The final episode of American Horror Story: Coven was one of my favorites. We had to perform virtually every effect from the entire season in one night of shooting. The biggest moment for us was the tracking shot of Emma Roberts in the bathtub when the camera comes in and you see the fireplace light, then the bubbles fill the tub, and with a wave of her hand the candles on the floor light spontaneously. There was no VFX required in that shot, although it took 3 takes to get the timing right. Between the time it takes to ignite a fireplace and the bubbles filling a tub alone its a very difficult thing to provide cues. The call goes to the technicians ear (because he can’t see the set) then there is a delay to his hand moving the valves, and then the time for the propane to travel to the ignition source. There is a similar process for every mechanical effect. The whole crew cheered on the last one, they had seen the process as we developed these effects over the 6 months we filmed, on that last day it took literally 8 technicians on set to accomplish everything. Making a candle light on its own is an “impossible” practical effect to achieve all by itself, if its ever been done we don’t know of the instance but we did it over and over throughout the season. It was just a perfect end to that show.
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