In 2023, Marc Smith spoke with us about Crafty Apes’ invisible visual effects on The Menu. He now returns to discuss his work on a very different kind of film.
Can you start by describing your overall approach as Production VFX Supervisor on They Will Kill You, and how early you became involved in shaping the visual language of the film?
I was involved very early in the process, which was incredibly valuable given the scale of the show’s VFX requirements. Being able to engage from the beginning was essential to helping shape a successful approach.
After reading the script, I spoke with Kirill and the producers in an initial interview. As with any strong script, it immediately sparked excitement and curiosity about how we would approach some of the larger, more complex sequences. During that conversation, I began outlining ideas for how creatively and ambitiously we could approach the film, and I was confident that with the team at Crafty Apes, we could deliver at a very high level.
Kirill and I established a strong rapport from the beginning, and to my delight, I was soon sent the full set of storyboards, meticulously planned shot by shot, which was invaluable in understanding the language, structure, and overall scope of the film. My approach was to break the film down scene by scene and shot by shot, identifying areas that would likely require significant VFX involvement and flagging sequences early for planning. We held several meetings with department heads over Zoom, working through each sequence collaboratively and exploring the best approach for each moment, whether that involved stunts, prosthetics, VFX, or a combination of all three.
Later, when I joined the team in South Africa for the final month of prep, Kirill, Isaac Bauman (DP), Carl Hampe (UPM), and Marcy Trout (1st AD) all spent several days in Kirill’s office doing a detailed frame-by-frame breakdown of the entire show. This allowed us to refine methodology, develop new ideas, and prioritize practical, in-camera solutions wherever possible, using VFX as a supporting tool rather than defaulting to full CG approaches. This meant we came up with some very inventive shots and in-camera gags that I feel worked superbly well, that really sold the humor and overall feel of the show.
All in all, being brought in early gave the whole team time to digest, create and improve on shot methodologies so we had no surprises while shooting, and things were planned and executed perfectly.
How was the collaboration with Director Kirill Sokolov?
Kirill was an absolute joy to work with. He listened to suggestions, asked thoughtful questions, and pushed us to think more deeply about the practicality of our methods and how we could collaborate with other departments, stunts, SFX, and more, to really sell each shot. He had a clear vision and was able to articulate exactly what he wanted. From there, it was up to all of us to figure out how to bring it to life. Ideas were always welcome if they enhanced the shot or overall feel, which often led us to explore multiple approaches to ensure we captured the best possible result. That process was driven by Kirill’s passion for the show and his commitment to being fully prepared when we stepped onto the sound stage.
The story takes place inside the fictional Virgil building, a 1930s New York apartment block. How did you approach its design and digital extension to make it feel authentic and immersive?
The Virgil interiors were primarily practical sets, consisting of full-length hallways and rooms. Our role in these areas was to extend and combine spaces. In some cases, we added additional rooms through doorways using green screen captures, later shooting matching elements on other stages and carefully aligning focal lengths and camera moves in compositing to integrate them seamlessly. In other areas, we extended environments using our DMP team. Hubert Zapalowicz handled a large portion of this work, particularly the more complex ceiling replacements. As most sets were built without ceilings to accommodate lighting, the majority of the ceilings you see throughout the interiors were added in post by our team.
The elevator shaft was one of the larger interior extension challenges, used to sell both height and danger. While we built a practical three-story shaft, the Virgil itself spans nine stories, so we extended the environment both above and below to reinforce the scale and verticality of the space.
One shot we were particularly proud of was a follow cam of Zazie through the under-floor tunnels, where she turns through two 90-degree corners, an impossible camera move to achieve practically. To accomplish this, sections of the set walls were removed to allow the crane arm to travel deep into the tunnel and maintain continuous framing on Zazie through the turns. We then rebuilt the entire tunnel interior digitally and in comp, including side walls, cobwebs, and environmental detail to match the original set and preserve continuity. It was a very clean and effective use of CG to support the shot while maintaining immersion in the world Kirill created.
Throughout all of this, our approach was always grounded in detail, focusing on the small environmental elements that are often overlooked in extensions. Subtle gradients in worn paint, scuff marks and wall scratches, cobweb density, and uneven lighting falloff all played a key role in keeping the audience immersed. These details are what allow the work to sit invisibly in the frame and support the action without distraction.
