How make-up effects work and digital visual effects combined to craft this shot.
Matt Palmer’s Fear Street: Prom Queen includes a scene in which ‘The Killer’ uses a saw to slice through the face of the character Judd (Damian Romeo).
How did they do that?
Well, it was realized with a mix of prosthetic effects on set and digital visual effects by Scanline VFX.
With visual effects supervisor Mathew Giampa, befores & afters breaks down how the gruesome shot was achieved.
b&a: What were some of the early conversations you had with the filmmakers about the saw shot with Judd, about how that kind of effect could be executed?
Mathew Giampa: I joined the show halfway through pre-production, so some planning had already been completed before my arrival. The intention was to use a prosthetic. The director, Matt Palmer, really wanted to embrace the 1980s style. I didn’t want to suggest too many changes to their approach so late in the planning phase, so we decided to pursue this direction and act as a backup in case we couldn’t achieve what we wanted with the prosthetic.
b&a: On set, what photography was achieved, in terms of shooting the real actor/stand-in/dummy and make-up effects? How much blood did you want or not want to be in-camera?
Mathew Giampa: We were initially going to do the saw to the face with a prosthetic, but a couple of days before the shoot, it was determined it would be too dangerous to cut through the prosthetic with the saw the way the director wanted the killer to hold it. So we decided to go with the real actor who had prosthetic makeup. This gave The Killer a guideline of where the saw should travel. The killer used a prop saw with a rubber blade, nonfunctional, of course, and guided it along Judd’s face. No practical blood was used in-camera for this. It gave us better control in post to make the blood do what we wanted, and gave Matt Palmer more freedom to direct the cut from the saw and how the blood would spray in post.
b&a: What kind of things could be done on set in terms of capture/scans/light surveys etc?
Mathew Giampa: We took the typical approach of scanning the actor and props, taking texture and reference images, and HDRI’s to assist in our asset build.
b&a: For the digital visual effects side of the work, can you talk about the approach utilized by Scanline to augment and enhance what had been filmed?
Mathew Giampa: We took a grounded approach to this. With the scan of Judd, we created a high-detail asset of Judd’s face, which we used in FX to simulate the saw cutting through skin, with realistic flapping and blood spray. Our CG Supervisor, Roohi Topgi, and FX Supervisor, Michele Stocco, led this work and did an incredible job. We also used the full body scan to drive realistic blood interaction on his face and torso. Additionally, we reanimated the saw movement to make the saw blade turn and to give it a subtle bump so it felt like it struck Judd’s cheekbone and bounced slightly. Although slight, it helped give it an extra level of realism.
b&a: What were some of the ‘final’ details added in VFX that really helped make that moment have a lot of impact?
Mathew Giampa: I come from a compositing background, so I’ve always added practical elements where we can to help enhance realism. For this particular sequence, we added many 2D elements of blood spray from the saw and blood elements projected onto the geometry of Judd to get a more realistic look of blood running down his face. Our Compositing Supervisor, Simran Pal Singh Takhar, and Sigi Tang, one of our compositors on the show, did an excellent job of integrating the 2D elements with the CG to get that realistic look. We also decided to use matte painting to paint over some of our CG inside the wound. This gave us an extra level of detail that we felt was important since we see the wound so closely, allowing us to modify it quicker to get precisely what we wanted.
