One more time with feeling
Hold back the tears! The Guardians prepare their return to our screens for one last emotional mission featuring the out-of-this-world VFX by our LDN, MTL, VAN and MUM studios. The third and final volume follows our beloved band of misfits who look quite different this time around. Peter Quill, who is still mourning the loss of Gamora, must rally his team to defend the universe and protect one of their own. If this mission fails, it could lead to the end of the Guardians. The film will hit theatres on May 5th 2023.
It’s fair to say that James Gunn is a full-on Framestore fan! He recently tweeted about Swoll Groot mentioning our work on The Guardian of the Galaxy Holiday Special. Congrats to our teams on earning such high praise from the Director!
White Noise hit theatres
White Noise hit selected theatres last Friday and will be available on Netflix from December 30th, featuring the work of our teams in MTL and MUM. Based on the book by Don DeLillo, White Noise follows Jack Gladney, a college professor and his family whose life gets turned upside down when a chemical leak causes ‘The Airborne Toxic Event’ and releases a noxious black cloud over the region, forcing the family to evacuate. Take a look at the trailer below!
Mark your calendars
We finally have a UK release date for the third and final season of His Dark Materials! UK viewers will be able to binge the box set as of 18th December, or watch it weekly on the BBC from the same date. Stateside viewers get the jump on everyone else, with the show screening from 5th December.
Immersive Glow
In a first for RHS Garden Wisley, Framestore’s Immersive team has used projection mapping to display an animation onto the attraction’s historic Laboratory building, positioned at the heart of the garden. The work is featured as part of ‘Glow’, a magical after dark spectacle of lights, sounds and effects that the Garden runs annually throughout the festive season. Framestore’s work covered the concept design, storyboards, animation and creative development, accompanied by the creative and design direction, under the supervision of Framestore’s Creative Director Gavin Fox and Head of Design Stephen Goalby. Get your tickets to see Glow here!
The Gift That Keeps On Living
Framestore and Saatchi & Saatchi teamed up to deliver the British Heart Foundation’s Christmas campaign ‘The Gift That Keeps on Living’, encapsulating real life experiences of people living with heart conditions. Directed by Molly Burdett, the campaign moves away from seasonal spectacle and reframes the value of a donation to the BHF.
FRAMED
Charchit Porwal, Creature FX TD, MUM
This week we’re excited to introduce you to our Creature FX TD Charchit Porwal who’s famous for giving the best laugh sessions, loves all things photography and food related, and has the memory of an elephant (you sure don’t want to mess with him).
In other news
Murray Butler at the Climate Kick Start
On the 17th of November, Executive Creative Director Murray Butler visited London Stadium (home of West Ham) to participate in the London Schools Climate Kick Start, which is a city-wide schools programme to empower young people to help tackle climate change, loss of wildlife, and air pollution. Murray presented to more than 200 students over the course of the morning and in particular focused on our work for SHEBA ‘Hope Reef’ and Don’t Choose Extinction. These projects also played on the TVs around the stadium throughout the event.
FUSE & FLITE talk
CCO Tim Webber, VFX Supervisor Theo Jones and Executive Producer Simon Whalley spoke about FUSE (a new pipeline with Unreal engine at the core) and FLITE (a short film) at an Epic event this week, giving Framestorians the unique opportunity to hear the same talk in the cafe one day later.
1899: A Voyage into the Volume
VP Producer Manon Hartzuiker, Volume Supervisor Jack Banks and Real-time Product Manager Dan Chapman took the LDN studio aboard the Kerberos and behind the scenes of 1899. The talk highlighted the work of the FPS team and the creative challenges they faced.
Lunch with the CFX Launchpad:PRO
Amy Smith, Global Head of Recruitment and Outreach, had lunch with the MUM studio’s first ever CFX Launchpad:PRO group. The trainees have been working hard to get up to speed with all things Framestore pipeline under the supervision of Training Manager Jignesh Solanki, Lead CFX TD Swapnil Borawake (also on an extended visit from LDN) and CFX TD Indranil Nandy. Most importantly, they have already trained them well in the CFX tradition of Friday doughnuts!
MTL Holiday Party
Our MTL studio was the first one to kick off our annual holiday parties this week and it looks like they had a superb time!
Bonfire wrap party in MTL
There were a lot of pirates at the Bonfire wrap party in MTL. Congrats on the delivery!
Archery Combat
The MTL event team organised an Archery Combat activity which is a mix between archery, paintball and dodgeball. In this activity, two teams of archers compete in a safe foam bow and arrow fight. Looks like a lot of fun!
VR Gaming night in VAN
The VAN Lighting and Lookdev teams battled the weather (and each other) on Tuesday night at the Zero Latency VR Gaming experience. The teams had lots of fun hopping around in physical space and shooting virtual enemies. They were also commended on being a top 30 performing team out of over 2000 – so if the Zombie Apocalypse arrives, you know who to rely on for protection.
Comp Happy Hour
The VAN Comp team enjoyed a happy hour last week while Jeremie Lodomez, Global Head of 2D, was in town. Tis’ the season for Baileys and hot chocolate!
Bowling with the Animation team
Bowling is right up the VAN Animation team’s alley. The group enjoyed a glow in the dark outing with some strikes, spares, a few gutter balls and a couple of bevvies!
The Asset team at the curling rink
The VAN Assets team enjoyed some good ol’ Canadian fun at the curling rink! They were swept away with how much fun they had and look forward to their next department event.
Backpack Buddies
The VAN studio has been fundraising for the Backpack Buddies program this holiday season. Last week, a group of Framestore and Company 3 employees volunteered at the Backpack Buddies warehouse where they helped pack 721 bags to be sent to schools across British Columbia. It is amazing to know that the program supports 3800 children on average each week, and it was humbling to see the tremendous efforts of this operation in person. VAN also held a bake sale with all proceeds going to Backpack Buddies. A huge thanks to all of the bakers involved! Please find the virtual fundraiser here.
Our Framestore holiday parties are in full swing and will be topped off with VAN’s party on Friday 9th December. Please make sure to RSVP. We can’t wait to see the photos!
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