Short Film / Practical + Visual Effects
The Split
I BUILT THE WORLD ON SET, THEN FINISHED IT IN POST.
Special Effects Supervisor • Visual & Practical Effects • Screen Design & Compositing
- Film
- A Sisters Kent film / 2024
- Role
- Special Effects Supervisor / Visual & Practical Effects
- Additional work
- Screen design / compositing / title treatment design
- Also appearing
- Burt Rutherford as Kyle
An indie sci-fi short needed to feel strange without losing its physical world.
I served as a one-person effects department—building a perimeter fog system for the night exteriors, a custom dry-ice rig for low ground fog, and heavy interior haze. I designed the Macintosh imagery before the shoot so its light could be projected onto the actor in camera, then rebuilt every screen in post and finished the doorway portal.
Practical atmosphere / On-set build
Build the weather.
I researched the perimeter fog work used on E.T., then built my own fan-driven Tube of Death approach to surround the exterior set. For the low layer, I built the Diffused Output Undercurrent Generator—or DUG for short—a custom dry-ice cooler that kept the fog crawling across the ground. Inside, I shaped the same world with heavy practical haze.
Preproduction / Interactive light
Light it before it exists.
I designed the Macintosh imagery before photography, then created a companion light pass that could be projected across the actor’s face on set. The final screen would be rebuilt later; its light was already physically in the scene.
Screen design / Tracking + compositing
The screen was off.
The Macintosh was dark during photography. I designed, tracked and composited every screen in post—building the glow, distortion and optical integration back through the atmosphere photographed on set.
Portal / Practical base + digital finish
Open the door.
Practical haze and a concealed green light formed the base in camera. I completed the doorway with the portal surround and flare, letting the digital finish inherit the light and atmosphere already present on set.
05 / Title treatment
Let the signal name the film.
The title treatment carries the same Macintosh distortion and unstable electronic texture as the screen world.
The outcome