Creating the gritty realism of gotham city

COSA VFX reveal what it took to bring Gotham City to the small screen

Subtle CGI

It may not have the fantasy of Gotham but Black Mass posed similar challenges for Zero VFX. The 375 shots worked on by Zero included recreating 1970s Boston. “It was challenging, but I think 99.9% of the people who see it will never know we touched a single frame of it,” says VFX supervisor Sean Devereaux.

CG snow

Using tools, including Maya, Nuke and Photoshop, Zero VFX transformed mild spring to a stark winter. This involved creating CG snow: “Any time you see snow in the film, it was added by us,” says Sean.

Moving buildings

Entire buildings were removed from some shots, concludes Sean: “We did a lot of work, but what I’m really proud of is that, of all the work we’ve done at Zero, Black Mass truly is one where you’ll never know we were there.”