BIUTIFUL: The Best Film You'll See This Year

The Eastenders Special Effects Artist

Possibly the greatest explanation of visual effects shooting methodology I have yet to see... Watch and learn!

This is pretty cool...

One Minute Soundsculpture from Daniel Franke on Vimeo.

My Work Life as a Skit

Okay, so this skit is basically my work life to an alarming degree of accuracy. In fact, it is so accurate I can't even come up with a quick-witted humorous comment of my own to up the anti! As the point man for client negotiations at a visual effects vendor I have simply lost count of the number of times I have had someone boldly say in one way or another "you are going to do this for free for me and I couldn't care less if your company doesn't exist tomorrow as a result." My personal favorite is line: "Let's do this!" Thank the heavens for all the wonderful clients who truly embrace the phrase "you get what you pay for!!!"

New District 9 Poster

Here's a new "District 9" poster! This fella is looking pretty brawny - for a prawn! I think the PR folks actually used one of Image Engine's renders of the mother ship back there! Looks like it anyway... Cool!

Le Tour Visual Overview

I know it is still two months away, but with the not so subtle hints of summer everywhere you look these days (and the certain knowledge that I will be up at ungodly hours all summer with a new born!) I am drawn to check in on this year's Grand Tour. Last year's tour was some amazing cycling and outstanding entertainment. Especially when you're up so early you can catch all of it live before work! With this year's tour dipping briefly into Spain I am keen to see the race unfold as still one of the most stunning athletic achievements and an amazing television spectacle!

District 9 Teaser Trailer!

In late January of 2008, I got a call from Neill Blomkamp's assistant Victoria Burkhart about bidding on the visual effects for Neill's directorial debut. At that time it was a loose story entitled "Project X" that really only existed as a treatment and a whole lot of concept designs executed for the most part at Weta Workshop. Neill and I had crossed paths many times having been in the Vancouver post-production scene for some time, but didn't know each other really at all. We hit it off, and together with Peter Muyzers we managed to wrangle the project into shape during the following three months with many, many, many discussions about how to achieve the visual effects in the time and budget we were to be allowed. We jumped in with both feet as they say and I happy to say the results are pretty satisfying. We built on our already amazing crew at the studio and assembled a really kick-ass group of artists for the production more than doubling the facility's size. With the release of this teaser trailer - the world is getting a glimpse of all our hard work at Image Engine! Cudos to all the folks who've been slaving away on this puppy for a year!

Chad Vangaalen - Clinically Dead

So, I was in one of my local "video rental stores" recently (that statement probably dates me, but who cares... God, I did College Radio back in the day, and Chuck's are still cool, but I digress...) and immediately as I walked in heard some amazing, sophisticated, lo-fi recording. I know that sounds like a contradiction in terms. Lo-fi is not supposed to be sophisticated. But, I don't know, there was something nuanced and spectacular about the music. I asked the video clerk what they were playing. Chad Vangaalen. I am now a fan. Oh, and the dude animates. Too cool for his own good!

Someone to Cheer for...

“It was by far the most content I’ve ever been,” he said. “My bike was a piece of junk. I had nowhere to go, no place to be. Didn’t have anyone telling me what to do. If I felt like lying on the side of the road, I did.”

Click here to read more about our man en Le Tour this year.

Viva Venice!

Venice
Uploaded by xanekomotion

The first person I met when Meg and I arrived in Los Angeles in 2005 was a friend of a friend named Raul Sanchez Ortego. "El Moro" to his amigos. The bizarre and wonderful thing was that we were introduced via cybernectic means by Luisma Lavin Peredo a great friend of mine from España. Luisma knew that both Raul and I were moving to L.A. at about the same time. More than that - he knew that we'd get along and become good friends. What he didn't know was that Raul would also turn out to be born and raised in a working class neighbourhood of Madrid called Vallecas. The very same neighbourhood that Meg's family is from and where Meg and I lived while in Madrid. Small world indeed. They're both Vallecanos! Que chulo!

