All we want for Christmas is Groot
Marvel treated us to a first look at the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, which looks pretty darn magical. Mantis and Drax lead the charge to make a Christmas for a saddened Star Lord, involving lights, presents, and… Kevin Bacon?! Take a look at some of the majestic VFX from our LDN and MTL teams, arriving on Disney+ from 25th November.
Who you gonna call?
Netflix got into the spooky spirit by releasing a first teaser from Joe Cornish’s ghoul-laden Lockwood & Co. Congrats to our monstrously talented teams in LDN and MUM who’ve been working so hard to bring this spooktacular series to life.
Party like it’s (the end of) 1899
A huge round of applause to everyone (and that’s a lot of you!) who pulled out the stops for 1899. Production Supervisor Christian Kaestner (MTL) and his team delivered the show’s last two shots on Wednesday, which provided the chance to reflect on a truly monumental, Framestore-wide accomplishment. Framestore was involved before the show’s scripts were even completed, and ran the gamut from concept art through to final VFX. A huge round of applause for (deep breath) the Art Department; FPS; the LDN IA team; the vis-dev teams in LDN and MTL and the VFX teams in MTL, VAN and MUM.
The end of an era: bidding farewell to His Dark Materials
It’s clearly the season for wrapping huge (and hugely ambitious!) projects, because the final season of His Dark Materials is also officially in the bag. Production Supe Russ Dodgson bid the show farewell last Friday, marking the end of a five-year journey that’s taken in something like 5,100 shots and over four hours of VFX. The Phillip Pullman adaptation for BBC / HBO was an incredible challenge, and effectively sets the standard for what audiences around the world can expect from episodic VFX. A huge congrats to Russ and the brilliant teams in LDN, MTL, NY and MUM who delivered such stunning work across all three seasons.
A space-age Times Square
Live in Times Square for one day only was the latest activation by Framestore Labs for Morgan Stanley. The diversity-themed activation shows a new conceptual spacesuit for women and provides an opportunity for visitors to have their photos taken via AR technology as astronauts, before being displayed on the external signage of the company’s Times Square HQ.
Rocking down to electric avenue
The CHI team grabbed gravity by the lapels and gave it a good shake for this brilliant new spot for the Mercedes EQ Rotation. The team had a blast bringing this scene to life through previs, CG elements, set extensions, wire removals, digital matte painting, as well as practical and enhanced rotations. Colour by Company 3.
A new NHS campaign
Our LDN IA team were proud to work on the powerful new ‘We Are Life Changing Careers’ campaign for the NHS, which aims to encourage more people to choose nursing as a career. Colour by Company 3.
Awards
Young Arrows
Huge congrats to Junior Rigger Nathan Clark and Company 3 Colourist Dominic Phipps, who both received Young Arrows awards this week. Nathan won the ‘VFX’ category for his work on Three Ireland’s ‘Jeff’s World’, while Dominic took home the ‘Colourist’ award for his work on Wrangler’s ‘Long Live Cowgirls’.
MEL nominations
A double-whammy of nominations for the MEL team’s work on Elvis, with VFX Supe Josh Simmonds nominated for an AACTA Award (winners announced on 5 December) and the team’s work also in the running for an Asian Academy Award for Best Visual or Special FX in a TV Series or Feature Film category (winner announced on 8 December). Fingers crossed folks!
Press
Art of VFX
Sink their teeth into the stunning photoreal VFX work of Beast in this new interview with VFX Supe Enrik Pavdeja.
Televisual
Televisual magazine’s autumn edition sees our Global Head of Software VFX, Manne Öhrström, weigh in on the pros and cons of AI. He doesn’t mention Skynet by name, but we’re pretty sure that’s something the tech team are working on…
[FRAMED]
Meet Production Coordinator Justine Kay: a well-read cat fan who, kinda like Doogie Howser, M.D., had two degrees under her belt by the time she turned 21 (we know who we want on our team for the next pub quiz!).
In other news
Diwali Celebrations
Colleagues around the world marked Diwali this week – one of Hinduism’s most important festivals. Members of the MEL team celebrated in particularly fine style, with great food, great views and even better company!
This week MUM also announced the winners of the diya painting competition, which was held last week in the festive spirit of Diwali. Congrats to winner Vitthal Kallur, runners up Yogesh Panchal and Pushparaj Bhavsar and to everyone who took part – your artfully-painted oil lamps sure brightened our day!
Short Film Success
A huge congratulations to VFX Producer Massimo Meo (MTL), whose creepy horror short The Cradle played at Telluride Horror Fest and Brooklyn Horror Fest recently. The film sees a witch’s morning routine interrupted by an angry mob, and Massimo wrote, directed and produced it. The film was also edited by none other than Editorial HOD Barnes Wheeler (MTL). Incredible!
Phantom Tour Montreal
On a similarly spooky tip, members of the MTL team took a guided tour around Old Montreal last Saturday to learn about the area, its history and some of its grimmer tales.
Staff Awards
Know someone who’s gone above and beyond? Head here to cast your votes for the three colleagues that have made your working world a better place over the past few months.
That’s it for this week folks – remember to creep it real this Halloween, and send us your team photos for next week’s round-up if you get up to any spooky shenanigans!
