Jane Eyre is at its heart the story of an orphaned girl whose strength of character helps her survive life in mid-Victorian England. It stars Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender in the iconic lead roles of this romantic drama. The new Jane Eyre, written by Moira Buffini, emphasizes the gothic aspects of the book and re-orders the narrative sequence, creating greater dramatic immediacy for modern audiences. While it's easy to go back to that time when you're reading a book, it is far more difficult to film when the once pristine countryside is now dotted with overhead wires or telephone poles, modern buildings, paved roads, and all the rest that needs to be dealt with. And like all such projects, the work must be invisible. The computer graphics for this visually rich adaptation had to blend seamlessly with the original footage. Along with removing the trappings of modern life from a number of shots, the team at Modus changed the season in which several sequences are set, adding leaves to an almost bare tree.

But the most complex part of the project called for a digitally altered environment to create the burned-out ruins of Thornfield Castle. “Atmosphere is everything for a film like this, so our work had to support the mood of the story and the scenic locations,” said Yanick Wilisky, VP of production and VFX supervisor at Modus. “The film uses a soft palette and natural light to capture the feeling of a world before the age of electricity, so our visual effects had to be entirely invisible.”

Initially, Modus was hired on this project to alter the appearance of a run-down country manor so that it would show the aftermath of the fire at Thornfield Castle, a pivotal moment in the story. “Focus Features came to us shortly after we had completed work on The American last summer,” explained Wilisky. “Everyone understood that transforming the castle was going to present challenges. They had a tight timeline, but they knew we could do it.”

Shooting on Jane Eyre had already wrapped up when Modus came to the project. “There was no CG model of the castle. We just had the footage to work with, and because the camera was moving in every shot, we had to use motion-tracking techniques to build our own environment.”

Modus used Science.D.Visions’ 3DEqualizer to generate a point cloud based on the footage. “From that data we were able to remodel the surface of the castle so that we could re-texture the walls,” said Wilisky.

The most difficult shots in the castle sequence were those which included the lace hat worn by Mia Wasikowska. The blackened walls of the castle had to show through countless perforations in the hat as the actress moves through the shots. “The castle model had to track exactly on the plate, or the audience would have been able to see the textures moving on the wall,” explained Jacinthe Côté, Modus’ production director. “These shots required a lot of rotoscoping, and then frame-by-frame work with a mix of keying and painting to make everything fit perfectly.”

As the postproduction progressed, Modus’ work on the project expanded. In one sequence shot in late autumn, the season was changed to look like early summer. “The trees were bare, so we had to add CG leaves and a gentle breeze,” said Côté. “The challenge was to match the colors so that everything looked real and fit in imperceptibly with the live action.”



Côté explained that the team collaborated with director Cary Fukunaga from his production offices in London via cineSync – a review and approval system. “We’re used to working with clients from who are based elsewhere and we always work with cineSync. It really is an excellent communication tool for long-distance collaboration,” said Côté.

“Cary has a great eye and he is one of these directors who really understands visual effects in a way that he can talk to us in very technical terms,” said Wilisky. “That was a real asset on this project. It was like working with a visual effects artist.”

A Focus Features Release, Jane Eyre is distributed in Canada by Alliance Films.