Seamless VFX supports Director Will Sharpe's surreal vision for this true-crime story.
Overview
As sole VFX vendor on Landscapers, Dupe worked in close collaboration with the director, DoP and art department to plan and deliver seamless visual effects for over 160 shots across all four episodes of this BAFTA nominated mini-series.
Delivering finely tuned face replacements, set extensions and clean-ups, complex elements and simulations, keying and rotoscoping, our team of 17 artists brought conviction and credibility to the Western motif that characterises the surreal moments of this compelling story.
Face replacements
We delivered four shots in which we replaced the original actresses faces with Olive Coleman’s. To facilitate the sequence, we spent time on R&D, writing our own AI scripts to speed up the process of making face replacements.
Snow effects
Dupe collaborated with the art department and SFX teams to support the snow scene by extending the fake snow with FX simulation and particle work, also adding smoke.
Set extensions
References to old Wester movies characterise the narrative and Dupe was asked to extend the Western town sets and environments. Our VFX supervisor attended on set to ensure the plates were optimal for our VFX artists to augment with period style architectural elements and rolling hills. Our matte painter delivered sweeping vistas which we comped with added distance haze and the tiny period details of the Wild West town.
Lens qualities
Our episode 4 brief was to match our work to the lens distortion and shooting format required by DoP Erik Alexander Wilson. Our VFX supervisor shot plate elements and still photos for the artists to line up with using the portrait anamorphic technique developed by Wilson on the Sony Venice camera. For the elements we didn’t have, we limited our use of CG where possible, paying close attention to the chromatic aberration, focus and halation when finessing our work.
Oscar winning Olivia Coleman and David Thewlis star in this dark comedy, which was nominated for 7 BAFTA Awards.