How much of the Virgil was built practically versus digitally enhanced, and what were the key challenges in blending those elements seamlessly?
The exterior of the Virgil was shot on location in downtown Cape Town. A practical façade was built for the main brass doors and the first two windows on either side, which was then attached to the existing exterior building used on set.
We also had water towers running during production, which always introduces additional challenges when extending environments in CG. Despite this, our CG team delivered exceptional work, with close attention to detail from Asset Supervisor Julie Tardieu and CG Supervisor Julien Roy. They carefully studied the practical façade and extended it not only vertically but also laterally, ensuring a seamless blend between practical and digital elements.
We had strong concept art from the art department as a starting point, but the design continued to evolve throughout production. Kirill later introduced additional elements such as gargoyles and broken concrete window sills, while we incorporated weathering, aging, and varied lighting treatments for the exterior lamps to enhance the depth and mood of the environment.
Several shots also involved multi-plate compositing, combining multiple takes to create longer, more dynamic camera moves. This was achieved by our compositing team, supervised by Nicole Smith and led by Olivia Suh, who skillfully blended elements from different plates, selecting the strongest performance and visual components from each, to create cohesive, seamless final shots.
The film features a very specific atmosphere with heavy rain throughout the night. How did you design and execute these rain effects to maintain both realism and mood across sequences?
The exteriors of the Virgil set and the practical location shoots were particularly challenging due to the rain. We had rain machines running on set during takes, and it required careful planning to capture both clean, no-rain plates as well as dedicated rain element passes where possible. When rain interacted directly with cast, we always relied on practical rain to sell the moment, which in turn made the work more complex in post when reintroducing or enhancing rain into other elements of the shot.
We worked closely with our FX team at Crafty Apes, supervised by Kyle Schlosser, to accurately recreate the on-set rain, matching volume, velocity, and interaction, so it would integrate seamlessly with the CG Virgil extensions and maintain a consistent blend between plate and digital environments.
The film leans heavily into gore, with sequences like bodies reassembling, can you walk us through the pipeline for creating these effects, from concept to final shots?
Kirill, much like myself, always prefers to keep things as practical and in-camera as possible, which is one of the reasons this collaboration worked so well from the beginning. We were aware from the beginning that this would be a challenging effect to sell convincingly.
During shot breakdowns in prep, we explored a fantastic skin-like material that dissolves when a specific solvent is applied, leaving behind stringy, stretched, and snapping connective tissue, developed with support from our incredible prosthetics team. Using this approach, we built a severed neck prop and a head prop, with the skin physically connecting the two. Once the solvent was triggered, we pulled the head away, allowing the skin to stretch and tear at 120fps. We then reversed the footage to achieve the desired effect of the skin visibly rejoining. I was then given two days to shoot a large volume of additional elements for the film, including multiple “neck muscle” setups, shot in motion with prosthetic support at higher frame rates and enhanced with green screen where needed.
In compositing, we stacked and integrated these plates to build depth and continuity, adding subtle live-action interaction and finishing detail. With compositing work led by our wonderful Christian Simon, along with carefully curated blood elements, we were able to enhance the practical base and achieve a highly convincing final result through a seamless blend of VFX and in-camera work.
How did you approach the regeneration effects, such as a head growing back or an eye moving independently through the building, in terms of animation and simulation?
The eye is an absolute favorite for both the team on set and in post, and I’m sure audiences will enjoy it just as much. There was significantly more work involved than it may appear at first glance. We used multiple practical eye props along with puppetry to animate the rolling action in-camera. Several plates were required for these shots, as the puppeteer was present in most of the wide shots for obvious reasons. This meant extensive paint work and careful reconstruction of the optic nerve whenever it was obscured by the puppeteering apparatus.
We also relied heavily on split comps and retiming techniques to maintain a sense of intentional movement and continuity in the eye performance. And of course, our beloved “Spider,” which somehow even eyeballs are scared of, was a fully CG asset, built and animated by our CG team, adding the final icing on the gross cake.
What was the balance between practical effects and digital work for these gore sequences, and how closely did you collaborate with the SFX team on set?
