Spider-Man has many fans
The much-hyped conclusion to Tom Holland’s Spider-Man trilogy, Spider-Man: No Way Home, arrived in cinemas this week. Early reviews such as this spoiler-free one from the aptly-named MovieWeb hailed the film’s “stunning visual effects,” courtesy of VFX Supes Adrien Saint Girons and Christian Kaestner, along with the fantastic MTL team. Spider-Man: No Way Home will be the first film to be played on Quebec’s first 270º panoramic movie theatre screen.
WB give us Dumble-more
We got a first trailer for the spell-binding work on Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore from overall VFX Supervisor Christian Manz and our teams in MTL and LDN (helmed by VFX Supes Stephane Naze and Ben Loch, respectively). Newt & Co. seem to venture back to Hogwarts to unlock some of the mysteries of Dumbledore’s past – the fact that a regular muggle who isn’t eleven got to join them (and gets a wand?!) has given all Potter-heads fresh hope of treading those hallowed halls one day.
Thank you Berry much
What happens when a mysterious force knocks the moon from its orbit and sends it hurtling towards planet Earth? We don’t know yet, but here are the first 5 minutes from sci-fi thriller Moonfall, featuring some of the out of this world work from VFX Supe Bob Winter and the MTL team.
Reviews on Resurrections
The first reviews on The Matrix Resurrections are in! Press screenings took place this week, with film critic Courtney Howard called it “a terrific, awe-inducing, meta mind-bender completely in line with the franchise’s legacy” and praised the writers for finding “an innovative, high-concept way to frame the new story.” Fantastic job from our LDN team, led by VFX Supe Graham Page.
The Dell Dude
Ben West (LA) called on his comedic skills and VFX expertise to direct the Dell Dude who returned to the brand after a 20-year hiatus. The New York team was also tasked with tackling a range of CG elements, from building a full CG space environment including space station, astronaut, and DMP of earth, to CG clouds and composites of the Dude’s face into a McLaren helmet.
EE Full Fibre
The LDN IA team worked with director Tom Hooper to showcase the cutting edge technology behind EE Full Fibre in this exciting campaign. The grade was completed by Framestore’s Simon Bourne.
King in a Cadillac
The LA team recently helped Cadillac introduce its first all-electric SUV by placing Regina King in various environments and weather conditions. Whilst much was shot on location and required comping, DMP and flame finishing, the team also captured select shots at an LED stage in-camera, leveraging their virtual production expertise.
Method News
Borderlands
Business Insider included upcoming project Borderlands in this piece, summing up all the games-inspired movies coming up in 2022.
Scores of Thors
ScreenRant took a deep dive into fan and comic theories for Framestore and Method feature, Thor: Love and Thunder, speculating that there could be more Thors banding together against Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), as per the Loki variants in Loki. If that means a world with several Chris Hemsworths in it, we’re fine with that.
Press
A Boy Called Christmas
Our magical VFX for A Boy Called Christmas featured in Animation Magazine and Computer Graphics World this week.
Long Live The Prince
#LongLiveThePrince was featured as one of PR Week’s 11 best campaigns of 2021. The poignant campaign from the LDN team was voted as the top campaign in a monthly vote earlier this year, with over 50% of the votes, earning a spot in this yearly round-up.
Johannes Saam (LA) sat down with 80LV for deep-dive into how the team used machine learning in the form of Nuke’s CopyCat to create the #LongLiveThePrince campaign.
Makers Magazine
Karl Woolley, Global Real-Time Director, Immersive & IA (LDN) discusses the impact of real-time and virtual production on modern content production for Makers magazine. Check the piece out on pages 80-81 here.
Televisual
Framestore is all over the latest issue of Televisual magazine, with James Whitlam, Managing Director, Episodic (LDN) quoted in a piece entitled ‘The Future Of Virtual Production’ while Sarah Cauchois, MD, Pre-production Services (LDN) is quoted in the ‘Evolution Of Post’ article. The magazine also features a supplement on the winners of this year’s Bulldog Awards, and sees Russ Dodgson, Overall VFX Supervisor on this year’s ‘Best VFX’ winner His Dark Materials, digging into the team’s wonderful work.
Variety
Lucy Killick, Managing Director, Film (LDN) recently spoke to film trade bible Variety about the UK’s current production boom, and the knock-on effect that is having for the visual effects industry.
Signed, Sealed, Delivered
Update your email footers, folks! It’s quick, it’s easy, and you won’t feel foolish for using a signature that’s so last year. Everybody’s got to do it, so make sure you’re signed into the VPN and use this handy generator.
In other news
Let’s Get Real (Time)
If you missed the week of informative RealTime FTV sessions, you’re in luck! Catch up on all five webinars here.
Feeling Festive
It looks almost cold in LA as the team gathered for some celebratory drinks. NY also gathered to toast the season, and MTL made some Christmas magic with their holiday decor.
The film team delivered an early Christmas present in the form of an end of year Film & Episodic Town Hall, in which Lucy Killick and Chloe Grysole ran a challenging quiz, scored by Fiona Walkinshaw. It was close, but the Jingle Bells (led by captain Amy Smith) snowballed their way to victory.
That’s it for this year! We’ll be ice-skating back into your inboxes in January.
Have a safe and festive holiday season!
