Dead Gorgeous: bringing ghosts to life
VFX supervisor Thomas Parkinson writes about the ghostly challenges behind the ABC children’s drama series Dead Gorgeous or, in his own words, creating champagne effects on a beer budget.
After living in a mysterious limbo for 150 years, three teenage sisters find themselves back in the ‘real’ world, but it is very different from the one they knew; a frustrating and difficult transition made harder by the fact that they are living ghosts.
That is the premise behind Dead Gorgeous, the children’s drama series produced by Burberry Entertainment and UK’s Coolabi Productions. It was created by Barbara Slade and produced by Margot McDonald, with Stephen Johnson as the set-up director in charge of nine of the 13 episodes.
Johnson and McDonald developed the look for the series, in conjunction with the production designer Peta Lawson, DOP Leilani Hannah and costume designer Louise McCarthy. I was brought on board as VFX supervisor and we started discussions quite early on.