I would say it was roughly a 50/50 split between practical and digital work. It was a vital cross-departmental collaboration, and we stayed in close communication with the SFX and prosthetics teams throughout. As the story evolved, so did the ideas for how to best achieve each result.
It was never going to be a single-department solution. Fortunately, we had an exceptional team in South Africa, and during prep, once we had established the methodology, we worked closely with department heads to explore and refine the approach. This became an organic, collaborative process, building on ideas from all sides while still protecting the original intent that Kirill and I had developed.
The SFX team and I spent considerable time together working through safety and practicality concerns around what could be achieved in camera with talent. For more complex or hazardous elements, such as explosions, splintered wood, fire, and similar effects, we opted to capture these during dedicated element days in controlled environments. This allowed us to safely shoot the more dangerous components, which we could then integrate into our shots in compositing, enhancing and blending them with additional VFX work to ensure they felt grounded and seamless within the plate. Of course, there were also shots that required fully CG FX, blood simulations, explosions, shattered windows, rain, and more, particularly in larger setups where we needed full control over interaction, lighting, and multi-pass AOV workflows.
I love practical effects, but sometimes a fully CG explosion gives us more flexibility, making it easier to iterate, respond to notes, and adapt as the scope evolves. That’s where the team at Crafty Apes really excels.
Were there any particular references, either cinematic or real-world, that helped guide the look and feel of these extreme transformations?
We did a deep dive into real-world references of open wounds from accidents, studying how layers of skin, muscle, and fat sit together, and how bruising, redness, irritation, and even necrosis develop in terms of shading and texture for the pig.
We also had excellent support and guidance from our senior VFX leadership team at Skydance/Paramount, Senior Vice President of VFX Kathy Chasen-Hay, and Vice President of VFX Dayaliyah Lopez, who provided valuable direction and reference material, including examples of butchered meat and how light behaves on fresh, wet surfaces. We drew from a wide range of sources to help ground the work and ensure the final result felt as real and physically accurate as possible.
It was a particularly challenging (and admittedly grim) set of reference studies to gather, and I’m fairly sure my search history raised a few eyebrows along the way, ha ha ha.
The roaming eye is a striking concept, how did you ensure it felt grounded within the environment while still maintaining its unsettling, supernatural quality?
The eye, as mentioned, is a huge hit with everyone who watches it. A lot of that success comes from the incredible puppeteering and prosthetics team. In VFX, our role was to support and enhance an already masterful practical setup, and this was a perfect example of doing just that.
Multiple eyeballs were created for different stunt requirements, and our team not only helped with the cleanup and reconstruction of parts of the eyes, but also added subtle pupil-dilation animation to bring an extra layer of life and realism, while carefully preserving the integrity of the practical on-set prop.
This is invisible VFX at its best. We love building hero assets, but it’s equally rewarding to support in-camera work when those final few percent of refinement help fully sell the shot.
The film features an extended fight sequence where the heroine uses a flaming axe to set her opponents on fire. How did you choreograph and execute this sequence from a VFX perspective, particularly in terms of fire simulations & stunt work?
Originally, this was planned as a CG fire with an LED axe head, and we tested that approach and got some very impressive results. In the end, Zazie, being the absolute badass she is, wanted to perform the fire axe sequences practically with real fire. Kerry Gregg, the stunt coordinator, and his team spent weeks developing the choreography in close collaboration with the SFX team to safely achieve the fire effects on set.
This turned into another great sequence for us to help bring over the finish line, although we did have two very complex shots in particular: the slow-motion wide shots of Asia (Zazie) in the air as the table breaks apart and she slices the cultist in half. These were built from multiple planned plates, including clean plates of the exploding SFX tables, stunt plates featuring Zazie, and additional element plates captured later in the shoot. All of these were layered together in depth, combining 7–8 plates per shot to create two seamless and visually striking composites. It was a true compositing masterclass from the team.
We also integrated ornate ceiling extensions throughout the sequence, added a CG water sprinkler system, and handled significant cleanup work, split comps, retiming, and ember elements for the impact moments. Once again, it was a perfect example of collaboration across multiple departments to bring the battle to life, driven by real craft, coordination, and the fearlessness of Zazie Beetz.
