VFX Legion Delivers 225+ FX For Cobweb
The Primary Visual Effects Vendor for Director Samuel Bodin’s Psychological Thriller, Legion Delivers over 225 Shots for the New Horror Film Out of Lionsgate. The Foreboding Tale – Starring Award-Winning Actors Woody Norman (C’mon C’mon), Anthony Starr (The Boys), and Lizzy Caplan (Masters of Sex) – Premiered in Theaters on July 21st.
VFX Legion served as the primary visual effects vendor for Cobweb, the psychological thriller directed by Samuel Bodin and written by Chris Thomas Devlin. The global visual effects boutique delivered over 225 shots for Lionsgate’s newest horror film, which premiered in theaters on July 21st.
The story follows Peter (Woody Norman), an eight-year-old terrified by mysterious tapping and eerie whispers coming from inside his bedroom wall. His mother (Lizzy Caplan) and father (Anthony Starr) insist they are just his imagination, but as the boy’s fears intensify, he suspects his parents are hiding a dark secret.
An atmospheric thriller with a fairytale quality, Cobweb called on Legion to help bring the director’s vision of his debut feature film to life. Artists crafted invisible effects designed to heighten the horror of the bone-chilling tale as it unfolds inside the family’s eerie old house. Computer-generated gory shots were required for the few visceral moments in the film – along with a range of digital effects – from a 3D spider brought to life with animation, and digital limb replacements to CG environments and set extensions.
Shot on a soundstage with almost all the action confined to a house built without a ceiling, Cobweb required some tricky set extensions to augment the practical footage.
Matchmove artists followed the camera as it meandered through hallways, rooms, and secret spaces – tracking its movements, orientation, and field of view, and then recreating identical angles with a virtual camera. CG sections of the ceiling – constructed by artists to blend with the texture and look of the dilapidated building – seamlessly integrated into the real-world environments captured on practical footage.
Cobweb had been in development for a few years before its release. Devlin’s screenplay was featured on the prestigious Black List in 2018. Lionsgate acquired the rights to the film and signed French director Samuel Bodin (Marianne, Lazy Company) in 2020. Award-winning actors Anthony Starr (The Boys, Banshee) Liz Caplan (Masters of Sex, Castle Rock), and young Woody Norman (C’mon C’mon, The White Princess) – attached to the project later that year.
Shooting began in Sophia, Bulgaria in November 2020 and was delayed when COVID-19 halted production. Legion, conceived as a fully remote global VFX boutique in 2013, continued to move forward, working with existing footage throughout the pandemic.
Co-founder and VFX supervisor James David Hattin headed up the job, assembling a team of production managers, producers, VFX artists, animators, matte painters, trackers, coordinators, and support talent custom-tailored to the film’s needs.
The visual effects company with studios in Burbank, California, and British Columbia, Canada, a pioneering collaborative remote pipeline, well-established protocols, and a diverse international collective of talent – in place and evolving for almost a decade – provided Cobweb with the efficiency, scale, and caliber of visual effects resources the film demanded.
The visual effects for Cobweb were all created remotely using a variety of tools, including Autodesk Maya, Foundry Nuke, Maxon Redshift, and SynthEyes.
CREDITS:
Title: Cobweb
Genre: Horror, mystery, thriller
Release Date: July 21, 2023 (Theaters)
Production companies – Lionsgate, Vertigo Entertainment, Point Grey, Media Capital Technologies
Directed by – Samuel Bodin
Written by – Chris Thomas Devlin
Executive Producers – Andrew Childs, Connor DiGregorio, Josh Fagen, Jonathan McCoy, Christopher Woodrow
Producers-Evan Goldberg, Roy Lee, Seth Rogen, James Weaver
Cinematography – Philip Lozano
Edited by – Greutert, Richard Riffaud
Visual effects executive – Brianna Domont
Visual Effects by VFX Legion:
James David Hattin -visual effects supervisor: VFX Legion
Nate Smalley – visual effects producer: VFX Legion
Dylan Yastremski – chief technology officer: VFX Legion
Sebastian Weber – senior animator: VFX Legion
Blake Anderson – cg supervisor: VFX Legion
Rommel S. Calderon – cg supervisor: VFX Legion
Bryan Shepperd – cg artist: VFX Legion
Shantel Short – cg artist: VFX Legion
Kenneth Bailey – cg artist: VFX Legion
Patricio Harris – cg artist: VFX Legion
Matthias Lowry – lead compositor: VFX Legion
Ulysses Argetta – digital compositor: VFX Legion
Cyntia Büll – digital compositor: VFX Legion
John R. McConnell – digital compositor: VFX Legion
Daniel Molina – digital compositor: VFX Legion
Lauren Morimoto -digital compositor: VFX Legion
Brad Moylan – digital compositor: VFX Legion
Eugen Olsen – digital compositor: VFX Legion
Adam Kelway – digital compositor: VFX Legion
Kate T.C. Lin -digital compositor: VFX Legion
Courtney Cheesman – digital compositor: VFX Legion
Daniel Keith Raffel – digital compositor: VFX Legion
Vicki Silva – digital compositor: VFX Legion
Ken Fisk – digital compositor: VFX Legion
Nick Guth – digital compositor: VFX Legion
Kim Hong Kyoung – digital compositor: VFX Legion
Dave Tipper – matte painter: VFX Legion
Ruy Delgado – tracking artist: VFX Legion
Michael G. Jackson – tracking artist: VFX Legion
Matthew Noren – visual effects coordinator: VFX Legion
Alanna O’Brien – visual effects coordinator: VFX Legion
Joseph Soloway – visual effects coordinator: VFX Legion
Perry MacDonald – systems administrator: VFX Legion
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