One of the winning characteristics of Darren Aronofsky‘s latest film Black Swan is that it does not often look like an effects-heavy movie. Great pains were obviously taken top make the film appear very real-world and grounded, the better to emphasize the feelings of paranoia and psychological disorientation that plague Natalie Portman‘s character as the film goes along.

But this is a digital age, and a new demo reel from the effects company Look FX does a great job of showing how digital effects were incorporated into the film to enhance the story and atmosphere beyond the more obvious manipulations that are evident on your first viewing. Note for those who’ve not yet seen the movie: there are some big spoilers here.

Granted, segments of Black Swan obviously feature effects: the moments of violence, the mirror sequences and the perceived physical mutations, for example. Some of those are addressed here with ‘before and after’ comparisons.

But there are a lot of little things done to enhance the film, some of which have to do with transitioning from real ballet dancers to Natalie Portman. The film wants us to believe that she did all the dancing herself, and she certainly did a great amount of physical performance, but this video will demonstrate some of the tricks that pull it all together.