Raul sent me this movie recently. It's a little remembrance of Venice Beach, California where we both chose to live while in L.A. As you can see Raul is a talented visual effects artist. For me it is the sense of a gritty urban feel & performance art that fits my scratchy memories of surfbaords quietly gliding through the streets and alleys of Venice as I headed off to work. Soldiers in a never ending battle against the tide of conservative life. Somehow, amidst all the air conditioned apartments, cars and office towers of Los Angeles, Venice stands virtually alone as a visceral, earthy & connected "people's place" by the sea. No where else that I saw in L.A. where people so in tune with what a neighbourhood by the sea could be. Long live the hippie freaks!

SIGGRAPH 2008 - Day 2

Although today started off a bit slow (a blessing really given the late night before courtesy of Autodesk!) it really started to pick up late morning and the conference and job fair areas were really humming. I dropped by a few booths and things while it was quiet just to check things out before the madness began. I was suitably impressed with what BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT is trying to do - 2500 people worldwide and I think on the verge of busting out of 'just games' and into something much broader. Interesting. Also, Image Movers Digital, the Robert Zemekis & Walt Disney Co. co-venture was really impressive. A nice job with concept work and getting the message about the kind of company they are across. Of course, there were the usual contenders for cool looking stuff... Lucasfilm, Pixar, R&H, etc. But I was a little surprised by the above two. The afternoon blasted by and by end of day I think I had conducted 6 or so interviews. All went well - no duds! So, I hustled off back to the hotel to get a little refreshed before the Autodesk VIP Party. Thanks to Brett Ineson for getting us on the list - and also Kerry at Annex Pro our reseller. There are loads of studios out there purchasing way more Autodesk product than we are - so I appreciate the "VIP" gesture!

SIGGRAPH 2008 - Day 1

I thought it might be interesting to jot down a few notes on this year's SIGGRAPH experience. Now, granted I have not been too much of a contributor over the years and you'd think that I would have been loads more, however, this will only be my third trip. However, I am excited because this year Image Engine will have a real presence at SIGGRAPH. The studio is represented by about 8 people: John Haddon, Greg Massie, Jason Gross, Hanoz Elavia, Vera Zivny, Stefanie Boose, and of course Peter Muyzers and myself. Not sure whom else may be coming down on their own. I will be focusing on the Job Fair where I will be interviewing candidates for jobs at the studio this fall. Should be a little crazy-busy, but fun. I will also be trying to see as many presentations as possible, meeting the odd client, etc. Okay, so today was just getting there, getting settled in, etc. As well there was a whack of stuff to deal with back on the ranch, so that occupied loads of my time. Vera, Stef & Hanoz did a great setting up the booth! And then we all headed off to take in the big Autodesk User Group meeting, presentation & party. Aside from some legitimate quibbles about the lack of truly new development in some of the core products, Autodesk put on a great show. Especially considering all of the "we're not supposed to show you this stuff" clips from various productions. I was especially impressed with a sequence from "Kung Fu Panda" that was presented in 3D for the first time. This year will be all about 3D I think. It just seems to be popping up everywhere you look and I suppose that this stage it is the last great bastion of true development in cinema. Bring it on!

August Rains

Normally, the end of July and the beginning of August in Vancouver are the most reliably dry time of year. This year, something different. We had gorgeous unseasonably warm weather at the end of June and beginning of July. And thus, in late July and early August we've had some much needed rain. I am sure the crops will be better off for it! Yet, of course there is the odd bit of pooh-poohing going on as usual. And so, for all those snivelers out there I relate the following brief story (passed on to me by Meg this week):

Calvin (4 year old boy): It's raining AGAIN. I don't want to get wet today.

Calvin's papa: Well, when it rains like this you have a choice. You can stay inside all day. Or you can just go outside, know you're going to get wet, plan on getting wet, and enjoy the day anyway.

For more rain, click here.

Watchmen

Every once in a while a film trailer is released that returns me to the days when as a young teenager I "discovered" the cinema. I remember that absolute thrill of anticipation during the "coming attractions" at the theatre that ran in front of the feature presentation. What will be coming out next? Now the experience seems cluttered with "trivia" which is really moronic and dull slides. Call me a purist, but there were times where the experience of the film's trailer superseded the experience of the film. Before it all became so clichéd. When the feeling of "I just can not wait to see that film!" was all consuming. Remembering and holding on dearly to the memory of that experience has served me well. An excited glimpse of one possible future urging you to return to the cinema another day... With that, I give you the film I have more anxiously waited for than any other this year... Watchmen!

