With its star-studded cast and sprawling narrative, Scott Cooper's Black Mass heads back to the '70s to tell the story of Whitey Bulger - the brother of a state senator and one of South Boston's most infamous criminals.
It was fitting, then, that Zero VFX - with one of its two offices in Boston - was called upon to re-create the bygone era of the city it calls home.
From augmenting crowd shots to swapping one season for another, Zero's work on the project was far- and wide-reaching. Nevertheless, despite its contribution, Zero lived up to its name, leaving no trace of its fingerprints across the production.
We managed to implement a diverse range of invisible effects across Black Mass, working directly with the plate photography, says Sean Devereaux, VFX supervisor for Zero on the project, and more than willing to spill the family secrets.
It was challenging, but I think 99.9% of the people who see it will never know we touched a single frame of it.
Changing Seasons
The Zero team worked on 375 shots in total, straddling period enhancements, shot corrections, and violence augmentation. The name of the game was realism, which, while adding to the drama of the film, was a challenging task.
The director, Scott Cooper, wanted the film to be totally true, in every way possible, to the time it took place, explains Devereaux. That meant shooting on location in Boston and sometimes in front of buildings that wouldn't have existed in the time period. It was up to Zero to remove those buildings from the plates.
Another factor to consider was that Black Mass was shot in late spring, whereas most of the scenes in Black Mass take place in a much colder late winter. Zero's team of seasoned supervisors, producers, and artists took on the monumental task of swapping seasons.
Utilizing a diverse array of tools - including Autodesk's Maya, The Foundry's Nuke, and Adobe's Photoshop, Devereaux and his team went about transforming mild spring to a stark winter. This involved creating CG snow. Any time you see snow in the film, it was added by us, says Devereaux. Also, it entailed removing the thick foliage from the trees visible during footage.
There's really no way to just take off leaves from a tree - you have to replace the entire background, explains Devereaux. A lot of our shots became over 80% digital in order to accomplish that, with entire backdrops of green foliage changed to snow-tipped branches.
Creative Control
All of these changes were impressively created without the aid of any greenscreens. For Devereaux, this wasn't necessarily an issue, as it gave the director much more creative freedom in how he approached each shot for the film.
I want to give the director as much time as possible to figure out how he wanted his shot to look, and as soon as you put that greenscreen up, you're instantly limiting his ability to have more time with the cut, explains Devereaux. In avoiding that, yes, it meant we had to focus on rotoscoping, but it allowed the director more freedom in the editorial process. At Zero, we want to engender that creativity, not distract from it.
Devereaux states that the most VFX-intensive shots faced during the production were those set within a moving vehicle. They did take the most resources, remembers Devereaux. We had to replace absolutely everything outside of the windows, including the reflections, which required a lot of careful, meticulous work from our artists.
Thankfully, VFX Supervisor Paul Linden was on set, he continues. He did a great job on set, ensuring that the transition between on-set shooting and postproduction was as smooth as it could possibly be.
From Drawing a Crowd to Drawing Blood
In addition to the CG snow, the crowd extension - achieved by duplicating extras - became another important element in the Black Mass VFX process.
There were no CG people involved in Black Mass's crowd extensions, explains Devereaux. It was a case of simply duplicating extras from multiple takes. We achieved the effect in 2D using assets captured from other takes and angles. The result was totally seamless.
Zero didn't just need to draw a crowd, but also draw blood. Black Mass is, after all, a violent film, and that meant a great deal of arterial spray being used to enhance the special effects occurring in the original plates.
Zero's work didn't just include enhancing the violence, but also toning it down. If you're a sucker for authenticity, you know bullet holes don't have smoke come out of them when you shoot somebody, but squibs sometimes cause that, says Devereaux. As such, a lot of our work involved squib cleanup. It was about making things look more real while also enhancing the impact of the violence.
Building Boston
Throughout the Black Mass project, reality was the name of the game. Yes, entire buildings were removed, and an epic reversal of Mother Nature was achieved. But despite these feats Zero's involvement needed to remain as low key as possible.
We did a lot of work, but what I'm really proud of is that, of all the work we've done at Zero, Black Mass truly is one where you'll never know we were there, concludes Devereaux. We're invisible - it's an illusion in every sense of the word.
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
28/11/2025
Nadia Fall attends the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of Brides at the Egyptian Theatre on January 24, 2025, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Donyale West/...
28/11/2025
It's easy to ignore those little red update available badges. But when it ...
28/11/2025
WASHINGTON Federal Communications Commission has released a tentative agenda for the December Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, December 18, 2025 ...
28/11/2025
The Professional Fighters League is looking to super-serve fans of mixed martial...
28/11/2025
Fubo has released in beta on select Roku devices a new feature that lets users display up to four simultaneous streams at once....
28/11/2025
The WNBA playoffs and Week 4 of the NFL regular season highlight the list of live sports events airing on television this weekend....
28/11/2025
The 32nd class of honorees to the B+C Hall of Fame took to the stage at New York's Ziegfeld Ballroom on September 26 for a gala induction event. Click below...
28/11/2025
We hold in our hands the very last Next Text for Next TV, the weekly back-and-fo...
28/11/2025
DirecTV said it made a deal with EchoStar to buy EchoStar's video businesses, including satellite-TV provider Dish TV and virtual MVPD Sling TV, for $1 plus...
