InterviewsThe Franchise: Adam Gascoyne (VFX Supervisor & Co-founder) with Dan Victoire (DFX Supervisor) Union VFXBy Vincent Frei - 06/02/2025 Adam Gascoyne detailed Union VFXs contributions to the visual effects of Stan & Ollie back in 2019. Following that, he worked on various shows such as The Undoing, Pistol, Allelujah, and The Regime.Starting at Cinesite in 2020, Dan Victoire later worked with Framestore before becoming part of the Union VFX team in 2014. His credits include work on The Crown, The Irregulars, The Wheel of Time, and The Sandman.How did you get involved on this series?We were brought on by Neal Street Productions after collaborating with them and Sam Mendes on Empire of Light.How was the collaboration with the showrunner and the directors?We began discussions quite early with showrunner Jon Brown and his team. We were invited to offer some insights into how VFX works on set and give some fun anecdotes from our careers. Some of them even made it into the script, which is not something that happens every day!As always, it was a pleasure to work with Sam Mendes again on the pilot. We collaborated closely in the lead-up to filming, helping him plan the VFX work. This continued throughout the series. We worked very collaboratively alongside the other directors.(L to R) Sam Mendes, Jon Brown / Photograph by Colin Hutton/HBOHow did you organize the work with your VFX Producer?Our in-house VFX producer was Tallulah Baker who worked closely with the production team and dealt with many of the logistical and creative challenges they encountered.What is your role on set and how do you work with other departments?Adam Gascoyne was the overall VFX Executive Supervisor. His relationship with Sam Mendes meant that Union were involved from early conversations all the way through to post delivery. He worked closely alongside Unions onset team with Taskin Kenan overseeing the pilot shoot and Jake Green the remaining 7 episodes.After the shoot wrapped, our in-house DFX Supervisors Dan Victoire, Dave Schneider, and Iain Read worked with Adam to oversee the VFX looking after our talented teams of artists in both London and Montral.The biggest VFX episodes were Episode 1, 4, and 7 with work ranging from early previs, all the way through to exploding bridges!Can you walk us through the process of designing invisible visual effects for The Franchise?Most of the VFX for The Franchise was invisible and planned from pre-production. Union are well known for our invisible effects work. The key with this kind of work is collaboration. You have to ask the right questions early on in the process. What seems like an obvious VFX shot to us might not be obvious to everyone, and thats just down to experience, years of working on projects like this and knowing the kinds of challenges that tend to crop up.How do you strike a balance between realism and the comedic tone of the series?We helped develop some of the ideas in the script relating to VFX, but the comedic tone was all down to the brilliant writing by Jon Brown and his team.Achieving realism was occasionally tricky on set, especially when working as a film crew who are filming a film crew within a fictional production. It often required careful distinction between the two layers of storytelling.Invisible VFX often go unnoticed by audiences. How did you approach creating effects that seamlessly blend into the chaotic behind-the-scenes environment of a blockbuster set?In the same way that we would approach any job with a lot of meticulous planning, lots of discussion on how to do the VFX work, location scouting and technical recess such as the location which was used in the bridge sequence which required scanning the real bridge as well as a taxidermy bat!Were there any specific scenes in The Franchise that posed unique challenges for your team when it came to creating invisible VFX? How did you overcome them?Episode 7 has one of the most ambitious sequences in the show, where a culturally important bridge accidentally gets destroyed, causing a swarm of protected bats to take off. It was a big mix of VFX and practical effects, and it turned out great.On set, the SFX team triggered some real demolition effects, but we replaced the bridge with a CG version for the parts where it collapses. That way, we could control how it fell and make it look realistic. We also added things like debris, smoke, and water splashes in the river below, so everything felt natural and reacted the way it would in real life.One challenge was that there was a modern bridge in the background, so we had to remove that to keep the focus on the old bridge, which is the jokes centrepiece.Then there were the bats, which were all CG. We studied reference footage and even used a taxidermy bat to ensure they looked and moved realistically. The bats had to react to the collapsing bridge and the effects around them, so we worked hard to get the lighting and shadows just right to blend them into the scene.It was a real team effortpractical effects, VFX, animation, everything had to come together. The result is chaotic but also really fun, and it fits perfectly with the story.The series features both practical and digital effects. How did you decide when to use invisible VFX versus practical solutions on set?We worked closely with the SFX team to create realistic elements as they appear on set. Its a real crossover between the two teams, some of