Lesbian Vampire Killers
Rushes completed 250 VFX shots for 'Lesbian Vampire Killers', the new British comedy-horror from director Phil Claydon.
'Lesbian Vampire Killers', directed by Phil Claydon, stars James Corden and Matthew Horne (of 'Gavin and Stacey' fame), alongside Paul McGann ('Withnail and I'). The comedy-horror sees Corden and Horne as two hapless friends caught in the midst of a lesbian vampire siege, in which the village women folk are enslaved, and the duo are sent by the remaining men into the woods as a sacrifice.
The Rushes team, who were on location at Three Mills Studio during the shoot, worked closely with Claydon to develop and design ideas for the VFX and collaborated with Millennium FX for the prosthetics and SFX for physical effects, including the 'goop' explosions.
The green screen shot Prologue covers the first two and a half minutes of the film and fills in the back story of how all the village girls become Vampires on their 18th birthday. The Matte Paintings for all the 55 shots in the Prologue were completed and composited at Rushes.
A pivotal VFX scene is the resurrection of Carmilla, Queen of the Vampires. Using a wax prosthetic, created by Millennium Effects, high-powered heaters were used to slowly melt Carmilla over about 60 minutes. The footage of the melt was then reversed, re-sped and composited together with multiple layers of CG anatomy and lightning effects created by Hayden Jones.
The Rushes team admitted that working on the film was an immensely rewarding experience, driven by the director Phil Claydon’s enthusiasm. "It was the most fun I’ve had working on a film in fifteen years”, Jonathan Privett comments.
Director of Photography David Higgs shot the film on RED camera, one of the first feature films to do so. All 250 VFX shots were completed by Rushes as sole vendor with picture post production carried out at Ascent 142 and DI processing at Soho Film Lab.
'Lesbian Vampire Killers' is due to be released nationwide on 20th March 2009.
Title: 'Lesbian Vampire Killers'
Director: Phil Claydon
Producer: Steve Clark Hall
Production Company: Momentum Pictures
Rushes VFX Supervisors: Jonathan Privett and Hayden Jones
Rushes Producer: Louise Hussey