22 July

Project Overview

We've delivered over 160 shots for the Netflix drama, 22 July.

Working alongside Netflix and director Paul Greengrass, we delivered visual effects across multiple complex sequences and multiple disciplines including prosthetic enhancement, DMP, set extension and CG environments.

This was a fascinating project for us, not only due to the nature of the work and the opportunity to work with Paul Greengrass again after Jason Bourne, but also due to the tragic subject matter, as Senior VFX Supervisor Marcin Kolendo explains:

"Working in the VFX industry has introduced me to a vast variety of tasks; gory, brutal, bloody and horrific scenes included. On 22 July there was an additional, incredibly touching and emotional aspect to the work: it all happened in real life.

"As an artist you do have to distance yourself a little from the brutal reality of our world and focus on tasks that lie ahead, tell the story, make sure the work is seamless and meeting industry standard while keeping in mind that the subject is very sensitive.

"At Outpost we take the feelings of each of our artists seriously and, on this occasion, we had to reshuffle a few shots at artists’ requests because of what we were seeing on the screen.

"It is a very delicate balance but the team was really understanding, communicative and incredibly respectful of the sensitive nature of the project."

A large amount of our work on the film involved gore. Our 2D and 3D teams worked closely together throughout to achieve realistic bullet wounds, dismemberment and more.

"Every shot that included immediate aftermath of the horrific events on Utoya Island required extensive enhancement, in some cases total replacement of the prosthetic used on set," continues Kolendo.

"The injuries needed to look not only gory, fresh and life threatening, but also consistent from shot to shot. Our work included brain surgery with a CG brain, skin and blood replacement, leg and shoulder bullet wounds, head injuries, an eye injury and, of course, finger removal.

"The challenge was to make these look real and consistent, with additional work carried out on the often overlooked aspects of work like this: blood on the bandages, surgeon's gloves, blood seeping out of the wounds and running on the skin, etc."

Marcin has worked with Paul Greengrass before, and relished another opportunity to help him achieve his cinematic vision on 22 July.

"Personally, I am a huge fan of ‘invisible’ VFX," he concludes, "and each movie Paul Greengrass directs offers me an opportunity to create exactly what I love: fast-paced action, handheld camera and visual effects that are completely seamless – integrated into the action they basically look like they could have been shot on set.

"Paul knows exactly what he wants from each shot, which makes it a pleasure to work on his movies."