LOVECRAFT COUNTRY

HBO

In this shot from the HBO horror drama series Lovecraft Country, based on Matt Ruff’s 2016 novel, the initial plan was to shoot “a variety of dynamic reactions of [actor] Jordan Patrick Smith transforming into [actress] Abbey Lee and then graft secondary CG gore onto their faces for multiple quick shots,” VFX supervisor Kevin Blank explains. “When [showrunner] Misha Green suggested in post we should see one longer sustained cut of Christina bursting out of William’s face, it required us to lean into our CG digital doubles as the hero primary elements rather than secondary.” Blank adds that VFX house Important Looking Pirates and its VFX supervisor, Pietro Ponti, created the CG characters “and painstakingly animated and mimicked their performances beautifully.”

Christina Braithwhite (Abbey Lee) bursts out of her lover William’s (Jordan Patrick Smith) body after assuming his identity in Lovecraft Country.