Southern Star's miniseries chronicles Kerry Packer's struggle to launch World Series Cricket as a media-focused enterprise in the 1970's. The story called for the recreation of many sports stadiums and historic gameplay. Chroma were brought in to produce a wide range of production design solutions across the two part tele-movie.

 

In addition to the creation of several CG shots including stadium and audience backgrounds for gameplay sequences, there was also a large amount of removals, augmentations and cleanups required for continuity and historic accuracy. This was crucial in providing locations, production design and the crew itself with time-saving solutions to logistic, creative and safety factors on set, while still delivering natural realism for the cricket sequences.  Solutions included simulated cricket balls to aid choreography and safety, to producing 100% CG shots of sporting venues and stadium lighting. The productions retro-format methodology had us working with Alexa, DigiBeta and original archival footage; modifying, matching and integrating cast into old broadcasts.

 

Winner: Best Miniseries 2013 AACTA Awards

Winner: Best Miniseries 2013 Logie Awards

Winner: Most Popular Miniseries 2013 Logie Awards

 

Age article covering Howzat’s VFX 

Audio interview about the VFX process for Howzat at FBiRadio 94.5FM