Last year we provided a number of visual effects shots for comedy short film Neckface, written and exec produced by Sian Harries (Man Down). The film tells the story of Laney (Isy Suttie), who having dreamed of the perfect wedding, wakes up on her big day with a monster growing out of her neck.
The titular character was created with a combination of prosthetics (lead actress Isy Suttie wore a fixed appliance, to which we added subtle animation in post) and a larger articulated puppet that would later be composited into close-ups. Additionally we added smoke and fire to the climactic scene of the film. We worked with Sian and producer Barry Castagnola during pre-production to come up with the best solutions for making the creature believable, and collaborated closely with Dan Martin (High Rise, Free Fire), who was responsible for the practical elements. Our VFX Supervisor Christian Lett was on set for the filming to advise the director and work with the various heads-of-department to achieve the shots. Christian said “Neckface was great fun to work on, as it’s not every day you get to witness a full-on wedding brawl, and chat with Rhod Gilbert about bringing a neck-dwelling goblin to life!”
The VFX work on the film was carried out in collaboration with the University of South Wales Visual Effects and Motion Graphics course, and a mixture of second and third year students spent time in the studio working on the effects with us – Ellen Jaram, Yat Fung Leung and Aaron Stelfox. It was a good opportunity for us to work closely with film-makers on a project, while also providing industry opportunities for local VFX students.
Neckface was recently nominated for a BAFTA Cymru award for Short Film, a category which also includes Beddgelert (Bad Wolf productions), for which we also contributed VFX. The BAFTA Cymru awards take place on Sunday 14th October at St David’s Hall, Cardiff.