The end of an era
Prepare for the last season of His Dark Materials with this final trailer released by the BBC this week. Featuring the work by our LDN, MTL, MUM and NY teams, the show arrived in North America this week, and will be released in the UK on December 18th. MEL and MUM have been able to watch it since December 5th so no spoilers please!
A first look at Mickey 17
Take a first look at Mickey 17, featuring work from LDN and MUM studios, for Oscar-winning director Bong Joon Ho. The film is currently in production and will arrive in theatres March 29 2024.
The Last of Us
HBO Max finally released a first trailer for The Last of Us featuring work by our talented FPS team. The story takes place twenty years after modern civilisation has been destroyed and follows Joel, a hardened survivor who is hired to smuggle Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heart-breaking journey, as they both must traverse the U.S. and depend on each other for survival. The series will hit HBO Max on January 15th 2023.
Holiday Round Up
Campaign revealed their ‘Top Film Ads’ as part of their ‘The List 2022’ round up and guess who made it? We did! National Lottery’s ‘A Christmas Love Story‘ took the first place and ASDA’s charming ‘Have Your Elf a Merry Christmas‘ campaign came in at 14. Congrats to everyone involved!
Shots also featured many of our recent advertising work in their ‘Best of November 2022’ edition including ASDA’s ‘Have Your Elf a Merry Christmas‘, Nike’s ‘Footballverse‘, Save the Children’s ‘Save The Survivor‘ and National Lottery’s ‘A Christmas Lovestory‘. Take a look at all of our amazing work here.
Awards
Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Award
A huge congratulations to VFX Supervisor Josh Simmonds and the MEL team, whose work on Elvis (delivered under the Method Studios banner) received the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Award for Best Visual Effects or Animation. It took a studio full of superstars to build a pitch-perfect world around the king of rock ‘n’ roll, and we’re incredibly proud of the skill, nuance and artistry that our Melbourne creatives, producers and technologists brought to Baz Luhrmann’s brilliant biopic.
VFX Supervisor Josh Simmonds attended the ceremony on the team’s behalf and was lucky to meet Mandy Walker who won the Best Cinematography award for Elvis. The films also picked up an additional four awards including the coveted award for Best Film, Best Direction in Film presented by Filmology Finance (Baz Luhrmann), Best Lead Actor (Austin Butler), and Best Supporting Actress in Film (Olivia DeJonge). Elvis dominated the AACTA Industry Awards on Monday with seven wins, bringing the total AACTA Award count to 11. Massive congratulations to the team!
Asian Academy Award
Not content with taking home an AACTA, our team in MEL also nabbed this week’s Asian Academy Creative Award for Best Visual / Special FX in TV / Feature Films for their work on Elvis – their FIFTH consecutive win, following on from Game of Thrones s7, Christopher Robin, Jumanji: The Next Level and Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway.
The MEL team was represented by Production Coordinator (and Singapore resident) Sebastien Uguen – thank you for picking it up on the team’s behalf, and hope you had a fabulous night!
Press
The Hollywood Reporter
THR’s Carolyn Giardina runs through the hopefuls for next year’s VFX Oscar, with the shortlist due to drop on December 21. Numerous Framestore and Method titles make the list, including Top Gun: Maverick, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore, Thor: Love & Thunder and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Get all the info here.
LA Times
The LA Times conducted a deep-dive into the VFX work of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which featured input from VFX Supervisor Alexis Wajsbrot. Read more here.
The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter also explored the VFX behind some of the year’s biggest releases, including Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Click here to read the piece, which features VFX Supervisor Alexis Wajsbrot explaining how the ‘portal ride’ sequence was crafted, and the artistic influences behind it.
Little Black Book
This week, the LDN studio hosted the Winter Shiny Awards which was an immense success. Find out more here.
In colour
Steffan Perry in Little Black Book
In conversation with LBB, Company 3 Colourist Steffan Perry discusses the subjectivity on colour and his creative journey on becoming a highly regarded Colourist. Read the full article here.
In other news
Visiting MUM
VFX Editor Jack Bell, Senior Engineer Jerry Allen and Head of Infrastructure Pete Robertshaw visited our MUM studio in September and enjoyed getting to know their colleagues over a few bevvies.
A trip to LDN
Compositing Supervisor Savlaram Adhav visited the LDN studio this week and enjoyed having lunch with Head of 2D Matt Twyford as well as meeting his many other colleagues from oversees. Great to have you with us, Savlaram!
School visit in MTL
The MTL office welcomed animation students from the Rubika School (Supinfocom, Supinfogame, ISD) where they enjoyed a studio tour, a presentation intro about Framestore and how to get into the industry followed by a Q&A session with Animator Naomi Vezina.
Tracking department outing
The MTL tracking department hosted their end of year event! They enjoy a great night out in a pool bar where they received the Tracking Pet Calendar reuniting the teams pets that are now also part of the team.
MTL Holiday Traditions
As per tradition, our MTL teams came together for a holiday quiz and musical chairs competition. A special shout out to the four teams on their amazing and creative pitch on the bonus question: Create a Christmas movie synopsis using three mandatory words which are randomly selected. Maybe one of these will become the next big hit…
1: A Christmas Mission
2: Guy Fieri’s Spice Christmas spectacular
3: Pineapple Express
4: George of the Jungle: A home for the Holidays
MEL’s Holiday Party & Staff Awards
Last Friday, the MEL office blew off some steam at their holiday party with some drinks, pool and bowling. It was fantastic to see everyone in person rather than over a screen! Head of VFX Simon Rosenthal presented the end of year staff awards which included Class Clown of the Year, Best Video Call Background, Best Meme User, and Best WFH Set up, and some more serious awards such as Innovator of the Year, Team of the Year and New Starter of the Year and Employee of the Year. Congrats to all the winners!
NY Holiday Party
The NY office celebrated their holiday party on Friday, 2nd December. The teams had a great evening filled with fun, laughter and the best company anyone could ask for!
LDN Holiday Party
The LDN office got all dressed up for their holiday party on 1st December including a themed photo booth, great food and drinks as well as lots of singing and dancing.
Holiday decorations across the globe
Our studios across the world are starting to spread the holiday vibes with their beautiful decorations. Can you spot your office?
The MEL studio is not decorating their office this year as they have not officially returned yet. Instead, they’re running a local competition where staff can submit photos of their Christmas decorations to go into a raffle to win a Christmas hamper. Take a look at the submissions below! The winners will be announced next week.
No Kid Hungry
This year, the LA office will be hosting a virtual holiday fundraiser for No Kid Hungry. One in eight children face hunger in the USA, that is as many as nine million children who live in “food insecure” homes. For the first time in history, over half of public school students are from low-income families. No Kid Hungry provides meals during the school day, summer break as well as after school meal programs.
Please remember that the VAN holiday party is taking place today, December 9th! Also, our MEL studio will enjoy a long weekend next week as they’re off on December 16th.
That’s it for this week!