Cinefex submerge in the VFX of Black Sea
Cinefex's Graham Edwards reports on Union's VFX work on Black Sea
The submarine movie is a staple of cinema. You might even say it’s a classic sub-genre, with films like Run Silent, Run Deep, The Hunt for Red October, The Enemy Below and Das Boot ensuring its continuing appeal over the years. The latest director to dive into in the claustrophobic, pressure-cooker environment that is the submarine movie is Kevin MacDonald (Touching the Void, The Last King of Scotland). His latest film, Black Sea, sees maverick Captain Robinson (Jude Law) leading a ragtag submarine crew into the ocean depths in search of a sunken German U-boat rumoured to be laden with Nazi gold.
Visual effects for Black Sea were delivered by Union, whose team had worked previously with MacDonald on How I Live Now. VFX supervisor Simon Hughes oversaw the creation of 170 shots, on a project that ran for approximately a year, and kept a crew of around 30 VFX artists fully submerged in post for three months.