-dust-storms/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3741187/interstellar-movie-dust-storms/"},"headline":"Watch How the Interstellar Team Created Those Terrifying Dust Storms: Exclusive","datePublished":"2015-03-27T14:00:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T05:05:26.571Z","description":"Christopher Nolan ditched the CGI in favor of truckloads of real dust","url":"https://time.com/3741187/interstellar-movie-dust-storms/","keywords":["movies","Matthew McConaughey","anne hathaway","Christopher Nolan","Interstellar","Jessica Chastain"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2653b6b21e34654f/6987848ef887dc66f5e8ab49/935831_full.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel D'Addario","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-daddario/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2653b6b21e34654f/6987848ef887dc66f5e8ab49/935831_full.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Matthew McConaughey in INTERSTELLAR.","caption":"Matthew McConaughey in INTERSTELLAR.","creditText":"Paramount","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3741187/interstellar-movie-dust-storms/","name":"Watch How the Interstellar Team Created Those Terrifying Dust Storms: Exclusive"}}]}] ```