Kraven the Hunter was a big, physical job with plenty for us to get our teeth into — crashes, gunfire, fire, atmosphere and a lot of location work. It was filmed during the COVID period, which added some complications, but the production itself was very much about large-scale practical action.

We started down in Dover, at the old abandoned prison used for the opening sequence where Kraven breaks out. It was a fantastic location and we completely transformed it with set dressing, practical effects and a huge amount of snow and winter dressing. That opening section had a really strong physical feel to it and was a good way to start the picture.

From there we moved through various wooded locations around Surrey, before spending a large part of the shoot around Salisbury. The stage work was based in Reading, where a couple of large warehouses had been converted into temporary sound stages.

There was a good mixture of practical work throughout the film — car crashes, bullet hits, flame effects, atmospherics and plenty of action interaction with the stunt department. It was the sort of job where Special Effects was constantly involved, whether it was something large and destructive or simply helping to give a location the right texture and energy.

Looking back, Kraven the Hunter was a varied and enjoyable practical-effects job, with plenty of old-fashioned smashing, shooting, burning and atmosphere work across some very different locations.