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Black mirror

Black mirror

  • Visual development
  • Previs + Postvis
  • VP + Tech Labs
  • VFX Design
  • Graphics

PROJECT INFORMATION

Production Company

House of Tomorrow

Series Designer

Joel Collins

Series Graphic Art Director

Erica McEwan

VFX Art Director

Dan May

OVERVIEW

Working with Production Designer Joel Collins, the studio provided a vast design overview across 19 episodes of Charlie Brooker’s award-winning, dystopian anthology. Our coheasive way of working across the look of a series, can be felt in all of the designs, motion graphics and visual effects for the show. From early visual concepts, VFX design and digital matte painting, through to the famous intro title sequence and thought provoking screen graphics.

awards

2018 Winner

Joel Collins + DNEG, VFX Metalhead

2018 Nominated

Joel Collins, Production Design USS Callister

2012 Nominated

Joel Collins + Dan May, Best Production Design 15 Million Merits

Black mirror

Black Mirror

Visual Development

Be it the virtual avatars in ‘Fifteen Million Merits’, the giant server farm of uploaded consciousnesses in ‘San Junipero’, or the memory recall devices in ‘The Entire History of You’, we made sure each character, environment and prop design captured both the fantastical and the tangible, providing platforms on which near-future dystopias could be built. Our visual development helped to the lay the ground of the augmented realities in which the stories take place.

Black Mirror

VP + Tech Labs

Black Mirror was the project on which VFX Art Director Dan May first explored the possibilities of virtual production. Dan was drafted in for season one’s Fifteen Million Merits, an episode in which society exists within an enclosed space, surrounded by contiguous video screens. In order to stay within budget, Dan identified the necessity of capturing motion graphics in-camera, thus – in an era before volume stages were in the public consciousness – the Black Mirror sets were built with connecting high-tech screens, allowing the on-set team to cue up motion graphics which corresponded with the actions of actor Daniel Kaluuya.

Black mirror
Black mirror
Black mirror
Black mirror
Black mirror

Black Mirror

VFX Design

A show as imaginative and ambitious as Black Mirror, required an equal measure of creativity and innovation in VFX design. The stunning matte paintings and postvis work we provided rounded off the full VFX pipeline, allowing us to contribute to the show’s unique identity. 

Black Mirror

Graphics

A huge part of the Black Mirror identity became the graphics. Subtle, thought provoking, and grounded, they became a bit of a genre to themselves and were instrumental in tying together the Black Mirror universe. Working closely with the shows designer, and the art department, we provided a vast range of graphics across the show (on set and in post) as well as the creating the iconic opening title sequence.

Related Works

  • Visual development
  • Previs + Postvis
  • Graphics

Outside the Wire