The final confrontation involves a possessed pig’s head embodying Satan. How did you develop its design, and what were the key challenges in bringing this creature to life?
This was our major sequence, and I feel it really pushed the entire team to create something both breathtaking and, at times, deliberately unsettling, almost a piece of cinematic art in its own right.
From start to finish, the pig required months of prep and research even before a single frame was shot. Huge credit goes to the production team for the entire show, and especially on this sequence, which was a scheduling and organizational challenge at every stage. It would not have been possible without Producer Irene Armit, Show Manager Oona Choiniere, and coordinators Gabrielle Smeraglia, Idil Isse, and Ruth Stewart Patterson. It’s still impressive how we managed to keep everything on track.
From the outset, the main challenge with the pig was how to keep it grounded and realistic in its look, feel, and behavior, while also allowing it to speak with a human/demonic voice without compromising the character’s believability. In my initial conversation with Kirill, my enthusiasm for building the perfect pig came through clearly, along with the ideas I was eager to explore to bring the character to life. Ultimately, he became a character in his own right, and it was important that every detail supported that.
Before heading into prep in South Africa, I visited a pig farm and spent time capturing extensive photo and video reference of pigs in their natural environment. I focused on the subtle details: snout movement while sniffing and breathing; the fine hairs and coarser bristles reacting differently to light and touch; the way ear veins become visible when backlit; eye movement; and skin pore detail. These nuances became critical in maintaining realism in the CG asset. The build process began with a proxy head on set in South Africa, which provided valuable lighting reference and camera focus. We scanned this prop and used photogrammetry to build a 1:1 CG replica as the foundation asset. We also incorporated a real pig skull scan to ensure anatomical accuracy, particularly in the jaw mechanics, musculature, eye socket placement, and overall head structure, so that the rig would behave as naturally as possible.
The design continued to evolve throughout production as the character direction, attitude, and dialogue developed. As the performance shifted, so did the design and subtle mannerisms. We recorded ADR sessions for the pig’s dialogue to better understand facial reactions and timing. This was initially mapped onto a MetaHuman and then transferred to our pig asset, getting us roughly 60% of the way there. From there, our animation team took over under the supervision of Trey Roane and led by J Griffin, alongside artists such as Paul Zeke, who refined the performance and brought a fully believable character to life. The asset steadily grew into a highly detailed, complex piece of work that had to hold up under both extreme close-ups and wide shots. The Pig was a true masterpiece built by so many hands across multiple departments, running the full pipeline from start to finish. A huge congratulations to all the artists involved, there are far too many to name individually, but the work across camera and layout, asset modeling, look development and texturing, rigging, CFX and groom, animation, FX, lighting, and compositing all deserve recognition.
Looking back at the project, is there a specific invisible VFX shot or subtle enhancement in They Will Kill You that audiences would never suspect was digitally created?
I think one of the longest shots we worked on, and one that turned out incredibly well, was the sequence where Asia rolls on the floor and chops off Tall Steve’s hand and foot. It was a complex shot that required stitching together multiple plates into a seamless final, layering in additional effects like spray, rebuilding parts of the frame, and using spline warps to unify motion across the elements. It will make a great breakdown piece and really highlights the level of compositing excellence we deliver at Crafty Apes.
How long have you worked on this show?
From start to finish, the process spanned nearly two years for me, from my first conversation with production to meeting Kirill, through prep, the shoot, and an extended post-production period. I wouldn’t change a single second of it. The result is something we can all be incredibly proud of, and along the way, I built meaningful relationships and friendships that I value just as much as the work itself.
It was an epic, challenging, inspiring, and emotional experience from beginning to end, and I’m truly grateful to have been part of the journey.
What’s the VFX shots count?
We delivered over 450 final shots in total, including 110 CG shots.
What is your next project?
My next project is another Paramount show, The Rescue, starring Brandon Sklenar, Hassie Harrington, Josh Duhamel, Josh Lucas, and Tim Blake Nelson, and directed by Potsy Ponciroli. We wrapped principal photography last week.
On a side note, Kirill and I have stayed in close contact and have become great friends throughout this process. I have a great deal of respect for him, both as a person and as a director. He’s a truly visionary filmmaker, and his work is always exciting and creatively inclusive.
A big thanks for your time.
© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2026
