Lockerbie: A Search for Truth

We were honoured to be VFX partner on the Sky & Peacock Original limited series Lockerbie: A Search for Truth, starring award-winning actor Colin Firth. The five-part limited global event series from Universal International Studios’ Carnival Films & Sky Studios is based on the 1988 Lockerbie disaster and the search for justice by Dr Jim Swire and his wife Jane.

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"Care has been taken every step of the way; the approach to the Visual Effects is a prime example."

Colin Wratten

Executive Producer

VFX Supervisors Sue Land and Jack George supported on the shoot; helping to scout locations, plan key sequences and use REALTIME’s new proprietary virtual production tool to help the crew “see” digital elements on set. The tool was developed alongside the show, with funding from Greater Manchester’s Media City Immersive Technologies Innovation Hub.

REALTIME provided invisible FX work to help portray the scope of the disaster through several scenes in the opening episodes, including the foreboding ‘coffee cup’ sequence. In this sequence, the audience sees a teaspoon landing on the roof of a police car, signaling the start of the plane’s descent over the Scottish town of Lockerbie. Around seventy-five percent of the series’ visual effects were crafted for episode one.

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"It was so important that the show was incredibly collaborative. The key sequences are very, very emotive.”

Otto Bathurst

Director

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"At every stage of the pre-production and production process, REALTIME exuded a solution-orientated approach and 'can-do' attitude that was very inspiring."

Liz Trubridge

Executive Producer

The series is based on the book The Lockerbie Bombing: A Father’s Search for Justice by Jim Swire and Peter Biddulph, along with multiple other sources.

Lockerbie: A Search for Truth premiered January 2.

The series averaged 1.7 million views per episode on Sky Atlantic.