Post-Production Studio Cutting Edge Deliver 'The Invisible Man'

Cutting Edge’s VFX team are well known for their work across features and television, as well as commercials. The hit film 'The Invisible Man' showcases some of their recent work across more than 300 VFX shots. It’s the same team who lend their abilities to tell stories for both brands and filmmakers. 'The Invisible Man' marks the sixth collaboration between Cutting Edge and Blumhouse, and the second with directorLeigh Whannell.

“Our team has forged ongoing partnerships with great directors because we are versatile. Whether we are creating a world-class brand spot or film, we understand that finding creative solutions to achieve the perfect shot are what content creators need today,” explained Kylee Ratz, Cutting Edge’s general manager.

Instrumental in the ongoing relationship with Blumhouse & Universal Studios has been Cutting Edge’s VFX supervisor,Jonathan “JD” Dearing and head of features and television, Marcus Bolton. When talking about his experiences withLeigh, JD said: “I led the VFX team at Cutting Edge, working alongside directorLeigh Whannell on 'Upgrade' which revealed our mutual understanding and approach to VFX. Specifically, we both see the role of VFX as supporting a practical (in-camera) approach wherever possible. In the case a practical approach is not achievable, our shared approach would be to exercise a level of restraint to ground all VFX in the real world. In all cases, our mantra is the same, that VFX should be as believable as possible”. The VFX requirements for 'TheInvisible Man’ came with their own challenges; as the title suggests, one of the main characters is indeed invisible.

JD explains: “One of the major VFX challenges was removing the green suit from the Invisible Man’s performance.This was particularly difficult when the stuntman’s green suit was in front of talent, or on backgrounds that we didn’t have motion control passes for. The obvious technique for the task of removing the green suit is the use of a motion control rig. This enables one to capture a matching clean plate to facilitate any clean-up required.” When discussing key action sequences, JD adds: “These passes could include clean-up of wire-rigs, stunt mats, squibs or window breaks. All these key singular moments could be rehearsed so the action occurred with the camera in the optimal position. Breaking up the action moments meant the timings of the sequence as a whole were not affected. The end result was a very tight-action sequence, with big camera moves that somehow seem to predict the impending action."

“The VFX team at Cutting Edge had much clean-up to do; we replaced a lot of the floor with a CG creation, and obviously, the CG Invisible Man character was added. We also replaced the practical gun moment with a CG gun that The Invisible Man used halfway through the sequence. Finally, we stitched all the passes together which also included us blending into a steadicam shot as we follow Cecelia into a stairwell,followed by another blend into the foyer before we exit the building and the shot.”

'The Invisible Man' is a surprise hit attracting a 91% score on rotten tomatoes, and grossed over $100 Million dollars globally at the box office in its first 10 days. It is currently available via video-on-demand.