Simon Wilkinson, head of VFX at 1185 films, talks about the technology behind the newly-released horror
By Matthew Corrigan
Published: April 19, 2024 Updated: April 22, 2024
Simon Wilkinson, head of VFX at 1185 films, talks about the technology behind the newly-released horror
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin> Simon Wilkinson, head of VFX at 1185 films, talks about the technology behind the newly-released horror
https://www.tvbeurope.com/production-post/how-1185-films-created-the-vfx-on-new-horror-all-you-need-is-death title=Share via Email class=share-email>
Ahead of its theatrical release in UK and Irish cinemas, Paul Duane's new horror movie, All You Need is Death has been praised by critics. Simon Wilkinson, head of VFX at 1185 Films, talked to TVBEurope about creating the unsettling effects that are set to scare horror fans as the film opens to audiences.
How involved were the VFX team in pre-production and on-set filming? Pual Duane's vision as director of All You Need is Death was to create a lot of the effects using prosthetics. However, although they work well, practical effects still need some embellishment. There were many discussions in pre-production as to how the project would work. The relatively low budget nature of the shoot meant that we were not always able to be on set as VFX supervisors, unfortunately. There was one practical effect that became particularly challenging the team were excellent but the shot was difficult under the budgeting and time constraints, so we had to use VFX to fix it. The team spent many hours trying new techniques within a confined timeframe to achieve the best results.
Where did you draw inspiration for the VFX from? For the creatures/Smudgies, Paul Duane showed us references from the Japanese horror film Pulse, by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. In Pulse, there's a scene where a shadow of a girl appears to walk past the screen and it looks very creepy. Paul was very keen to use this scene in particular as an inspiration. We wanted to make the most of the shadowy creature itself and add some detail, which is why we chose to adopt CGI and create something with depth.
Simon Wilkinson, head of VFX at 1185 Films We also liked the Dr Manhattan disintegration scene from the film Watchman and tried a similar effect on the creature morph, later on in All You Need is Death. I think it was the idea of the guy disintegrating that inspired us, but we wanted our actor to both disintegrate and then morph into the creature afterwards.
What was the main purpose of using VFX? The VFX were used to enhance the folk horror narrative without being too obvious for the audience. The best example is where we removed the thong on the actor who played the creature. The creature was non-binary and Paul Duane created the creature with actor / model, Benedict Stewardson, in mind. They gave an exceptional performance and played a really essential role in the film. The thinking around extracting the thong was to remove the gender, making the creature look naked, so we had to get rid of the defining lines this was quite a challenge.
The blood effects were used to enhance the horror. The bottle which becomes lodged into Rita's face (played by actor Olwen Fou r ) was prosthetic and looked plastic, so it was re-textured to look like glass. The chisel blade in a scene at the end of the film was CGI and motion tracked to the handle, because obviously it wasn't a good idea to let two actors try and violently stab each other with a real blade!
How many shots did you create for the film? 20 shots were created.
How big was the VFX team on the project? The VFX team was quite small, with three people overall.
Talk us through the workflow. Each shot required a different approach but the workflow was consistent throughout. R&D is a very important if not an essential part of our process. Once we have agreed the concept we can complete the work. The Smudgies, which were the shadowy creatures which had haunted the character Breezeblock all his life, started life as a CGI Nosferatu-type creature, and this had quite a lot of depth. It was transparent and had a skeletal structure inside, almost like an X-ray. The CGI was created in Lightwave and Blender. It was rigged and then a walk-and-crawl motion capture was applied to it. To make it look shadowy we took it into After Effects and applied some smoky filters to it, softened it off and made it look darker.
Paul Duane was impressed by that development but wanted it simplifying further, so we removed the transparent detail. When viewed as a solid shadow it didn't look right. It still looked too defined, too much like Nosferatu. So we decided to stick with the same method (because we liked the movement that we got from the motion capture) and used a 3D model of a monk instead. It had a more human shape to it but the robe made it look more solid, less defined, and also it added that extra dimension to the movement. This worked a treat and as a result the Smudgies looked more creepy and it was difficult to identify what they were this is exactly what the director had in mind.
When speaking to Eye for Film publication, Paul Duane noted When you're on a limited budget, you've got to think of ways to creep people out without showing them too much. The more you try to show, the less effective it can be. The VFX are very sophisticated. There are actually creatures in there. I kept saying Show less, show less! Take out the detail.' You can see the shape of it. You know there's sort of a thing inside there, which is why all the VFX work paid off.
What was the biggest challenge of working on All You Need is Death? The biggest challenge was the creature morph, at the end of the movie. Originally this was going to be a practical effect with minimal VFX. The whole scene
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...
