Fringe - VFX World: Pushing Science Beyond Far-Fetched

At VFX World:

(Please follow the link for the complete article.)



Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv), Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson), Phillip Broyles (Lance Reddick) and Walter Bishop (John Noble)

Fringe: Pushing Science Beyond Far-Fetched

FOX debuts Fringe tonight, so Tara Bennett goes behind-the-scenes with creator J.J. Abrams and Zoic VFX Supervisor Andrew Orloff.

By Tara Bennett

September 09, 2008

When creative wunderkind J.J. Abrams (Alias, Lost) brings a new pilot to television, audiences now expect big-screen quality in their living rooms. Luckily, Abrams doesn't disappoint, as he's always breaking new ground, especially when it comes to the integration of visual effects in his TV projects (despite lesser budgets and tighter production turnaround). Abrams' latest series, Fringe, premiering tonight on FOX, 8/7c, created with Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, concerns an FBI agent (Anna Torv) investigating bizarre scientific "patterns" with a mad-scientist (John Noble) and his more stable but equally brilliant son (Joshua Jackson) in tow.

Already called a more outrageous X-Files for the new millennium, Abrams said in a conference call with VFXWorld last week that, "with Fringe, we very consciously did what is in many ways a preposterous, out there, far-fetched, story point in order to say to the audience this is what you are going to be getting on the show. Some [episodes] will deal with science very much as it exists, but, for the most part, the fun for me in TV shows and films is to push the envelope further than you might otherwise."

And it shows in Fringe's two-hour premiere (which cost upwards of $10 million), which could easily hang with its big boy cousins in the theaters considering the pilots impressive cinematography, production design and detailed, gory visual effects. Zoic Studios handled the bulk of the labor on the pilot and is now in charge of the vfx on the continuing episodes. Andrew Orloff is the visual effects supervisor for episodic at Zoic and considers Fringe one of his favorite projects this TV season...