HBO's “Odd Bird”: “The Penguin” takes to the air with clever invisible effects

Colin Farrell is seizing the opportunity to bring his version of an iconic comic book villain to life, donning prosthetic makeup and body suits as the title character for the new HBO series The penguin. The show is designed as a sequel to the 2022 feature film The Batmanfinds Oswald Cobblepot (aka the Penguin), who is planning a play to seize the reins of Gotham's crime world.

“I worked on Oswald Cobb's (Farrell) voice for a long time because it was featured in the film, but we're spending a lot more time with Oz, so there's an opportunity to develop it further,” says Lauren LeFranc, executive producer and showrunner the series. “I always wanted him to be charming and funny, but you could also see who he was as a man right through the seams. The more time you spend with him, the deeper we get to know who he is emotionally. I view this as a character study of this man as well as a look at toxic masculinity and masculinity in general. It's important to me that we don't make you idolize him. Oz is a narcissist. Narcissists have the ability to make everyone around them feel like they’re living in their glory until you do something that doesn’t serve them, and then things change.”

Immerse yourself in Gotham

According to LeFranc, the series' eight-hour episodes give viewers an in-depth tour of Gotham. “Matt Reeves (executive producer) had created an incredible and beautiful world of Gotham at night (for…). The Batman),” she says. “We had the opportunity to show you different aspects of Gotham during the day. My goal was to make sure that Gotham felt like its own character and that you felt what it was like to have real people there. Of course we see the world through the lens of Oz, but we wanted to make sure we showed different areas of the city. We also inherited this terrible flood The Batman where the dam collapsed. It is a city that is suffering and we used that as an opportunity to talk about class differences.”

The production's visual effects team played a huge role in bringing Gotham to life throughout the series. “The trick with our visual effects is that you can’t see them,” she says. “The goal was to make the images feel seamless and integrated, so you think everything is practical and that the city we're in is Gotham. We shot in New York, so we embraced that aesthetic, which is an incredible place to shoot. We would also like to inform you that Oz is a man, but we have small touch-ups here and there. We're not a superhero show. We want you to feel like we’re a grounded drama.”

“In visual effects, we're trying to force physics to do something different, and that's usually what makes it look wrong.”

— VFX supervisor Johnny Han

The prosthetic makeup for Oz's face was designed by Mike Marino, who also contributed his expertise The Batman Film. “It was actually more challenging to do this makeup for the show because Colin is seen three or four times longer and closer in it,” says the makeup designer. “Someone who doesn't want to wear makeup won't help the project. Colin couldn't be more amazing to work with as he loves filmmaking and special effects. It’s the perfect marriage of actors and effects.”

There's a telling moment when Farrell is 95% prosthetic. “The nude scene was so difficult,” Marino remembers. “We had made a flesh-haired suit that complemented the makeup so he was completely naked. It's a complete prosthetic, which is incredibly difficult to do because there's nowhere to hide anything and it was shot outside (in) daylight. There are no shadows. But when he wears the clothes, we built a suit that gives him a lot more weight. It's almost like pants with a zipper. We built it to move and function in a certain way, and then the clothes move on. This continues after the makeup is done, and the makeup overlaps the suit. But the naked stuff is a completely different matter!”

Around 2,200 visual effects shots were created within six months by Accenture Song VFX, Pixomondo, ReDefine, Stormborn Studios and Frost FX. VFX supervisor Johnny Han explains: “We definitely try to go into negative territory. We try to look into tunnels and under bridges. Elevated trains scream overhead and we don't know where they come from or where they're going. But they penetrate the city left and right.”

The third episode of the series offers a look back at the day of the massive flooding in the city. Han says: “There are a lot of recordings in there The Batman Let's look at everything from a bird's eye view and I said to Lauren, 'Let's make it feel like Victor Aguilar's (Cobb's protégé, played by Rhenzy Feliz) point of view and that we're that close to the danger.'”

A different approach was needed to support the editorial team. “The difficult thing about water is that it does exactly what water was designed to do,” Han recalls. “In visual effects, we try to force physics to do something different, and that's usually what makes it look wrong. We wanted to deliver the flood to the editor in what I call “digital dailies,” knowing that even though we cut to it three or four times in the storyboards, it would be cut with Victor in between. We said, “We're going to simulate a flood at the post-visualization level, so we feel like the speed of the water is what physics would do: the water would reach the end of the road in so many seconds.” It's, as if the editor was given a long clip of daily newspapers and he could cut it up as he wished, but he wasn't allowed to speed it up or slow it down. This is the right way to go when working with large simulations.”

Create atmosphere

The shots had to appear lively and convey the right scope of the topic. “Smoke and atmosphere are our best friends, adding depth, scale and realism,” notes Han. “One of my most common creative comments is when I say something seems too vacuistic. It feels like there is a vacuum between me and this building. There has to be air and atmosphere, lights have to shine and I have to feel fog and movement. It helps add life and movement when looking at buildings that don’t move!”

Of course, practical sets and locations also had to be replaced digitally from time to time. “Not that we didn’t enjoy the work, but from a story standpoint, things get discovered in post,” says the VFX supervisor. “We definitely went with what was built and Kalina Ivanov (production designer) and her team were great and provided us with many of their designs as 3D SketchUp models; That was hugely helpful for us because we basically learned the blueprints of these crazy sets.”

Overall, the show's biggest visual effects challenge was being invisible. “How do we incorporate just enough visual effects to make you follow the story a little more, love the characters a little more, and get a little more invested in the action without it just being visual effects?” says Han. “The things that are barely noticeable still have an impact subconsciously. There are things that you don't really see, but rather feel. There’s always something new to learn in filmmaking and I’m glad I got to be a part of it.”

The penguin is currently streaming on Max.