Autumn is upon us and we all know what that means, a new flurry of TV series, or “seasonsâ€, as they say over the pond. But before we jump on the bandwagon for the latest must-watch programmes that'll litter our twitter feeds, what have been your TV & VFX highlights of the year so far?
Kicking off on UK soil, an entertainment high point has been the BBC’s adaptation of the award winning novel Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, penned by Susanna Clarke and written for the small screen by Peter Harness.
Charting the rise of a 19th Century wizard, his failing relationship with his mentor and the involvement of magic in historical events, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell was not shy when it came to spectacle. Luckily, the 1000 odd VFX shots across the seven episodes were in the capable hands of Milk VFX (based in Soho) who managed to successfully bring to life the novel’s melting pot of magic and war.
Many of the VFX demands saw Milk having to create creatures summoned by the magicians, with visual effect standouts being the sand horses charging across the beach into the sea, the battle ships made out of rain and the climatic Battle of Waterloo.
In keeping with the fantasy genre, any article mentioning TV highlights is not complete without a mention of Game of Thrones, and this season was populated with cinematic-like effects including; now fully grown and fire breathing dragons, ice giants and full white walker armies.
Impressive to say the least, especially the latter mentioned white walker invasion scene, named The Battle of Hardhome. Spanish VFX company El Ranchito took the reins and managed to get a mass battle between wildings and white walker’s onto the small screen, rivaling any Middle Earth based affair.
This coming season will see another addition to the anthology show American Horror Story, with the previous season Freak Show garnering its host channel FX its highest TV viewing figures yet.
FuseFX (with offices based in Burbank, New York and Vancouver) have been in charge of the popular horror programme’s VFX since its first season back in 2011. This previous season featured some of its biggest challenges yet with many character based special effects (and mutations) required. These included a jaw-less clown, conjoined twins, and a man with two faces.
This year also saw the popular trend of binge watching reach new heights as VOD services continued to offer us new original content, with Netflix’s comic adaptation Daredevil being a stand out.
Following in the trend of Nolan’s Batman, it went for a darker tone and the visual effects to match were helmed by Shade. Episode 9 Speak of the Devil included it’s Red Ninja fight scene which sent fans into overdrive and managed to snag it an Emmy nomination this year.
Of course, summing up an entire year's worth of TV seasons’ is never going to be a short process, so what VFX highlights have we missed which shone for you, and what are you looking forward to kicking off this Autumn?
The Walking Dead season 6 anyone…?
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