Union Enhances The Regime: UK Screen Alliance

Union’s newly established Montréal facility, led by VFX Supervisor and Co-Founder Adam Gascoyne, played a significant role in delivering the majority of the 700 VFX shots for HBO’s darkly comedic series, The Regime. The show, directed by Stephen Frears and Jess Hobbs, follows the story of life within the walls of a modern authoritarian regime as it begins to unravel.

Chancellor Elena Vernham, portrayed by Kate Winslet, grows increasingly paranoid and unstable, isolating herself within the Palace. She forms an unlikely alliance with a volatile soldier, Herbert Zubak, played by Matthias Schoenaerts, whose influence over her leads to the disintegration of both the palace and the country.

Union’s primary task was to expand and enhance the Chancellor’s palace and its surrounding landscapes to increase its grandeur. By scanning the real Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna and transforming it into a fictional, contemporary setting, they were able to create a visually stunning backdrop for the series. This involved extensive work on the Palace design, development of a CG model, lighting and rendering of the Palace extension, and various degrees of destruction in later episodes.

One standout shot in the series features a transition from the palace interior to a turbulent warzone, achieved through a blend of CG, DMP, and 2D elements. The team’s innovative solutions, including using CG versions of the courtyard and matte painting techniques, ensured a seamless visual experience for viewers.

In addition to environmental enhancements, Union’s VFX work also involved creating realistic gore effects, including decaying prosthetics for the Chancellor’s deceased father and a complex talking corpse sequence. The team collaborated closely with clients to achieve the desired appearance, matching enhancements with actors’ facial expressions to create believable effects.

Crowd shots, atmospheric enhancements, and graphic design elements were also part of Union’s scope of work on The Regime. This included merging CG crowds with live-action footage, adding cold breath effects, and creating news channel graphics for televisions shown in the episodes.

Fans of The Regime can now stream the series on HBO Max, Now TV, and Crave. Union’s work on the show demonstrates their commitment to delivering high-quality VFX that enhance the storytelling and visual appeal of popular streaming entertainment.