Double Negative

Double Negative (DNeg or DNEG as it is also referred to for short) is a London, UK-based digital visual effects (VFX), aka CGI, company, founded in 1998, and one of their first accounts became Lucasfilm, who contracted the company as support for their main VFX vendor ILM for the effects of the Star Wars main saga's prequel trilogy. [1] DNeg continued to do so for those outings in the Mission: Impossible film franchise, ILM was contracted for.

From the moment the company was founded – and after a dedicated television VFX service was established in May 2013, specifically in order to cater to the needs of episodic content productions – , its services were in high demand for film and television productions alike, featuring visual effects elements, and the company has rapidly expanded, becoming quickly one of the leading digital VFX companies in the world. By 2020 it had established branches in Vancouver, Mumbai, Los Angeles, Chennai, Montréal, Chandigarh, Hyderabad and Goa. Their CGI work has garnered the company in the two decades of its existence a plethora of film an television awards in the various VFX categories. One such award was the VFX Academy Award for their hallmark work on the acclaimed science fiction film Interstellar (2014) for which they constructed among others the signature black hole, which was the first time that the latest, most recent and accurate, scientific visual interpretation of the phenomenon was seen on the silver screen by the public. Working closely with the digital modelers of DNeg, the visual interpretation was based on the work of theoretical physicist and Nobel Prize laureate Kip Thorne and his collegues. [2] [3] It was their interpretation of a black hole that was later featured in the second season Star Trek: Discovery epidode "If Memory Serves" as the Talosian black hole.

In 2015 the company became a major CGI provider for Star Trek Beyond, [4] becoming in fact the lead VFX company for the film. (Cinefex, issue 148, p. 72) The company had special "Behind the Screens" screening events organized at their Vancouver, Canada branch on 3 October, [5] and at their London, UK headquarters on 15 November 2016, [6] in order to showcase and explain to the audience their work they had done for the film.

Pursuant their work on Beyond, the company was contracted to support main VFX vendor Pixomondo with the effects work for the second season of Star Trek: Discovery, though they remained uncredited for it. The company continued to do so for the second season episodes "Ask Not" and "Children of Mars" of Star Trek: Short Treks (also including the first season episode "The Brightest Star" according to their website, albeit uncredited), as well as for the effects of Star Trek: Picard, credited this time around in both cases.

DNeg's Toni Pykalaniemi, who served as VFX Supervisor on Discovery's third season, was co-nominated for a VFX Emmy Award on 13 July 2021 for his work on the Verubin Nebula in the episode "Su'Kal", [7] an award he won on 12 September 2021.

DNeg's proliferating contributions to television shows produced for streaming services took center stage in the penultimate issue (#171) of the industry magazine Cinefex, where no less than five such shows in which DNeg had played a major role were higlighted in separate articles, which apart from PIC Season 1, included pieces on the second season of Altered Carbon, the first season of The Boys, the second season of West World and the mini-series DEVS (in which Alison Pill co-starred). [8]

Star Trek staff[]

note: This list is currently incomplete, as, for the television productions in particular, only the by the company itself credited (senior) staffers are known for certain. Other credits are derived from the individuals' IMDb entries, but who are confirmed on the official company website as (ex-)employees, the unconfirmed ones excepted.
Additionally, DNeg took out an advertisement in the industry magazine Cinefex (isssue 148, p. 83), which listed in small print 1017 (non-senior) members of the Beyond staff who had not received a mention on the end credit roll in the film, or anywhere else for that matter, as a way to thank them for their work on the film.

Further reading[]

• "Cosmic Deconstruction", Graham Edwards, Cinefex, issue 148, August 2016, pp. 70-92
• "One Eye on the Stars", Joe Fordham, Cinefex, issue 171, June 2020, pp. 14-28

External links[]

• DNeg.com – official site
  • Star Trek Beyond at DNeg.com
  • Star Trek: Discovery at DNeg.com
  • Short Treks at DNeg.com
  • Star Trek: Picard at DNeg.com
• Double Negative at Wikipedia