Windmill Complete 'The Moth Diaries' Ahead of Venice & Toronto Screenings

Windmill Lane Pictures recently completed post production work on Director Mary Harron’s latest film ‘The Moth Diaries’ starring Lily Cole (The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus), Sarah Gadon (The Other Me), Sarah Bolger (The Tudors) and Scott Speedman (Underworld). The film tells the story of Rebecca, a troubled teenager, whose return to boarding school is upset by the mysterious and yet alluring new arrival, Ernessa. A string of unexplained events and deaths lead Rebecca to believe that Ernessa may be a vampire and that the new friendships Ernessa establishes may have a more sinister motive.

The work done by Windmill on this project began last autumn as the first rushes arrived from the Canadian shoot. The Windmill VFX team created over 90 shots that included set extension, background replacement, 3D animated moths, particle simulation and fire effects. The graphics team designed a fully animated opening title sequence depicting the emergence of a luna moth from its cocoon.

With the wrap of the shoot, editing moved to Windmill Lane Pictures in Dublin. Andy Marcus, who had worked with Mary Harron on ‘American Psycho’, cut the film in Windmill. The duo's well established working relationship had ensured the success of their previous collaboration in terms of its chill factor and they were able to achieve a similar eerie tone for this new endeavour.

‘The Moth Diaries’ was graded for DOP Declan Quinn (Leaving Las Vegas) by Windmill's Dave Hughes, who has also recently finished grading the feature ‘Albert Nobbs’ for director Rodrigo Garcia. The sound was designed and edited by Patrick Drummond & Nikki Moss, with final mixing carried out in Ardmore Sound. The resulting film premiered in the Venice Festival this week and will also be shown in the Toronto Film Festival next week.

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