BlueBolt’s regal VFX for Becoming Elizabeth

BlueBolt has announced their involvement in Becoming Elizabeth, the new eight part drama from STARZ.

The series tells the story of a young Elizabeth Tudor (Alicia von Rittberg) at the time when her father dies and her pre-teen brother is crowned king. A power struggle ensues between various families and powerful individuals, as Elizabeth and her siblings find themselves being used as pawns in a dangerous game.

Working as lead vendor, the BlueBolt team, led by VFX Supervisor Henry Badgett, produced 400 VFX shots, including extensive 2D and 3D environments for different locations, various set extensions, FX work for fire and fireworks, blood and wound addition, and modern day clean up.

Set extensions were required throughout the show to extend buildings and replace background objects. Crowds were enlarged, and the army encampment populated with extra tents, fires and people. Smoke and mist were added to make outdoor scenes more atmospheric, and warships were built from scratch and composited into sea plates.

As is usually the case for a period drama, the show includes many acts of grisly violence and a few execution scenes – it was down to the VFX team to deliver the gore. In one particularly gruesome sequence we have a close shot of a beheading at the Tower of London, for which BlueBolt artists added the axe-chop, wound opening, blood flow and blood spatter. Elsewhere, there is a battle sequence that required blood splatter for a host of throat-slittings, and a scene in which a character is burned alive at the stake. BlueBolt created fire for the burning man, and also for a moment in which a river is set alight. The climactic scene ends with a fireworks display, also created by BlueBolt.

Filming took place from January 2021 to May 2021 at locations in the South West and Wales, Bottle Yard Studio in Bristol, National Trust Barrington Court in Somerset, Broughton Castle in Oxfordshire and Haddon Hall in Derbyshire with BlueBolt on set throughout the shoot.

Becoming Elizabeth is available to watch on Startz in the US and STARZPLAY through Amazon Prime Video in the UK.