'Penny Dreadful' Season 2 Spoilers: Creator On Why 'We Are All Monsters' Plus A Look At Special Effects [VIDEO]
Showtime's Penny Dreadful may be filled with monsters and mystery and powers beyond the natural human scope, but that doesn't mean it's not very much a human story.
Dark Secrets Revealed Through New 'Penny Dreadful' Set
"The ultimate challenging goal of Penny Dreadful is to say we are all monsters," explained creator John Logan in a behind-the-scenes look at the show's visual effects on Monday (featured below).
As a series, this Victorian supernatural drama has aimed to explore the unnatural in the most natural way possible.
Ethan Chandler Will Be Taking Care Of Business On 'Penny Dreadful'
"This is a show that involves the supernatural so we have quite a few supernatural scenes," noted producer Christopher King, who added that balancing the tangible with the digital is a "fine line."
"What we said very early on is we don't want CG monsters," insisted Logan. "There's something I find about them inherently false. I think an audience can tell if you're watching an animation or if you're watching an actor."
As a result, Showtime enlisted Makeup Artist and Key Prosthetic Designer Sarita Allison to help create living, breathing monsters on set. From the gentle touches utilized for Caliban's (Rory Kinnear) to the vampyric creatures which seek out Vanessa Ives (Eva Green), Allison's job is to make things feel real for the audience.
Even with makeup and props, the series has used a number of grand-scale effects, even if it may not seem that way.
"There's a lot of green screen elements," explained James Cooper, who is the program's Visual Effects Supervisor. "We're creating worlds that don't exist. Then there's the world that we do enhancing the things that are already shot on film. We're not trying to make a big flashy special effects extravaganza, but really just to tell this story."
"The best reward for a special effects supervisor," added Cooper. "Is when people say, 'I had no idea that was a visual effect'."
Penny Dreadful returns on Showtime for a second season in 2015.
