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on fire. The SFX [special effects] team, under Donnie Dean's supervision, created a practical fire tornado as a separate element. Massive swirling flames, hugely impressive. Sometimes we were using that footage to actually composite it together. But if we didn't, then we knew exactly what the CGI elements needed to look like, and what their exposure level and color had to be. "That's the case for pretty much every- thing in this film. We didn't make shit up. We always had very targeted references to work towards. There actually are a lot of all-CG shots in this film — way more than you would think — but they're al- ways respecting the visual language and the lenses and the lighting of the movie. Something that does exist in reality through, Autumn's cameras and the film stock that she used." James Alexander: "It's all about being true to the image that Ryan and Autumn are creating. Michael put an enormous amount of work into prepping all of our visual effects partners, explaining the pro- cess that he'd been through with Autumn on Wakanda Forever in terms of under- standing — both technically and creative- ly — her visual style and process. Some of the partners that we worked with, Storm, for instance, had already been through the process before and knew the rigor that we had to apply to make sure the digital work we were applying to Autumn's work was as true as could be. Michael created a bible that we shared with our visual effects partners that went into a huge amount of detail on the lens- ing, the way we were shooting and the way we needed to treat it to make sure everything was integrated as seamlessly as possible. That was a real milestone, when we first presented some of our work to Autumn and we got her sign-off. We established that trust, and then we knew we had a flow that would allow us to maintain that throughout the show." How did the VFX team collaborate with other departments throughout production and post? Michael Ralla: "I think a lot of the visual effects work on this film was what we call front-loaded, so there was really intense, complex and sophisticated plan- ning. We had a fantastic previs partner at Baraboom in LA, with an extended team in Spain. They were turning things around so fast using Unreal Engine — it was truly unreal — and we used their output as a communication tool to figure things out with other departments. "I always felt it was going to be around 700 shots, but it ended up being more than 1,000: The cotton fields, Remmick's death, train station, surreal montage, digital scars, vampire eyes and more. "Then, obviously, the twinning — the VFX work — Sinners would not work without. For moments with lots of physi- cal touch and interactivity, we developed some new technology called the HaloRig, pioneered because none of the technol- ogy that we found was good enough to do a full head replacement for Michael [B. Jordan] in 65mm, whenever we shot with the body double. At the same time, we pushed really hard to shoot real Michael as much as possible, including in that cigarette handoff shot that a lot of people seem to be talking about. Some shots are simple split screens, others are highly sophisticated, multi-pass compos- ites shot with a repeatable Technodolly crane, operated by Ron Tatham, involving complicated syncing and preparation with sound and VTR (video tape record- er) departments. "We were having tons of conversations to get everyone on-board. There was a constant dialogue, and I am a strong be- liever that just because we can basically do almost everything with our VFX tool kit, doesn't mean we should. We were also trying to connect special effects from on-set with the people doing the same work in post, to get them to talk to each other. That was a really important thing for Autumn, to make sure that what we talk about on-set also makes it all the way through to the people who are doing the work behind their computer screens, in a different country, at a later point in time, so they understand the storytelling, the message, her lighting, her lenses, what the film does." James Alexander: "After filming for weeks in the swamp, the culmination of that part of the production was Remmick's death scene. We collaborated with the special effects, special-effects makeup and stunts teams —being inter- woven with production design, costume design, cinematography and everything else. The real reward, I think, is the culmi- nation of the communication that we had up until that point. Of course, Ryan drives everything. But when Ryan's dealing with other things, I see visual effects as a nex- us of communication. We want to bring in all of the other departments and work with them as collaboratively as possible, so we can achieve the very best results. "It's always challenging. It's really tough to keep all of those plates spinning. But when it comes together — as I think it did in that scene — it's so cool to see. I think it's the communica- tion between the departments, the collaboration and bringing everyone together that is the most satisfying part of the job." DEPARTMENT www.postmagazine.com 19 POST SEPT/OCT 2025 New technology was developed to pull off the 'twinning' effect.