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www.postmagazine.com 12 POST APRIL 2018 BITS & PIECES LOS ANGELES — Last month's ac- tion-packed, two-hour premiere of the Grey's Anatomy spinoff Station 19 featured fiery visual effects from FuseFX to add to the drama. The ABC series is centered on a group of Seattle firefighters of Station 19 and the dangers they face each week. VFX highlights of the new Shondaland series include pretty much anything that the fire depart- ment is challenged with, including fire, smoke, explosions and some perilous situations. In Episode 1, for instance, four firefighters jump out of a window to avoid getting caught in a huge fireball. In Episode 2, there is blue fire on the freeway that the ladder truck has to drive right through in order to rescue some of its team trapped on the other side. The entire road ends up engulfed thanks to the magic of visual effects. According to Dan Levitan, VFX supervisor on the show, "It is a thrill to work with Paris Barclay and the im- pressive Shondaland team. I especially enjoy working on projects that involve fire and explosions. It adds a whole other level of drama to the story." To complete its work on the new series, FuseFX relied primarily on Nuke and Houdini, with digidoubles used for the shots involving the actors jumping out of the window. Other artists lending their talents to Station 19 include Joe Coleman, CG supervisor; Casey Conroy, VFX supervisor and Jason Gottlieb, com- positor supervisor. For more on visual effects for television, please see our related feature, beginning on page 20. ABC'S NEW STATION 19 SERIES EXPLODES ONTO PRIMETIME FuseFX jumped into the fire for the ABC drama. Blue fire effect on the freeway.