The Blacklist
Type – Previs
Creator – Jon Bokenkamp
Studio – Sony Pictures Television
Location – Atlanta, Los Angeles, London
So it’s Friday, March 20th, 2020, studios are shutting down offices, shoots are going on hold and we’ve transitioned to WFH on Proof’s current projects. Monday, March 24th, Ron gets a call from the Blacklist showrunner. They’ve shut down their shoot halfway through an episode… is there any possibility we could ‘animate’ the rest of the episode to close out the season? They loved a comic book look so could we do Previs animation with a comic book/2d render? Oh… and in 6 weeks? With the unknown of a potential global pandemic, what could we say besides ‘Let’s do this!’
In one week, we set up teams at all 3 Proof locations worldwide and dove in! This project really stands out for me as it was the first time that all locations collaborated completely on a project and it was going to air as part of an episode of Blacklist as ‘final’. I was really hands-on for this one as we worked to get 20+ minutes done in a very short time, but everyone worked together and with production to get the work done. Simultaneously, we were figuring out the comic book render style, while actors were recording their dialogue from home and we were making sure random artwork had legal clearance… all things we normally don’t worry about! I was so proud of the team and how hard everyone worked to make sure Blacklist finished off Season 7 with a bang!
- Patrice Avery