VFX TRENDS
REVISITING THE SCENE OF ‘MY TOUGHEST TV EFFECTS SHOT’ By IAN FAILES
These days, television show and streaming series typically require hundreds, if not thousands of VFX shots to be managed over a season. But amongst those multitude of visual effects, there’s often just one shot or sequence that tends to stand out as being trickier than the others. It might be from a highly technical shoot or because a very specific piece of action is required. Sometimes there may be a large number of iterations carried out on the shot, or just the sheer complexity of the VFX called upon to tell the story point may make the specific scene a tough one. Several effects practitioners share their toughest scenes on recent television and streaming experiences, with the answers ranging from detailed creature animation on The Crown, to intricate shot choreography for The Mandalorian, to managing a live-action explosion shoot on The Stand, and just the sheer VFX delivery task at hand for Raised by Wolves. THE CROWN: MAKING A CG STAG LOOK MAJESTIC
TOP: Maintaining a majestic nature was one of the crucial briefs given to Framestore for the stag in The Crown. (Image copyright © 2020 Netflix)
Season 4 of The Crown features a number of scenes in which members of the royal family are hunting a stag, an animal that in the show appears as a completely CG creation by Framestore. For Creature Supervisor Ahmed Gharraph, who is also Joint Head of CG at Framestore, the stag was one of the toughest things to realize since it had to match the drama’s sense of grounded reality. “Our aim,” says Gharraph, “was to convince viewers that the stag on their screen was real, rather than a good digital imitation. It’s a goal that’s difficult to achieve, especially on a TV budget, but for us
86 • VFXVOICE.COM SUMMER 2021
PG 86-90 TV SHOTS.indd 86
5/3/21 5:09 PM
