Ryan Coogler’s Sinners is now available on digital platforms. The film was shot using IMAX 65mm cameras, and the team invented a new camera rig called the Halo for the twin scenes.
Warner Bros. Pictures recently shared an official featurette showcasing how the twin scenes were filmed using the Halo Rig. The rig features 10–12 cameras that wrap around an actor’s face. The data was then used to map Michael B. Jordan‘s face onto the stunt double. The rig was used in approximately 50% of the scenes where both twins appear.
In an interview with Offscreen Central, Visual Effects Supervisor Michael Ralla said the fight scenes in Sinners involved heavy physical interaction, which required careful planning and advanced technology. To maintain authenticity and immersion, the team developed a halo rig — a harness-mounted 360° camera setup that records the actor’s full head performance. It captures not just the face, but the entire head movement and expression. The halo rig enabled a more natural and accurate performance capture without removing the actor from the scene.
Ralla said, “Oh, it’s a vampire film and Michael B. Jordan is in it twice as twins.” I was like, “I bet they’re going to be fighting each other at the very end!” Of course, they did.
“So, fighting means physical interaction — heavy-handed, full-on! We wanted to be ready for that, and that’s when we looked at everything that was out there. There’s a lot of good technology, but some of it requires that Michael, after each scene, has to go somewhere else — into a trailer — and then redo the whole thing, completely removed from the environment and setting he was just acting in. We didn’t want that, so we developed this Halo rig that he could just put on. It’s a harness with a 360° camera filming his entire head performance — not just his face.”
“What was really paramount was that it had to be Michael — Michael’s face, Michael’s performance. It couldn’t be someone else. It had to be the data set captured in that very moment. That was very important. Like Ryan said on Jimmy Fallon, there’s the Halo — and it looks really fancy and all that — but I haven’t actually counted yet… I still need to, because this stat comes up quite often. Ryan said it was 90% Michael for real, shooting him twice. I think it was a little less than that — a little more Halo.”
“We were just always trying to use the best tech and approach possible. And, you know, the fact that we were shooting in 65mm IMAX — which is a huge frame — just made everything a little more complicated. But we’re always up for a good challenge.”
The VFX for the film were created by the following studios:
- Storm Studios
VFX Supervisor: Espen Nordahl
VFX Producer: Thomas Reppen - Rising Sun Pictures
VFX Supervisor: Guido Wolter
VFX Producer: Rachel Copp - Baraboom Studios
VFX Supervisor: Pepe Valencia - ILM (Industrial Light & Magic)
VFX Supervisor: Nick Marshall
VFX Producer: Alun Cummins - Light VFX
VFX Supervisor: Antoine Moulineau
VFX Producers: Guillaume Raffi and Albert Testani - Base FX
VFX Supervisor: Jared Sandrew
VFX Producers: Sheena Zhao and Shad Davis - Outpost VFX
VFX Supervisor: Ian Fellows
VFX Producer: Megan Whitten - Team VFX Artist
Supervisor and Producer: Rajesh Murthy
Production VFX Supervisor: Michael Ralla
Production VFX Producer: James Alexander
Here’s the official plot details for Sinners:
Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers (Jordan) return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back. “You keep dancing with the devil, one day he’s gonna follow you home.”
The film stars Jordan as twin brothers Smoke and Stack, Hailee Steinfeld as Mary, Miles Caton as Sammy, Jack O’Connell as Remmick, Wunmi Mosaku as Annie, Jayme Lawson as Pearline, Omar Benson Miller as Cornbread, Li Jun Li as Grace Chow, Delroy Lindo as Delta Slim, Yao as Bo Chow, Lola Kirke as Joan, and Peter Dreimanis as Bert.
The film is produced by Zinzi Coogler, Sev Ohanian, and Ryan Coogler, with executive producers Göransson, Will Greenfield, and Rebecca Cho.
Sinners was theatrically released in the United States on April 18, 2025, by Warner Bros. Pictures. With a budget of $90 million, the film has grossed $361 million worldwide.
Source: The Art of VFX
