Entity FX Ships Visual Effects for Harpers Island

Company's Digital Effects Support New 13-Part Murder-Mystery

Santa Monica, California, and Vancouver, British Columbia (April 15, 2009)

Award-winning visual effects company Entity FX has completed visual effects for "Harper's Island," a new murder-mystery-style television drama airing Thursday evenings at 10:00 PM Eastern/Pacific on CBS. Entity FX created visual effects for the show's 13 episodes, which began airing April 9, 2009.

Entity FX leveraged the team at its Vancouver, Canada-based satellite office to produce a range of diverse effects and composites across Season 1, which is set on a remote island in the Pacific Northwest. Entity FX added (and removed) blood, crafted CG weapons and prosthetics, supplied some significant digital makeup and added a variety of virtual backgrounds, all in support of a story line that sees the show's characters killed off in different — often gruesome — ways, one by one. Visual effects also worked closely with practical effects and stunts for such collaborative effects as wire and rig removal.

"The concept for 'Harper's Island' is different from a regular series and we had more of a film-style schedule in terms of delivering the visual effects," commented Dan Rucinski, Executive Producer, Entity FX. "Anything could happen from episode to episode so we had to be ready to handle any possible kind of visual effect. The challenge was often to show enough but not too much."

"Harper's Island" features a story arc that is completed in 13 episodes, and ends with the killer being revealed. Jon Turteltaub (National Treasure, Instinct, While You Were Sleeping) helmed the series premiere and also executive produces.

This season, Entity FX has also been responsible for visual effects for shows including "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" and "Entourage" as well as the eighth season of "Smallville." Other projects include television pilots "The Vampire Diaries," "Eastwick" and "Jesse James is a Dead Man" (for Spike TV). Entity FX is nominated for a 2009 Sports Emmy Award for the Fox Sports Network show "Sports Science."