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www.postmagazine.com 21 POST MAR/APR 2019 VFX FOR TELEVISION isual effects studios today are continu- ing to face ever-increasing demands to deliver high-end visual effects for broadcast television, on smaller budgets and tighter schedules. Shows on premium channels, such as HBO and Starz, as well as streaming pro- viders like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu, with the time and means to produce higher-end productions, are putting the pressure on post teams produc- ing shows for the small screen. Here, Post speaks with several leading visual effects teams and houses about some of their biggest visual effects challenges when creating work for television and how they overcome these challenges to produce winning results. SYFY'S DEADLY CLASS Deadly Class is a new SyFy show that's based on the popular comic series of the same name by Rick Remender. The series is set in 1980s San Francisco, where a disillusioned teen named Marcus (Benjamin Wadsworth) is recruited into a high school-type academy for young assassins. Master Lin (Benedict Wong) runs the Academy for the Deadly Arts at Kings Dominion, which is hidden behind the crowded streets of the city's Chinatown neighborhood. Lin is always looking for young prospects to groom. Marcus recently found himself out on the street following the death of his parents and the destruction of the boys' home where he was staying due to a suspicious fire. Master Lin sees Marcus' potential, thinking he set fire to the orphanage. And now wanted by the police for multiple murders, Marcus sees Kings Dominion as his only choice for hiding out from the cops. He also sees it as a way to achieve his ultimate goal: the assassination of President Reagan, whose policies, he feels, led to the death of his parents. Mark Savela is the show's visual effects supervi- sor, and worked closely with Jon Cowley and the team at FuseFX in Vancouver to create the effects needed for the series. FuseFX was the sole VFX provider on the pilot episode and the lead visual effects house on the following nine episodes that make up the 10-episode season, which debuted in mid-January. "Our LA office has good relationship with (pro- ducer) Jake Aust, who is behind the scenes on that particular show," recalls FuseFX's Jon Cowley. "They reached out to us during pilot season for the work — the creative. We bid against a couple of local BC vendors that were doing that [and] had some great meetings with Lee Krieger, who was the director for that episode, and we really gelled. We were the only vendor for the pilot. Based on that experience, they asked us to con- tinue along into the actual season." For the pilot, Cowley says the visual effects centered around building out the limited sets to feel big and grand. This included the Kings Dominion set, which serves as the academy for the students. "You can't go crazy building sets that are going to last the season," says Cowley of the practical settings. "In the pilot, when they first come into Kings Dominion, there is a big reveal, where you see some statues and a high ceiling. That is a local church here that we had to slice and dice, and cut apart and make it, digitally, be this big, grand entrance way." Making Vancouver look like San Francisco in the '80s was also a big part of their work. "Dealing with current-day architecture that had to be more retro — the whole Quake Tower, was a small set piece that had to be big and grand," he explains. "A lot of that invisible effects-type work. And then the blood and gore, which is a staple of the Deadly Class universe." The show's VFX supervisor Mark Savela points to Episode 5 as the visual effects centerpiece for the season. The students head to Las Vegas with a plan to kill a friend's dad. But an LSD trip puts a twist on things. "And as soon as we started, we started prep for this episode," says Savela. "I think there were over 200 visual effects shots, and Fuse created an amaz- ing sequence of driving down the Las Vegas strip, while our lead character is on seven hits of LSD." The scene was actually shot in Vancouver in late fall — not in Las Vegas — adding to the challenge. "We saw the schedule and said, 'We were shooting Vancouver for Las Vegas in October?'" says Savela. "Right away, if you've ever been to V Mark Savela FuseFX creates VFX for SyFy's Deadly Class.