28/11/2025
The Broadcasting+Cable Hall of Fame, the premier industry event paying tribute to the influencers, innovators and shining lights of broadcast, cable and streami...
28/11/2025
Friday 28 November 2025
Sky Sports x Slawn drop limited-edition football jersey...
28/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz shows resilience in a challenging environment, revenue exceeds t...
28/11/2025
Unwrapped: The Toy Show Appeal - airing this Sunday on RT One and RT Player- s...
27/11/2025
LONDON Vizrt has added several AI-driven advanced features offering improved speed, intelligence and accuracy in the newest version of its media asset managemen...
27/11/2025
Prime Video has launched AI-powered video season recaps in a beta version for select English-language Prime Original series in the U.S., a move Amazon is callin...
27/11/2025
Back to All News
Netflix's Raat Akeli Hai: The Bansal Murders Marks a Grand...
27/11/2025
27 Nov 2025
GSMA brings M360 Eurasia 2026 to Samarkand in partnership with VEON...
27/11/2025
Tahar Rahim and Izuka Hoyle star in the gripping six-part Sky Original from Acad...
27/11/2025
Thursday 27 November 2025
Sky Arts Reveals the Nation's Greatest Basslines - and Queen Reign Supreme
The UK's most iconic basslines have been revealed...
27/11/2025
Back to All News
Stranger Things 5': Prepare for One Last Adventure With O...
27/11/2025
The media industry has a paradox at its core. It's an industry built on light, color and imagination, yet behind the scenes, it's powered by one of the ...
27/11/2025
Rating reflects rating progress across areas including policies, diversity & inclusion, health & safety and Net Zero leadership
Winchester, UK, 27 November 202...
27/11/2025
What are the industry standards for Retail Media? Kathryn explains that certification is based on the IAB Europe Retail Media Measurement Standards and the IAB ...
27/11/2025
World champion boxer and Irish sporting icon Katie Taylor will be in studio this...
27/11/2025
Roblox, one of the world's most popular online gaming platforms for primary ...
27/11/2025
Black Friday is leveling up. Get ready to score one of the biggest deals of the season - 50% off the first three months of a new GeForce NOW Ultimate membership...
26/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Prime Video EP Mike Muriano Previews Massive Black Friday Slate Fe...
26/11/2025
A cinematic snow sculpture at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival. Photo by Randall Michelson...
26/11/2025
Book podcasts are booming. On Spotify, you'll find everything from celebrity book clubs to deep dives with bestselling authors. And in markets where audiobo...
26/11/2025
Mumbai, November 24, 2025: In a first-of-its-kind initiative, JioStar, in collab...
26/11/2025
LONDON Factual content producer ITN Productions has launched a new low-latency IP gallery for news bulletins....
26/11/2025
MIAMI TelevisaUnivision said it struck a new multiyear distribution agreement with YouTube TV that includes distribution of TelevisaUnivision's U.S. network...
26/11/2025
OpenDrives, Inc., a leader in software-defined data storage and data services, today announced the launch of the Atlas Corporate Creative Solution. This new Atl...
26/11/2025
Disguise, the industry-leading company powering the world's biggest live performances, is partnering with pioneering LED wall manufacturer DVS to give atten...
26/11/2025
HighField AI, the pioneer in agentic and multimodal automation for broadcast and media production, today announced the expansion of its global channel partner n...
26/11/2025
As high-stakes Premier League fixtures approach and additional premium content launches, with MONO positioning themselves to dominate Thailand's sports stre...
26/11/2025
Hosting a wide variety of events from high-intensity NHL games to complex live music concerts and major entertainment productions, Montreal's 21,000 capacit...
26/11/2025
Vizrt, the leader in live production technology revolutionizing viewer engagement and experience, releases AI-driven advances focusing on speed, intelligence, a...
26/11/2025
ITN Productions, an award-winning factual content producer, today launched a new low-latency IP gallery for news bulletins. Responsible for delivering a leading...
26/11/2025
Ikegami reports ongoing advances throughout 2025 in developing and delivering coordinated television production solutions that maximize quality, versatility and...
26/11/2025
Following the Nov. 21 blackout of NBCUniversal channels on Fubo, the two sides have traded barbs about their inability to reach a new carriage deal....
26/11/2025
LONDON As TV sports rights become increasingly important for both broadcasters and streamers, Ampere Analysis predicts global investment in the genre will surpa...
26/11/2025
LOS ANGELES Vubiquity said it has achieved the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Media & Entertainment Competency as part of the AWS Partner Network (APN). This designa...
26/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission's Enforcement Bureau said it has entered into a consent decree with Comcast calling for the cable company t...
26/11/2025
Berklee Named to the Hollywood Reporters Top Music Schools List The publication highlights the college's screen scoring program, industry partnerships, and ...
26/11/2025
Back to All News
Animated Series Love Through a Prism' Casts New Light on ...
26/11/2025
Back to All News
NALIP Unveils Fifth Cohort of Director Incubator
Social Impact
26 November 2025
United States
Link copied to clipboard
The National Assoc...
26/11/2025
YouView Achieves Greenly Gold Certification for SustainabilityNov 26, 2025
YouView is proud to announce a Gold Certification award from Greenly for our perform...
With its star-studded cast and sprawling narrative, Scott Cooper's Black Mass heads back to the '70s to tell the story of Whitey Bulger - the brother of a state senator and one of South Boston's most infamous criminals.
