For All Mankind
Ghost VFX proudly provided visual effects services on the latest season of the Apple TV+ show.
plot
Imagine a world where the global space race never ended. This thrilling “what if” take on history spotlights the high-stakes lives of NASA astronauts and their families. Taking place eight years after the prior season, season 4 follows Happy Valley’s expanding footprint on Mars.
scope
Ghost VFX artists in Copenhagen have worked on a total of three seasons of the series. For season 4, VFX Supervisor Martin Gaardeler led the Ghost VFX team responsible for numerous ships in orbit, planets from orbit, and most of the shots featuring asteroids.
“We have a long-standing relationship with production VFX Supervisor Jay Redd and VFX Producer Barbara Genicoff. We joined on season 2, and since then, our engagement has grown over time. For this season, we had two episodes that were very heavy both in complexity and in the number of shots. In episode one there is a big sequence where we delivered 109 shots and had to do a lot of simulation of dust and debris being kicked up as an asteroid is being transported for mining. This also involved full CG shots with digi-doubles close to the camera. We also had multiple shots where we cut directly from a plate with actors on wires that had to be removed to a full CG version of that actor in the following shot. Attention to detail is always crucial, but given audiences can enjoy the show in 4K, it was especially important.” - VFX Supervisor Martin Gaardeler
IT'S ALL IN THE DETAILS
Ghost VFX also delivered 84 shots for episode 10, including a sequence that involves a fight scene between two astronauts on the back of a ship in space. The sequence was shot with actors on wires and multiple light sources flickering on-set to emulate the look of the light being emitted from the ship’s engines.
“The wires and the shadows caused by the wires and actors all needed to be removed. Additionally, we needed to extend the spaceship as only a small portion of the spaceship was built on-set. We also needed to match the flickering lights from the set in our digital set extensions and add tethers to the astronauts that were affected by micro gravity as the ship is slowing down throughout the sequence. I’d like to thank everyone on the team here at Ghost VFX and Jay (Redd) and Barbara (Genicoff) for bringing us onto another season of For All Mankind. It was a pleasure as always.” - VFX Supervisor Martin Gaardeler
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