Anthem Finds Sanctuary at SCI FI Channel

Tuesday, July 15, 2008
By: Ryan Ball

Vancouver-based Anthem Visual Effects is single-handedly producing all the visual effects for 13 hour-long episodes of a new SCI FI Channel television series titled Sanctuary. Slated to air this fall, the fully Canadian show is being shot almost entirely on green screen with virtual sets, and is one of the first series in North America to exclusively employ the RED digital camera for acquisition.

“Clearly, when a series is shot on green screen, the visual effects play an integral role in everything the viewer sees,” explains Lee Wilson, president and visual effects supervisor at Anthem Visual Effects. “We want the audience to get caught up in the story and forget all about the visual effects. It’s all about storytelling.”

Sanctuary stars Amanda Tapping (Stargate SG-1) as the beautiful and enigmatic Dr. Helen Magnus, who tracks down, studies and protects the strange and often terrifying creatures that secretly populate our world. She is joined in her adventures by her new and somewhat reluctant protégé, Dr. Will Zimmerman, played by Robin Dunne (Dawson’s Creek), and her fearless daughter Ashley, portrayed by Emilie Ullerup (Battlestar Galactica). Tapping also serves as an exec producer.

Spearheaded by some of the creative forces behind Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, the show began as a web series in 2007 and is making the leap to television via licenses in the U.S., Canada and U.K. The creative team includes exec producer, writer and creator Damian Kindler, and exec producer and director Martin Wood. In addition, Sam Egan (Jeremiah, The Outer Limits) serves as exec producer and writer, along with fellow exec producers John Smith (Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis) and Keith Beedie.

Anthem will be completing roughly 400 visual effects shots per episode, creating everything from monsters to furry creatures, sweeping cityscapes and remote locations including the impressive Sanctuary itself. Anthem partners Lee Wilson, Lisa Sepp-Wilson and Sebastien Bergeron respectively serve as co-producer/ visual effects supervisor, visual effects producer and digital effects supervisor.

Sanctuary is produced in association with SCI FI Channel and is distributed by Tricon Films and Television. For more information about Anthem Visual Effects, go to http://anthemfx.com.

Reader Comments

• Larry :

  Wednesday, August 13, 2008

  I hope the CGI effects are a little more realistic for this series than the SCI FI channels movie endeavors. Sometimes I just don\'t think they\'re even trying anymore and they have some third grader drawing the creatures with his big box of crayons on cardboard and then cutting them out.
  
  CGI can be expensive, but if you\'re not going to spend the money to do it right then why not resort to live special effects. Make-up and animatronics effects wizards are out there begging for jobs.
  
  Or if you choose not to do that. Then why not spend the money to rent some of those decent creature/Sci Fi movies that are sitting out there waiting to be rented. There are probably thousands of them just waiting on shelves to be shown.
  
  And SCI FI has proven itself with \'Stargate\' \'Stargate Atlantis\' and even \'Battlestar Galactica\'. They can do it
  if they really want to.
  
  And please, no more Romanian backdrops that are supposed to New York or California. At least filming in Canada provides a closer backdrop to US cities and Canada still provides tax breaks last I heard.