Calling all wizards and witches
Have you secured your seat on the Hogwarts Express yet? If not, you better hurry! Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore premieres in UK theatres today. To mark this special week, some cast members participated in The Sorting Hat ceremony.
Eddie Redmayne also appeared as a guest on The Tonight Show and demonstrated his impressive manticore-soothing moves, which appear in a sequence crafted by VFX Supervisor Stephane Naze and his amazing MTL team.
Strange things are happening…
Who’s ready for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness? Take a look at the latest teaser featuring some mind-bending VFX from our LDN VFX team, and some shots that came from the brilliant brains of our FPS team. Tickets are on sale now so make sure to grab yours! The film is due to premiere on 6th May.
Marvel Studios also treated us to a clip, as well as a newly released poster, to mark the one month countdown of the film’s premiere.
Keeping Up with the Crawleys
Some of the stars of Downton Abbey recap the past six seasons of the show in preparation for the release of Downton Abbey: A New Era which features some lovely work from VFX Supe Patti Llaguno and our LDN team. You can catch up with the Crawleys in cinemas from 29th April.
Museum of the Future
Set in the year 2071, the Museum of the Future tells the story of life, nature and spirituality of the future. This first of a kind immersive institution is designed to inspire us all to help shape a better world for our future. Framestore was asked to create the moment guests are transported into the future via a rocket launch from the future city of Dubai, up into space and finally docking into the spectacular space station OSS Hope. Read the full case study here.

Mercedes Benz
Our NY team recently created an ethereal film that showcases the vast availability of charging for the Mercedes EQS through abstract photons. With subtle nods to the aerodynamics of the car, artists ensured that the photons had character, both individually and while moving as a mass – like a murmuration of starlings. A mix of hand animation and Houdini FX sims were used for each shot, not only to create movement, but present individual moments of beauty in their own right. Colour grade by Beau Leon of Company 3.
Make the Connection
Framestore Pictures Director Anh Vu brings her elevated visuals and design aesthetic to introduce audiences to Fortune 500 global enterprise Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), showcasing an intricate string of connections that exist between the network of global markets that ICE touches. Framestore created the look and feel of the CG blue line that runs through the film, considering its speed, lighting and integration into each scene as well as the CG sequence of the red car and truck featured, designing the interface with a game-like quality, in addition to the seamless transitions between scenes. The final colour grade was completed by Company 3.
Method News
Can’t help falling in love
Cannes confirmed that Baz Luhrmann’s drama about the rock ‘n’ roll legend Elvis Presley, starring Austin Butler and Tom Hanks will have its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May. They also revealed a new image of Austin Butler as Elvis. The film is set for North American release on 24th June and for the rest of the world on 22nd June.

Awards
One shortlist, countless nominations
We’re thrilled that a whole host of our Advertising projects have been shortlisted for The One Show including our work on SHEBA: Hope Reef, Kiyan Prince ‘Long Live the Prince’, Lexus: Parking Spot, Expedia: Daydream and United Nations Development Programme: Don’t Choose Extinction.

Press
VFX Voice
Framestore Global Managing Director, Film, Fiona Walkinshaw spoke to VFX Voice about the VFX industry’s global reach, and what the growing demand for regionalised content means for our sector. Read the full piece here. Elsewhere in the mag, a piece focusing on LED stages saw Andy Scrase (LDN) chatting about his experience as on-set supervisor for 1899. Read all about it here.
Blooloop
Blooloop covered our LDN team’s work of creating a unique visitor experience at the newly opened Museum of the Future in Dubai. Read all about it here.
Staff Awards
The Staff Award polls are OPEN. Please take some time to consider who would make worthy winners this quarter. As usual, go to the Intranet to cast your x3 votes (note that those who have received an award in the last twelve months are ineligible this time around). The polls will close on Monday 18th April and remember that you must be on the network or VPN to vote: http://staffawards/#/vote.
[FRAMED]
Meet Pipeline TD Tumurtogtokh Davaakhuu (LDN). He can solve any problem, would love to make a live-action Naturo series, and is a massive Potterhead (aren’t we all!).

In other news
A magical screening in LDN and a winner in MTL
Some lucky LDN wizards and witches attended the cast and crew screening of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore last Saturday. It is amazing to see the hard work that’s being created in our studios on the big screen. Congratulation to everyone involved!

Huge congratulations to Daniel Jervis Roca Ray for creating the winning Vermillion Tee design and to everyone else who submitted such great works (and also those who redacted their designs after seeing Daniels!). Sadly, we can only choose one winner…

Live with Mumbai
The MUM recruitment team organised a Facebook Live Q&A this week to update potential candidates on the newest developments at our MUM studio and answered some burning questions. Click here to catch up.
That’s it for this week. Remember – it’s Easter next week and many of our offices will be closed on Good Friday, and the following Monday.