these elements might be enhanced in VFX such as the burning fireball in episode 6. It takes a lot of collaboration and understanding of what is practical and achievable on set and what would be more beneficial to be done in VFX and post to achieve the best results.Given that The Franchise is a satire of the superhero film industry, how did you use invisible VFX to enhance the humour and parody elements of the series?One of my favourite examples is the sneeze scene in episode 2. Adam and Peter, played by Billy Magnussen and Richard E. Grant, are trying to pull off a ridiculous wire stunt with an invisible jackhammer. The scene was already funny, but it needed a little extra oomph.Our VFX team suggested adding a perfectly-timed sneeze by compositing and animating a head replacement. It sounds simple, but executing it required meticulous timing and collaboration with the showrunner. It was silly, but it worked! That tiny VFX tweak helped the gag land perfectly and took the absurdity up a notch. Its a great example of how even the smallest effects can make a big impact, especially when youre poking fun at superhero filmmaking.What tools and techniques did your team use to achieve realistic set extensions, background replacements, or other subtle enhancements in The Franchise?We use Nuke, Maya, Houdini and some in-house preparatory tools.Can you share an example of a scene where the use of invisible VFX significantly improved the storytelling or comedic impact of a moment?The bridge sequence was definitely the most significant, but overall the series has a lot of minor and invisible VFX adjustments scattered throughout.In a show focused on the making-of process, were there any meta VFX shots where you had to create digital elements that mimic traditional on-set effects?Definitely! There were some hilarious moments along the way. We even had to add blue screens into the sets after the fact, which was a bit of VFX irony in itself.One of the best running jokes was creating these intentionally bad previsualisations, or previz. Since its a comedy, we could lean into this with purposefully stiff models, and jerky animations. As the story progresses and you meet VFX Dave, you realise these ridiculous previz shots are meant to mirror the fictional VFX teams complete meltdown.How did you collaborate with the production design and cinematography teams to ensure that your invisible VFX would match the physical sets and props used in The Franchise?There was lots of discussions, storyboards, previs, and concepts. Worked very closely with production designer Neil Callow and his team.What was the most rewarding aspect of working on invisible VFX for a series that blurs the line between fiction and reality in the world of blockbuster filmmaking?Great to work with Neal Streat again and always a pleasure working with Sam.Its not often we get to show some of the more ridiculous nature of what we do, but also shows how it all comes together in the end.Were there any unexpected technical or creative challenges encountered during the production?There were definitely some unexpected challenges! A lot of the sets were super reflective, which kept us on our toes. One tricky spot was with the reality crystal from episode 4we had to enhance it, making it look even shinier and more impressive. But the reflections were a bit of a puzzle. Because of the shows concept, we needed to keep some crew members visible in the reflections while figuring out which ones were real and which were part of the fictional crew. That got pretty meta!Another fun one was working with props like the big red tractor in episode 5. We had to composite it into the scene when the green tractor drove through the doorway. There was a production tent in the way that we had to remove and place the tractor in its place. It was a small adjustment, but it helped sell the gag and make the scene flow better.Looking back on the project, what aspects of the visual effects are you most proud of?The episode 7 bridge sequence, hands down. It was such an ambitious scene, and it really pushed our team creatively and technically. The level of detail and complexity we brought to that sequence is something Im incredibly proud ofit was a true team effort to pull it off.How long have you worked on this show?Its been a pretty long journey! From early preproduction all the way to final delivery, it spanned about two years. We first got the call about the project back in October 2022. We started with the pilot and then into production of the rest of the series. Its been quite a ride, but a rewarding one for sure!Whats the VFX shots count?This was approximately 270 shots and 10 assets.What is your next project?As a studio, weve had an incredibly exciting year. We started our year off with our first-ever BAFTA win for Poor Things. More recently, our work on The Tattooist of Auschwitz earned some wonderful recognition, taking home awards at both the RTS Craft & Design Awards and The Broadcast Tech Innovation Awards.On the project front, we wrapped up exciting work on HBOs The Regime, Peacock and Skys The Tattooist of Auschwitz, and the fourth season of Slow Horses. Looking ahead, were gearing up for an exciting slate, including the premiere of Apple TV+s high-stakes thriller series Prime Target early next year, followed by some highly anticipated feature-length releases.A big thanks for your time. Vincent Frei The Art of VFX 2025