Golden Sq Brings History to Life for Viasat

VFX specialists Golden Sq and its production company arm Disqo have completed a series of magical idents which air on international TV channel Viasat History from today (Tuesday 29 April), taking the viewer back in time and linking ancient history to modern-day life.

With the strapline 'Bringing History to Life', the films celebrate a multi-channel rebrand of international entertainment group MTG’s portfolio of channels, and feature figures from famous paintings morphing into live action actors in everyday scenarios. 

The paintings featured are: Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer, 1665; Portrait of The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries by Jacques-Louis David, 1812; Portrait of A.S. Pushkin by Orest Kiprensky, 1827, Elizabeth 1 – The Darnley Portrait, artist not known, c1575 and Cleopatra VII Portrait on Papyrus, artist not known.

The idents were filmed in Croatia and use lookalike actors posing as the famous figures from the paintings. The original art pieces are also used but have been manipulated to include a lifelike, 3D quality.

“After being approached about the idea, initially for Girl with a Pearl Earring, I thought I’d scour our office for anyone with a vague likeness. I found an appropriate location in the office, and filmed one of our production assistants posing, and then looking to camera, as per the painting. From this footage, we produced test transitions to show the concept,” says Harry Jarman, VFX lead at Golden Sq.

“The lookalike actors that were chosen definitely made the post job more straightforward. We were able to seamlessly blend the portrait and contemporary characters together, creating a subtle transition that, in most cases, is barely noticeable.

“The challenge was to take just the head from an old portrait into a wide screen TV format and still make them recognisable. By camera tracking 3D heads over the actor's faces, and then projecting the painted faces over the top, it allowed us to integrate the faces into the live action more effectively, ‘dimensionalising’ the painting. We manipulated the old paintings a fair amount, in particular adding matching eye movement, which was fun.”

The idents can be seen on Viasat History from today onwards – the channel is broadcast across the Nordics, Central & Eastern Europe, Ukraine, Russia & CIS and Africa.