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TV Production: The Walking Dead

Style

The Walking Dead is set in a post-apocalyptic world where zombies now roam. It’s a very dull setting with not
many bright colours. Each set has a very dull almost monochrome colour scheme to make help set the feeling of
the show.

The show is a collaboration of visual effects and special effects. The show is mostly shot in Georgia, the first
season being primarily based in Atlanta.  

Production Process

Detail how they’re made

Each episode is shot outside (mainly in Georgia) and the studio - some sets needing to be built in a studio
because of lighting and cost. Each set is designed to fit into the scene and look as in place as possible.

The crew consists of:

sculptors

stunt coordinators

location managers

custom managers

production designers

SFX Technicians

Camera operators

sound recordists

Foley artists

Each zombie is a person with special effects makeup, very rarely they’ll use CGI, depending on how possible it is to create.
The sculptors help create the zombies that are dead and are mould of someone's body with a sculpted face and other
details.

A lot of the sets that are filmed in the studio are created from Styrofoam then sculpted and painted to look like metal or
other materials. Filming in Georgia is good for the crew as it has a lot of open and abandoned spaces that are good and
safe to film in and fit the setting of the show nicely.

They created a giant prison like structure outside and was a main base for the filming for a season. All the areas filmed
were either already there or created especially for filming, they only used CGI for the background of the sets where they
needed to create a certain atmosphere such as dull weather or add in a forest that isn’t there.

Materials

The majority of the indoor sets were created out of plywood and Styrofoam because it is both safe and cheaper,
these would then be paint and sculpted to look like the material it was meant to be.

The SFX is mainly made up of Gypsum Cement, Foam Latex, Silicone and body paints. These help make a
variety of different effects from dirt effects and cuts to zombie like decaying flesh. T

Techniques

Techniques used in production

The show had a lot of space and money to create large structures for the sets, this helped that actors get into character as
well as bring a dystopian realism to the show, making viewers believe what was happening on screen.

Animation: Chicken Run

Style

Chicken run is a movie set in a dull and dark setting, this helps set the feeling of desperation the characters have to escape.

The layout and set creation heavily resembles an old fashioned prison, with high wire fences and prison building type hutches used to cage in the chickens. The use of set design and colour help set the tone of the characters feelings towards their home.

Production Process

Chicken run is first created through scripts and storyboards and then given to set design to produce and create the sets. They first start out with concept drawing then begin to make some to scale drawings that will later be used as modelling references. The same happens for the characters as well.

The characters are built up over an endoskeleton that helps the characters joints move.

Each frame is shot by camera and the crew have to disassemble and reassemble parts of the character each time depending on what the character is doing.

Each shot has top be lighted the same or else the final outcome will look bad.

Materials

The characters are created from clay type material because they it is easy to mould and shape and good with paint.

The set is made from wood and plastic which is then painted to look like what the crew is creating.

Techniques

Chicken Run is a claymation animation and also stop motion. They use green screens so they can later add in the backgrounds such as a sky or field.

Film: Avatar

Style

Historical period, look, colours, type of designs, feel of designs, describe them

Avatar is a film heavily based on CGI, but some of the sets of the film were created by hand to help keep the film looking realistic and to keep the price down.

Avatar is a futuristic film set on the planet of Pandora, the scenes created are shown as futuristic and colourful.

Although the big open areas of the films are created with CGI, the main research base is created by hand - as well as some of the forest areas where fight scenes are filmed.

The props used by people such as guns and other handheld devices are all hand made props as well as a lot of the futuristic vehicles and equipment.

Production Process

Detail how they’re made

The research base is constructed out of metal and wood as the structure needs to be stable enough for multiple crew members, heavy equipment and cast to walk on.

For the fight scenes outdoors, the crew have created small indoor forest like areas with fake plants in made of plastic and rubber to help create realism and help keep the price down. The trees used in the film are made of wood and are sculpted into shape.

Materials

The main materials used in production is plywood, plastic, aluminium and rubber.  

Techniques

Other than using props, they heavily relied on green screens to create backgrounds and other effects they couldn’t make by hand. They added in props to help keep a type of realism to the film when they added the CGI characters and scenes.