DS:  Can you share any particularly difficult shots you’ve worked on?

CC:  Sure.  Season 7 was fairly challenging, because they relied a lot more on visual effects.  They really enjoyed the work we did.  So they expanded our role a lot more.  We did an entire tornado sequence where we had to create a tornado, have it form from a Meso cloud, touchdown, rip apart a barn, essentially come towards our actors and fling out a lot of debris, with that debris interacting with them as they ran into a barn.

We did that on a three-week schedule.  It was a total of about 55 shots.  30 of them featured the tornado, so it’s pretty extensive.  That’s definitely one of the highlights that we did in the season.

LOOK’s tornado wrecked havoc in Episode 5 “The Twist in the Twister.”

The vfx team began R&D early in the season, but had only weeks between receiving background plates and final delivery.

LOOK’s VFX Supervisor was intimately involved in the process from initial production planning meetings through on-set shooting through final approval.

For their work on this episode, LOOK received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Supporting Role.

The final tornado sequence involved creating  a tornado, having it form from a Meso cloud, touchdown, rip apart a barn, come towards theactors and fling out a lot of debris, with that debris interacting with the actors as they ran into a barn.

DS: How much time is needed for the studio to take your work, integrate it and then finish a complete episode?

CC:  Well, typically, we have a drop deadline, which is ten days before an episode airs.  That is usually the latest we can deliver an episode and typically, they want it even before that.  So, they need ten days, because they deliver the show internationally.  They air every new episode on the same day internationally. So, they need the proper time to dub and do all the other necessary international promotions.  They have promotional screeners that go out and sometimes we put in temp VFX. People in the studio, or in some cases even the critics, they will get a rougher version of the show.  And it’s just because we are moving so fast that we don’t want to jeopardize the quality with any of the components just to get a promo sent out.