Vive Le Tour!

It's that time of year again! Ah yes... the storied history of the racing bicycle, the gorgeous landscape of the most cultured country on earth, the triumph of shear personal will against intolerable amounts of self-inflicted pain... And performance enhancing drugs, of course. I can remember watching the Tour de France "recaps" on CBC Sports Television as a kid, during Greg Lemond's era, and later watching the stages daily during summer rowing travels in Europe (I spent several weeks in France in July of 1994 and every evening was spent recovering while watching the tour). However, it wasn't until Lance Armstrong's famous "look back" at the base of Alpe D'Huez in 2001 that I got hooked. I was on a cycling tour in France with Meg at the time. And I was near a town called Anduz in the Languedoc-Roussillon region. It was hot as hell and I was crammed into a little roadside cafe at midday, or was it a cafe in the camp site? I can't recall... However, I can remember perfectly the gestures of shock and enthusiasm (a little old fellow in a black beret screaming "Mon dieu c'est incroyable!" at the TV set) as Armstrong scaled that famous climb - seemingly inhumanly - as he first looked back to Ullrich, his German nemesis, and then tore off to victory. There is only one word to describe that moment in the tour's history: awesome. Regardless of the plague of recent doping scandals (which Armstrong was never touched by during his career, but have lived on in his retirement via the rumour mill) and the very uncertain future of a sport that have always had a certain flair for the unexpected, unintended, I will watch this year again hoping against reason for 'a good result.' It is impossible to tell whether or not the sport has finally come clean, or if that even matters these days in professional cycling. But the lure of the most difficult of human athletic feats, the grand scale of the event, the magical images it creates year upon year, will captivate me again as it has many more cyclists over the years. I will leave you with one of the great battles on the switchbacks of Alpe D'Huez! Vive Le Tour!

Where the Hell is Matt?

This is positively the silliest thing I have seen in years - and I love it.
Check it out - you'll smile - I promise.

EugeniusD80's Photos

Hey! Check out this interesting photostream. Definitely not your run of the mill web photography here folks! Some gorgeous colour work here.

Hallelujah, Thank You, Leonard

Here we are again at that pivotal time of year. The hard-working dark days of November and December have come and gone and the holiday season is upon us! I will be working off-and-on throughout the season, but still I am hoping for some serious R&R at times. I am not a religious man, at least not in the western god fearing Christian sense - but the mixed up Jewish, Catholic, slyly sexy "Hallelujah" has always rung a sweet chord with me - and it comes in handy this time of year. Thank you, Leonard. More recently, the late Jeff Buckley gave us a special gift in his version of the tune. Here's the lyrics. Feels okay to publish them here like a poem given Mr. Cohen's propensities in that area. Happy Holidays.

Now I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah

Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you
To a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

You say I took the name in vain
I don't even know the name
But if I did, well really, what's it to you?
There's a blaze of light
In every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though
It all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

Let it Snow!

Well, it is that time of year again... The time that I invariably catch the remarkable, incomparable Jimmy Stewart in one of his landmark roles for the big screen, Frank Capra's 1946 masterpiece "It's a Wonderful Life." I am working on a film right now that requires visual effects to provide "snow augmentation" so as I flipped channels and came across this marvelous film, I initially just stopped surfing to think about how the crew accomplished so much damned falling snow in the film. But, of course, not much more than a moment passed before I was drawn in by Stewart's amazing, frenetic, emotionally relentless performance. There is something so convincing in his eyes in this film, the performance never fails to grab me. Of course, the spirit of the time, and it's likable themes don't hurt. But man, he's just incredible isn't he? No matter the cynicism these days about the schmaltz of the Christmas season and its overbearing commercialism, those eyes just cut right through to the heart of what Christmas means to so many people. Believing in doing the right thing. Seeing the good that comes from the struggle to achieve something morally right. People banding together to recognize and thank those who have been so generous to them in their lives. It is all that and much more.