LOS ANGELES - VFX studio Lux Aeterna (www.lavfx.com) combined drama and realism to deliver tornado shots for the Netflix documentary The Twister: Caught in the Storm. The program recounts the 2011 EF5 tornado that tore through Joplin, MO, striking during a high-school graduation and leaving behind widespread destruction.
Lux Aeterna was tasked with enhancing witness testimonies and archival footage by creating dramatic VFX sequences, including a CG tornado.
“The team at Raw brought us on board for this project,” explains executive producer Emma Kolasinska. “It was a pleasure to once again apply our natural history and drama experience for Netflix.”
Director Alexandra Lacey balanced drama and realism to craft a sensitive-yet-compelling look for the series.
“I wanted The Twister to be a mix of
Stranger Things and the film
Twister,” she explains. “These references helped us recreate the disaster from an adolescent’s perspective.”
Lux Aeterna worked closely with Lacey and the production team to ensure the visuals were in line with the brief. As a tragedy that happened less than 15 years ago, it was important to ensure the execution was cinematic but respectful.
“There was a very specific and ambitious vision for the documentary,” says Tav Flett, compositing supervisor at Lux Aeterna. “So it was important to make sure our visuals were higher end.”
With the brief established, the studio delivered key visuals through compositing, ensuring maximum detail and efficient revisions. This process was primarily actioned in Nuke, while Maya was used to create the centerpiece of the tornado shots – the volumetric elements swirling within the storm.
To bring the storm to life and visualize the interior of the tornado, Lux Aeterna brought in DP Gavin Thurston to shoot additional VFX plates at Distortion Studios. Using the Phantom Flex 4K camera, props were shot at high-speed so they could be shown in high quality at slow motion within the storm. This material was designed to match the primary drama footage captured on-location in the US, shot by the film’s lead DP David Vollrath on an additional Phantom Flex 4K, a Sony Venice 2 and a Red Gemini.
“The director, Alexandra, wanted to integrate quintessential American and high-school related objects,” continues Flett. “So we went for the national flag, a sneaker and an exit sign to make the tornado seem even more terrifying and relevant to the specific disaster.”
Lux Aeterna’s work enables the audience to see what would not be possible to film in real life, including the view from the eye of the storm.
“We layered the CG asset with wind effects and water particles to make it more lifelike,” says Flett. “VFX is the only way shots like this can come to life, and it really adds another dimension to traditional documentaries.”
In addition to the slow-motion elements inside of the storm, Vollrath shot VFX reflection plates that Lux Aeterna inserted actual storm archive shots into, including a broken window stuck in the mud that reflected a nighttime lightning strike over the destroyed buildings of Joplin.
“For these shots, we sourced some high-quality plates of cumulonimbus clouds that we composited into reflections of the supplied plates,” explains Flett. “These cloud plates also served as reference for CG builds. One of a plane flying into heavy weather and also builds within the tornado itself.”
Due to the documentary’s sensitive nature, it was important for the VFX to be distinctive from the archive and stock footage, ensuring viewers can easily distinguish between what was real and what is a recreation. The team used this distinction as an opportunity to visually express the survivors’ experiences, such as one witness’s perception of time slowing down during the disaster.
One sequence in particular highlights Lux Aeterna’s creative abilities. A coma scene recounts a survivor’s experience while recovering in hospital. Shot using an infrared camera, the sequence featured unsettling imagery, including a burning cross, symbolizing the town’s deeply rooted religious values.
“It was interesting to convey their experience not just from a realistic perspective, but a more abstract one,” notes CG supervisor Timmy Wilmott. “This also created a clear contrast from real footage to VFX scenes.”
Beyond visual effects, the Lux Aeterna team created graphics and a title card to pull the show together.
“It was a pleasure to work on another project with Raw.” says Kolasinska. “We were able to pull out all the stops for this documentary, and create an immersive, dramatic but emotional retelling of the events in Joplin.”