Why This Is The End’s CGI Looked So Good For The Budget

This is the End co-writer/co-director/star Seth Rogen opens up about how the CGI was accomplished on the apocalyptic comedy’s modest budget. The film, which marked Rogen and childhood friend and frequent collaborator Evan Goldberg’s directorial debuts, centered on a group of actors playing fictionalized versions of themselves as they hunker down in the Los Angeles hills in the midst of the biblical apocalypse. Rogen starred in the film alongside Jay Baruchel, James Franco, Craig Robinson, Jonah Hill, Danny McBride, Emma Watson and Michael Cera, amongst many celebrity cameos.

Released in 2013, This is the End became a smash hit for Sony Pictures as it would gross over $126 million worldwide against its $32 million budget. It also received rave reviews from critics and audiences alike for its self-deprecating meta humor and the mostly improvised performances from its ensemble cast. Though Goldberg has teased ideas for a potential sequel to the film, Rogen has frequently shot down the idea due to the busy production schedules of its large cast.

In Corridor Crew‘s latest episode of VFX Artists React, Rogen guest starred to share insight on CGI from his past films, including This is the End. Rogen revealed that the Hellhound scene was originally filmed with a practical human actor before turning to a CGI monster and that Jonah Hill’s possessed appearance was entirely CGI. See what Rogen had to say below:

“The whole [Hellhound] scene was filmed with a practical creature that was 100 percent replaced in post because we just didn’t like how it looked. There was a guy in a suit, a demon suit and it looked amazing in real life it was incredible, it was scary, it was gross. Then the guy in the suit, whenever he moved, it just was not what we wanted. I remember this poor guy, we had a long hallway in the soundstage we were shooting in and me and Evan must have made him run down this hallway like 100 times. Like, ‘Again, more animally. Again, again, again.’ Our visual effects supervisor Paul Linden, who’s a great guy, was like ‘I think I can replace this thing with a big–ss f-ck-ng monster.’ [laughs] He was like, ‘Honestly, I think you’re going to want a big monster here, I don’t think you’re going to want a little human-sized guy in a suit’ and he was right. He replaced it with the giant thing, which was very much inspired by the monsters from Ghostbusters.

I remember we were so skeptical, me and Evan, then we saw the first version of it and were like, ‘Oh my god, this is incredible, it’s so much better than I thought it was going to be.’  [The fire scene with possessed Jonah Hill] is largely practical, which is insane, fire’s scary. We had the guy run down [the hallway] on fire and we had Jonah doing a lot of the same action just in camera, we lined up the shot, Jonah ran at the camera roaring then we had the stunt guy do the same thing then we used visual effects to match it up and probably rebuilt some of his face. That shot [with a clearly visible facial prosthetic], we probably just ran out of money on that shot.

What’s interesting is Jonah is never wearing makeup in any sequence, the whole effect that’s done to him, the kind of zombified possessed Jonah, is all CG. It was a good lesson, because it was something we didn’t have a whole lot of money for.”

Looking at the cast list alone for This is the End, the fact the film shot on a budget of just $32 million proves rather impressive, especially when factoring in its apocalyptic setting. Comedies with similar stars or producers such as I Love You, Man were filmed on a $40 million budget, most of which stemmed from their Los Angeles-based shoots versus This is the End‘s New Orleans-set production, and yet Rogen, Goldberg and the visual effects team’s work clearly didn’t falter from the lower budget. Though practical effects are often preferred by audiences nowadays as the Marvel and DC franchises have opened the door to CGI-heavy productions, it’s hard to deny how effective the CG Hellhound was in creating a sense of dread in its sequence.

It is interesting to see Rogen reveal that Jonah Hill’s possessed appearance in This is the End was an entirely CG effect versus makeup. Though he didn’t explicitly state why they went the route they did, only noting they didn’t have a lot of money for such an effect, it’s worth commending the visual effects team for pulling that more modest effect off as much as the larger set pieces of the film. This is the End is currently available to revisit on Starz now.

Source: Corridor Crew

About The Author

Grant Hermanns
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Grant Hermanns is a News Writer, Interviewer and Hiring Manager for Screen Rant, having joined the team in early 2021. Way back in 2015 while still in his college days, Grant got his start in the entertainment journalism industry with creator-friendly site Moviepilot until it shuttered nearly three years later. From there he joined the staff at ComingSoon.net and was its Associate Editor prior to coming over to Screen Rant.

To say he’s a lover of film and television would be an understatement and when he’s not mass consuming either you can find him exploring the world of Dungeons & Dragons with friends or slowly making his way through his gaming backlog.

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