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Asteroid showers, volcanic erruptions and the watery end of Atlantis are three of the destructive episodes Skaramoosh brought to life for Pioneer Productions' natural disaster series
There can be few tasks more daunting than creating the apocalypse. And having to make a series of such catastrophic disasters without a blockbuster budget requires some clever thinking.
London post-house Skaramoosh has been working on a series for National Geographic called Naked Science. The programmes, by Pioneer Productions, depict 13 cataclysmic events along with how and why they happened.
Zave Jackson, head of compositing at Skaramoosh, headed up the post for five episodes, which include an asteroid shower on Los Angeles, a volcanic eruption, and a recreation of the destruction of Atlantis. However, working to a strict TV budget and tight timescales of 10 days per show meant creating the effects digitally was out of the question.
"With a programme like this, where there isn't time to dedicate to R&D, you have to approach it differently," says Jackson. "These big film companies have people employed for months to work...