In Lovecraft Country (HBO and HBO Max), a young black man, Atticus Freeman, journeys across 1950s Jim Crow America in search of his missing father, experiencing both racial injustices of the era and literal monsters along the way.
Collaborating with Show Creator Misha Green, Director Yann Demange, DP Tat Radcliffe and VFX Supervisors Kevin Blank and Pauline Duvall, THE THIRD FLOOR was tapped to help realize some of the horror/fantasy drama series’ supernatural action. TTF contributed to several parts of the show including the opening dream scene, the Shoggoth action sequence, and a slow-mo action scene.
“We worked on a scene featuring a creature from Lovecraft lore that was particularly challenging and included several continuous camera shots,” explained Andrew McCully, London Supervisor, THE THIRD FLOOR. “We were able to inform staging, pacing and logistics for the planned backlot and location shoots, and help map the vision to specific lighting conditions. For a section of extreme slow motion, as a bullet flies through one of the one’r shots, we timed the speed of the bullet to fit within a camera move that could be shot low light on location. Each element within this shot was moving at a different ‘slow-mo’ speed, so we timed that out also.”
The team was able to efficiently meet the needs of the client by focusing on the animation specific areas of the sequence. “We found a good balance to provide what they needed for production by mixing in still frames where fully animated previs wasn’t as necessary,” noted L.A. Visualization Supervisor Nick Markel, THE THIRD FLOOR. “Look development for lighting was a key component and we did a number of tests with different options so the director and DP could guide it.”
Join the road trip to Lovecraft Country on HBO and HBO Max starting on August 16th.
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