The Rig is a six-part supernatural thriller series on Prime Video, directed by John Strickland and created by David Macpherson. It’s produced by Wild Mercury Productions and Amazon Studios.
The series, shot entirely in Scotland, follows a small crew of deep-sea oil drillers as they’re stalked by a deadly creature during a raging hurricane.
Absolute were tasked with crafting CG and 2D solutions across all six episodes, for a total of 190 shots. The team were responsible for the underwater shots including asset builds for the terrain, the ROV and the well head. Absolute also developed a foliage system for animatable seaweed and a library of assets that gave life and realism to underwater shots, as well as shots on the rig itself. Additional visual effects were required in the form of window and screen replacements, fog addition and a CG volumetric Skydome that worked with ‘Time of Day’ and ‘Time of Year’.
Absolute’s Head of CG, Rebekah King-Britton, comments: “Working on fully CG shots is always exciting, but for this job we were successful in forming a visual language for an entirely fictitious event which was so much fun. There were multiple FX elements per shot, but we were able to optimise across them and maintain creative flexibility.”
Danny Duke, Production Director and VFX Executive Producer, adds: “Our film & TV department has been gathering steam over the past couple of years, and this was by far and away the largest project we’ve worked on to date. Historically, our projects last for weeks rather than months, so it was great to see the team really get their teeth into this throughout 2022. The Rig perfectly embodies our long-term commitment to film and TV projects and I look forward to many more exciting shows of this scale in 2023 and beyond.”
Credits (Absolute):
VFX Supervisor: Scott Simmonds
Flame Artists: Chris Tobin, Carl Godwin-Alvarez, Owen Saward, Phil Oldham
Nuke Artists: Albena Ivanova, Andy Quinn, Ephraim Mwakand, Harvey David, James Russell, Kristin Kaas-Lutsberg, Lucas Warren, Nick D’Aguiar, Pat Wong, Pedram Razi, Rahul Karavadra, Tom Clapp, Tommy Coulter-Liston, Mark Pinheiro
Digital Matte Painter: Claire Simond
CG Supervisor: Thomas Lhomme
CG Artists: Keith Rogers, Matt Burn, Patrick Keogh, Dan Baiton, Camila Valencia, Christopher Holmes, Darja Sidorova, Elliot Amos, Frank Engen, Heidi Prescott, Maurizio Giglioli, Ollie Grant, Rasel (Musharaf) Hussain, Sam Swift-Glassman, Sean Elliott,
FX Lead: Risto Puukko
FX Artists: Ameen Abbas, Craig Healy
Edit Assistant: Christy Brooks
Executive Producer: Danny Duke
VFX Producers: Andy Oakey, Diane Kingston, Zelda Tinska
Production Coordinators: Lia Jacobs, Zijing Huo
Pippa Considine
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