By TREVOR HOGGImages courtesy of Blue Bolt and Focus Features.If there was a contemporary director who could feel right at home being transported back to the silent era, it would be Robert Egger with his hauntingly and beautiful visuals captured on 35mm film by his go-to cinematographer Jarin Blaschke. Brought into the inner circle to enhance the imagery with CG is Angela Barson and BlueBolt, which shifted from the Vikings of The Northman to vampires in Nosferatu. The goal was to digitally match the dark gothic aesthetic when producing 253 shots encompassing 90 of 132 minutes of screentime that feature a city, castle, canal, monastery, stormy seas, blood and gore, and plenty of rats! Adding to the complexity were shots lasting up to three minutes and consisting of 800 frames that needed to be stitched together.Everyone has been talking about the beautiful production design, the incredible cinematography, the amazing locations and the thousands of real rats; there has been little-to-no mention of the CG. I find it the ultimate compliment. If the visual effects work doesnt standout and everything is thought to be real, then weve done our job well.Angela Barson, Production VFX SupervisorShadows are a visual motif that emphasizes the vampiric threat and presence.Robert Eggers and DOP Jarin Blaschke storyboarded the entire movie, which helped with planning, states Barson, Production VFX Supervisor on Nosferatu. There was a huge number of visuals for the look and mood of the film plus concept art and drawings from the art department for all sets and locations. The visuals were extensive. BlueBolt provided some previs for a few of the bigger CG shots to help design the shots and inform everyone of what we needed to shoot to create the final result. BlueBolt was the main vendor while Atomic Arts handled some complex clean-up shots, and quick fixes were done by an in-house compositor. The eerie atmosphere of Nosferatu came from the blend of production design and Jarins cinematography. We shot with old Dagor and Baltar lenses, which had a specific vintage look. Scotopic filters were used for the night work, so there was almost no red in the plates, unless there was fire. The night work, interior and exterior, was hard moonlight, and sky replacements were needed on the exterior shots to give a lighter sky rather than the pitch black captured on camera. For all the full CG shots where we had no plate photography to match to, Jarin was involved in the lighting setup and made several visits to BlueBolt to help direct these shots.Atmospherics such as dust and smoke were important to be able to integrate digital set extensions into practical plates.The sky needed to be clear yet ominous, with striking backlit clouds. To bring the city to life, or rather to underscore its eerie stillness, we added subtle atmosphere, chimney smoke rising from a few houses, debris scattered across the streets, and empty boats drifting in the canals. The streets themselves were completely devoid of people, amplifying the unease. As this was night-time, we also matched Jarins technique of using a Stoptic filter to remove red light, which added to the shots haunting monochromatic feel. All these elements combined to create a balance of historic realism and an unsettling, otherworldly mood.David Scott, VFX Supervisor, BlueBoltExtensive research and scouting were conducted by Production Designer Craig Lathrop with the central environment being the city of Wisburg. The visual effects team later went back to photograph and LiDAR scan all the suitable buildings in Germany and the castle in Romania so BlueBolt could create a library of CG buildings, Barson remarks. BlueBolt created a full CG city, which included recreating the practical backlot builds. We placed virtual cameras at all the main story locations so we could make sure the layout would work for all key views. The visual relationship between the Manor House, the Hutters House, the canal and Wisburgs main street needed to work across the movie. Inspiration for the fictional German city came from Lbeck, Stade and Gdas. These cities informed the layout of the winding streets, the architecture and the estuary, grounding Wisburg in a tangible, historical reality, states David Scott, VFX Supervisor with BlueBolt. We were fortunate to work with some fantastic concept art from Craig, whose work really captured the unsettling and atmospheric tone that Robert Eggers envisioned for the city. His designs helped set the look and feel of Wisburg, balancing the eeriness with a sense of authenticity.To add life to the city, BlueBolt created empty boats drifting in the canals.Interior scenes took place in locations or set builds and required a minimal amount of digital work. The exterior streets of Wisburg was a large backlot build, which required extending upwards and into the distance, Barson notes. The Transylvanian village was a large set build on location. We used locations for the cemetery, forests, shoreline and several others. We tried to avoid using greenscreens whenever possible, and sometimes when wed like to use them, it wasnt possible. Often, they werent viable due to the amount of camera travel in the shots. An iconic shot is the hand shadow traveling over the city. Jarin envisioned the scene as moonlit, with hard, dramatic shadows cast across the city, Scott states. The sky needed to be clear yet ominous, with striking backlit clouds. To bring the city to life, or rather to underscore its eerie stillness, we added subtle atmosphere, chimney smoke rising from a few houses, debris scattered across the streets, and empty boats drifting in the canals. The streets themselves were completely devoid of people, amplifying the unease. As this was night-time, we also matched Jarins technique of using a Stoptic filter to remove red light, which added to the shots haunting monochromatic feel. All these elements combined to create a balance of historic realism and an unsettling, otherworldly mood.BlueBolt created a full CG city, which included recreating the practical backlot builds.A Gothic-Renaissance castle in Hunedoara, Romania was the basis for the dwelling of Count Orlok. We scouted Corvin Castle early on with the idea of filming there, but it was being renovated and becoming too pristine, Barson states. All of it would have needed to be changed by the art department and visual effects, so in the end the interiors were all built as practical sets on the stages, the courtyards were locations and the exteriors were fully CG. We scanned and photographed Corvin Castle to use as a base, then aged and weathered it to give the desired level of decay. The surrounding environment, including the river at its base, was fully CG. When we created the fully CG castle shots, Jarin was integral in the framing and lighting of the shots. The lenses had been profiled so we could recreate the look precisely. The shots of the small boat traveling up the canal in Wisburg was also a fully CG environment. The boat