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
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
04/06/2026
Sony Electronics is introducing the SRG-AS10, a 4K 60p-compatible PTZ auto-frami...
04/06/2026
This recent grad from Spring, TX, led creative-video output for the Aggies' men's basketball team last season and has been producing video and creating ...
04/06/2026
For the first time at a women's golf major, every player in the field will r...
04/06/2026
Three Panasonic PT-RQ45 40,000-lumen 3-Chip DLP projectors made their first live...
04/06/2026
Bitmovin and Akamai have announced a collaboration with NRJ Group, a French mult...
04/06/2026
Telestream will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth N7952), demonstrating media work...
04/06/2026
Sony has announced the development of RIALTO 65, a 65mm format image sensor block for the VENICE 2 digital cinema camera, targeting release in the first half of...
04/06/2026
KOKUSAI DENKI Electric America will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth N8025, June ...
04/06/2026
Bell Media's TSN and RDS are the exclusive Canadian broadcasters of FIFA Wor...
04/06/2026
The Challenge: Receiving Heavy Media Files From Road Games Quickly and ReliablyT...
04/06/2026
MASV, a managed file transfer platform used in broadcast and live sports product...
04/06/2026
NESN has announced the appointment of Fahad Haider as Vice President of Operations and Engineering. Haider returns to NESN, where he previously served as Vice P...
04/06/2026
David J. Halberstam, who spent almost 50 years in sports as a broadcaster and an executive, died June 2 after a years-long battle with brain cancer.
Over his l...
04/06/2026
Although collegiate production programs are tasked with delivering high-quality ...
04/06/2026
California studio, two production trucks, global distribution system are combine...
04/06/2026
New global program empowers and supports storytellers through scriptwriting course and access to industry experts
TikTok and Sundance Institute today announce...
04/06/2026
Steinberg DAWs now boast in-depth Tonalic integration
Celemony's innovative virtual session musician plug-in has just received an update that brings ARA...
04/06/2026
Get Hands-On With Over 20 Mic Brands
GearExpo UK is fast approaching, and if you've been looking for a chance to check out some new mics, then you'r...
04/06/2026
Combos feature new Amplifier Intelligence engine
Positive Grid's latest release sees the company introduce two new combo amplifiers that promise to offe...
04/06/2026
Is Your Job Making You Work this June?
4 June, 2026
Media releases
SBS Launches the World Cup Watchers' Rights Association to Stand Up For Australians&...
04/06/2026
Statement regarding unauthorised use of SBS logos on third party social content
4 June, 2026
Media releases
SBS has become aware of social media posts in c...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Bitmovin, a leading provider of video streaming infrastructure, and Akamai, the cybersecurity and cloud computing company that powers and protects business onli...
04/06/2026
American Underground (AU), the Startup Hub of the South and a community of mor...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/06/2026
NVIDIA and Microsoft Reinvent Windows PCs for the Age of Personal AI
Brie Clayton June 3, 2026
0 Comments
RTX Spark - a 1-Petaflop Superchip, the Full...
04/06/2026
Inside the Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man Grade
Brie Clayton June 3, 2026
0 Comments
Simone Grattarola discusses shaping the look in DaVinci Resolve...
04/06/2026
Cine Gear Expo Announces 2026 Awards of Excellence Recipients
Brie Clayton June 3, 2026
0 Comments
Ed Lachman ASC, Caleb Deschanel ASC, and M. David M...
04/06/2026
St. Vincents Live with Orchestra Tour to Feature Berklee Alum Ruby Plume Berklee alumni St. Vincent and Ruby Plume will appear on the same bill across seven d...
04/06/2026
Back to All News
All the Truth in My Lies Coming to Netflix on August 28
Entertainment
04 June 2026
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard
Download the imag...
04/06/2026
Back to All News
Larry Tanz, VP of Content, EMEA, Delivers a Keynote Speech at ...
04/06/2026
Back to All News
Turn Your Living Room into a Stadium With the New FIFA World ...
04/06/2026
Keeping conversations real on LinkedIn Published on Jun 4, 2026 Categories: Product News
LinkedIn Corporate Communications
Share
LinkedIn
Facebook ...
04/06/2026
BackStory follows four Irish young people as they travel back to their parents' homelands
Modern Irish identity is enriched by cultures and influences from...
04/06/2026
June's forecast with GeForce NOW: 100% chance of gaming.
GeForce NOW is lining up new adventures for the month, from big-name blockbusters to quirky indies...
03/06/2026
SES and Viva, Mexico's ultra low-cost airline, have launched multi-orbit satellite inflight connectivity on Viva's Airbus aircraft. A total of 60 A320s ...
03/06/2026
The College Football Playoff, ESPN, and TNT Sports have announced kick times and...
03/06/2026
RED Digital Cinema will exhibit at Cine Gear Expo 2026 (Booth 33, June 5-6, Universal Studios Lot), hosting three panels and hands-on product demonstrations.
P...
03/06/2026
Roku has announced the Soccer Zone, a dedicated hub for FIFA World Cup 2026 content available across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Argent...
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.
