VFX house was sole vendor for Martin McDonagh film
Union has revealed the VFX work that went into director/writer Martin McDonagh’s latest film, The Banshees Of Inisherin.
Produced by Blueprint Pictures for Searchlight and Film 4, the tragic comedy stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson in an end-of-friendship breakup movie that swings between the hilarious, the horrifying and the heartbreaking.
The Banshees of Inisherin follows two men who’ve been friends for years and are going through a crisis that results in missing fingers. This along with 1920s digital matte painting environment work, CG objects and elements work required the Union team to create technically challenging and complex VFX. You can view its VFX breakdown below.
Union was sole vendor for the production, and worked closely with McDonagh and Simon Hughes as VFX supervisor. Union came on board very early in the process and was on set for the shoot in Ireland in the middle of the pandemic.
The team had its work cut out with the missing finger VFX, Hughes explained: “The biggest challenge was creating CG stumps of Brendan Gleeson’s fingers alongside the intricate movement and animation requiredl. We had to make a CG version of the hand and work on the many complex hand movements involved to make it look realistic.”
Other visual effects included CG fire, an impressive lightning storm, a CG church bell and the period matte painting that establishes the remote landscape in the film’s opening scene.
Hughes added: “The show doubled in size from our original award and had a very tight turnaround time, but working with a seasoned director like Martin, who we already had such a great relationship with, meant it was a total pleasure from beginning to end. The VFX are invisible, as they should be and the film itself is a masterpiece.”
McDonagh said: “I’ve worked with Union on two films now, Three Billboards and The Banshees of Inisherin, and have always found them to be brilliantly artistic collaborators, and a lot of fun.”
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