and people were shot on the backlot with reflective boards on the ground to capture reflections for the CG water. The buildings on either side of the canal used buildings from our general Wisburg city assets. The monastery was based on a real one that we werent able to visit; it was created fully in CG with no reference photography. The manor house exterior was also fully CG. We photographed other buildings in the style we wanted to use for textures.Wisburg gets overtaken by a massive rodent infestation. The rats were a mix of live action and CG, Barson reveals. We had one to two thousand real rats on set, some of which were trained. We tried wherever possible to have real rats in the shot and, ideally, closest to the camera so that the most clearly seen rats were real. This approach worked a lot of the time, but sometimes it was easier to remove all the real rats and replace them with CG, rather than trying to interweave CG with the real ones which would have meant a lot of roto work. Technical precision had to be balanced with creative storytelling. We used Golaem to handle the large swarms of rats, Scott explains. To ensure their movements felt chaotic yet natural, we created around 60 different animation cycles, covering a variety of behaviors and speeds to provide plenty of variation within the swarm. Once we had the overall look and feel working, we went in and fine-tuned individual rats within the crowd. This allowed us to adjust their placement, swap out animations or remove specific rats to refine the composition of the shot. By combining these procedural tools with manual adjustments, we were able to craft swarms that felt alive, unpredictable and convincingly integrated into the unsettling world of the film.Skies played an important role in establishing the proper tone for shots.Not everything happens on land. Creating the stormy seas for Nosferatu was a complex challenge, both technically and artistically, Scott notes. In total for the voyage, we had three fully CG shots and one that needed to be integrated with live-action footage. The biggest challenge in the CG shots was achieving a stormy ocean that felt vast and believable. To do this, we had to layer in a high level of detail of violent waves, mist blowing off the crests and gusting rain to capture the chaotic energy of the storm. Each element had to work together to create depth and realism. For the live-action shot, integration was particularly tricky. We had to carefully match the lighting and the intensity of the rain already present in the plate to ensure a seamless blend between the CG water and the practical elements. Balancing all these factors was key to making the ocean feel like a living, relentless force within the world of the film. All of the shots were backlit with the moon either in frame or just out of view at the top. This lighting setup allowed us to create dramatic skies filled with richly textured, backlit clouds that added depth and atmosphere to each scene, Scott remarks. The skies played a significant role in storytelling as the voyage progressed. Initially, they reflected a sense of uneasy calm, with pastel hues of sunrise framing the Empusas departure. However, as the plague began to take hold of the ship and Orlok claimed his victims, the skies grew darker and more ominous.The eerie atmosphere of Nosferatu came from the blend of production design and Jarins cinematography. We shot with old Dagor and Baltar lenses, which had a specific vintage look. Scotopic filters were used for the night work, so there was almost no red in the plates, unless there was fire. The night work, interior and exterior, was hard moonlight, and sky replacements were needed on the exterior shots to give a lighter sky rather than the pitch black captured on camera.Angela Barson, Production VFX SupervisorThe bridge was a digital creation.The most difficult rat scene takes place in the chapel. The actors had to wade through a swarm of rats, using their flaming torches to keep them at bay, Barson remarks. We created some practical molded rat mats and had a load of model rats that we used to cover the floor. The actors had to pick their way round the mats and model rats, giving them something to react to and they also provided a very good lighting reference. It also meant if you saw through a gap in the CG rats, youd be looking at the rat mats rather than bare flooring. Lighting the swarms of CG rats to match the moving firelight was especially challenging and took many painstaking rounds of lighting and compositing to make it seamless. Orloks hand shadow traveling over Wisburg was also complex to execute. It was one of the few shots in the film that used a more obviously non-practical camera move, Barson notes. The entire Wisburg town and its surrounding environment is seen in this shot. The shot consists of 958 frames. The shot gives the audience plenty of time to take in every element, meaning we couldnt cut corners, Scott states. Everything had to hold up to scrutiny. It also had to blend seamlessly with the real lighting and never feel CG. Achieving that level of realism while maintaining the eerie, unsettling atmosphere was a huge challenge, but, ultimately, it was one of the most rewarding aspects of the project.A ship is digitally added to make the frame subtly more interesting.For the sea shots backlighting was favored.Bluescreen was also utilized to get the proper scope for shots.Inspiration for the fictional German city of Wisburg came from Lbeck, Stade and Gdas.As the vampire threat becomes more prevalent, the skies take on a threatening appearance.The shadow hand effect lasts for 958 frames and was one of most complex shots to execute.Swarms of rats consisted of practical and digital rodents.There was no holding back on the blood and gore.Visual effects played a supporting role. Everyone has been talking about the beautiful production design, the incredible cinematography, the amazing locations and the thousands of real rats; there has been little-to-no mention of the CG, Barson states. I find it the ultimate compliment. If the visual effects work doesnt standout and everything is thought to be real, then weve done our job well. BlueBolt is proud to be part of the Nosferatu. Every aspect of the visual effects was a true team effort, and everyone involved did an amazing job, Scott notes. From the large-scale CG environments to the intricate atmospheric details, every shot was crafted with such care and precision. It was an honor to be part of bringing Robert Eggers vision to life. The hard work did not go entirely unnoticed. I have nothing but praise for my collaboration with BlueBolt, Eggers remarks. Their trademarks are photorealism, naturalism and subtlety, not maximalism. Their attention to detail is impeccable as well as the drive to never finish until the work is as close to perfection as possible. Above all, BlueBolts commitment is to telling great stories. I look forward to working with them again on the next one.