Creative decision-making

Horror films present a unique opportunity to work on a special type of visual effects which really stand out and become a central aspect of the film’s aesthetic. This is a dream situation for VFX artists, where the action driving the story relies on VFX to come to the forefront and magnify the impact of each shot. But it comes with its own set of complications with respect to creative decision-making. 

VFX teams must interpret the needs of the project, inject their own creativity and come back with a result that can achieve on the screen what is, up to that moment, only in the mind of the director and producer.

As in any creative process, this can become quite the hurdle to overcome. As anyone in VFX knows, rework at any stage can become very time consuming, budget crippling, and disheartening. This makes it especially important that communication along the way can help point to a common goal. And visual communication is how ideas have to be brainstormed, shared, and approved. Visual references, sketches, mockups, and wireframes, are all tools to try to get everyone on board and approve intermediate works-in-progress, before too much time and too many resources go into a fully developed result that may not satisfy expectations.