We started with an overview of the director’s wishes in terms of visual effects, special effects, make-up or real sets. Then we divided our work into three areas:

• Effects created before shooting and refined in post-production for the boat scene. A huge retro-projected wave is used as a backdrop during the lovers’ journey: it was designed by Leos Carax via concept art by our teams, followed by a full CG scene.
• The so-called “invisible” effects were used to camouflage and hide the cables, joints and cogs of Annette’s puppet. Screen inlays, green, blue and black backgrounds as well as a composite sequence shot were necessary for the final image to correspond to the director’s vision.
• Effects for the hyperbowl scene included a huge concert hall made and reproduced in full CG. CG drones, CG stadium, CG crowd, FX pyrotechnics and starry sky, with the only real element if this scene being the puppet.

Throughout the project – from pre-production to editing – close communication between our team and Leos determined certain shooting methods and specified which elements were to be crafted in post-production. It took five months to finalise more than 160 VFX shots with the aim of delivering them before the 2021 Cannes Film Festival.