02/06/2026
blueCORE standalone processors headline solutions designed to simplify the trans...
02/06/2026
If you've kept up with this article series, you know by now where to start w...
02/06/2026
With new DSP configurations and flexible licensing options, Calrec is removing the barriers to virtualised audio, giving broadcasters the freedom to scale produ...
02/06/2026
The TV agency was one of the earliest adopters of Nielsen's local television...
02/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/06/2026
Grass Valley today announced that Australian News Channel (ANC), operator of Sky News Australia, has deployed Grass Valley AMPP to transform its newsroom produc...
02/06/2026
Studio Technologies, a leading manufacturer of high-quality audio, video, and fiber-optic solutions, announces its new Model 385 Mic/Intercom Beltpack. The Mode...
02/06/2026
The Riedel Group today announced the appointment of Gudrun Scharler as CEO of Riedel Networks. She succeeds Michael Martens, who has led Riedel Networks since 2...
02/06/2026
More signals, higher quality, and outstanding ingest and streaming flexibility deliver professional results in a small, all-in-one footprint...
02/06/2026
farmerswife will be featured on the Modena Media & Entertainment stand at this year's Mediatech Africa 2026, giving visitors an opportunity to explore the l...
02/06/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17 19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
02/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/06/2026
Trust has become a commercial issue With global advertising spend forecast to exceed US$1 trillion this year*, the commercial consequences of weak governance co...
02/06/2026
June sees Ireland's cultural calendar in full bloom, as RT Supporting the Arts showcases a vibrant and wide-ranging programme spanning music, theatre, visu...
02/06/2026
After The Traitors Ireland launched in 2025, Irish audiences proved to have a taste for the global hit reality show. This Bank Holiday Monday fans can indulge e...
01/06/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
01/06/2026
Designed to solve a common problem in broadcasting, the automated workflow detects, identifies, removes, and documents copyrighted music
AudioShake has introdu...
01/06/2026
The sports-analytics company combines its data with proprietary AI to help leagu...
01/06/2026
Category line-up & sponsors announced
Photo: Paul Clarke
The Production Music Awards (PMA) have announced that submissions are now officially open ahead of...
01/06/2026
New hybrid sample/synthesis instrument revealed
Excite Audio have just released the latest instalment in their Evolve series, which has been developed in co...
01/06/2026
Latest TONEX expansion captures three rare vintage amps
The newest addition to IK Multimedia's ever-growing TONEX line-up introduces a set of three incr...
01/06/2026
Musically intelligent soft synth gets upgraded
Scaler Music will be probably be best known to many for their music theory tools, but their product range al...
01/06/2026
SBS confirms its broadcast sponsors for FIFA World Cup 2026
1 June, 2026
Media releases
SBS has secured Hyundai, Hisense, Macca's, Rexona, bet365, Com...
01/06/2026
Rohde & Schwarz Satellite Industry Days 2026 guided by the motto From Earth to ...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Marshall Electronics is showcasing a comprehensive lineup of next-generation POV cameras, purpose-built to power today's connected AV environments, at InfoC...
01/06/2026
Adobe Announces Concept to Vector
Deepa Subramaniam June 1, 2026
0 Comments
One of the biggest frustrations we hear from designers is how difficult it...
01/06/2026
Vampire Feature Night Patrol Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton June 1, 2026
0 Comments
Colorist shapes dark, gritty tone for horror thri...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Luxembourg, June 1, 2026 - SES, a leading space solutions company, and Viva, Mexico's ultra low-cost airline, launched fast and reliable multi-orbit satelli...
01/06/2026
Agentic AI is getting physical.
At COMPUTEX on Tuesday, NVIDIA announced NVIDIA JetPack 7.2 and NVIDIA NemoClaw support on NVIDIA Jetson.
JetPack 7.2 brings a...
01/06/2026
Financial institutions have spent years building AI: fraud models, credit models...
01/06/2026
Mardi 2 juin 14h00
FilmLight (ARRI), 10 rue Ren Boulanger, 75010 Paris
Rejoignez-nous pour d couvrir comment FLAPI (l'API FilmLight) peut transformer e...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
31/05/2026
Olivia P rez-Collellmir to Premiere Original Work at Gaud Centennial in Barcelona The Berklee graduate and faculty member will debut her choral symphony with...
31/05/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Wins 15 Awards at the Canadian Screen Awards - See Pho...
31/05/2026
Taiwan is home to more than 500 NVIDIA ecosystem partners. More than 1 million N...
Simon Wilkinson, head of VFX at 1185 films, talks about the technology behind the newly-released horror
