Let’s take a look at our collaborations with the legendary director of gothic horror and fantasy – Tim Burton.
Scroll down to find out more about some of our project highlights.
SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET
This on-screen adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s musical horror set in Victorian London tells the grim tale of a revengeful barber (Johnny Depp) who barbarically murders his clients before using their meat/flesh to fill his wife’s bakery shop pies. The movie is produced and distributed by DreamWorks, Paramount, and Warner Bros Pictures. MPC provided all visual effects, totaling some 362 shots. Work included large-scale set extension, digital environment work, and some 3D animation.
Burton’s vision for the project was to re-create the Dickensian feel and atmosphere of the grimy London of the Victorian era, which Production Designer, Dante Ferretti complemented by sourcing many references of relevant architecture and buildings of the era. Taking Dante’s example photo reference and supplementing this with specific texture and close-up detail shots collated by MPC, the 2D team composited over 350 shots of varying complexity from simple location top-up and de-rig to entirely full-screen photo-real CG environments.
Find out more about our work here.
DARK SHADOWS
Directed by Tim Burton and Starring Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green and Chloe Moretz, Dark Shadows is a 2012 gothic horror comedy film based on the 1966–1971 gothic horror soap opera.
MPC VFX Supervisors Arundi Asregadoo and Erik Nordby led the teams, delivering 340 shots for the movie.
Erik Nordby’s team at MPC Vancouver was tasked with the completion of just over 90 shots. The main focus was on two sequences set in and around a 200-foot high sea-side cliff referred to as Widow’s Hill. It is here that much of the pivotal action takes place between Barnabas and his heroine from each respective time period. Twice in the movie, people hurl themselves off the cliff onto the rocks below. But due to the power of the vampire bite, unexpected results push the movie in very different directions.
MPC London’s main award focused on the supernatural showdown between Johnny Depp’s character, Barnabas Collins and his scorned ex-lover, the witch Angelique, played by Eva Green. All of this unfolds in the grand foyer of Collinwood manor. The action involved wooden statues (caryatids) coming to life, Angelique’s gradually cracking skin, a vengeful ghost, and of course no horror film would be complete without a werewolf, this time a teen she-wolf, played by Chloe Grace Moretz.
Find out more about our work here. And take a look at our VFX breakdown below!
CORPSE BRIDE
Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride, Warner Bros. Pictures’ stop-motion animated feature directed by Mike Johnson and Tim Burton, utilizes the visual-effects services of MPC on 460 shots, supervised by MPC’s Jessica Norman.
MPC’s work entailed traditional stop-motion enhancements, including rig and rod removals (taking out the puppet rods and motion-control rigs that managed the complex camera moves around the miniature sets) and multi-element composites using fog and smoke. The team created some complex 3D elements such as the bride’s fluttering veil, where it was critical that the motion exactly matched that of the stop-motion puppets.
Find out more about our work here.
COMING SOON: WEDNESDAY
Wednesday is an upcoming American coming-of-age supernatural mystery comedy television series based on the character Wednesday Addams from The Addams Family. Developed by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, and Tim Burton, it stars Jenna Ortega as the titular character, with Catherine Zeta-Jones, Luis Guzmán, Isaac Ordonez, and Gwendoline Christie appearing in supporting roles. The series is set to premiere on Netflix on November 23.
