The Academy’s Science and Technical Achievement Awards

Tonight, the Oscars for technology, The Academy’s Science and Technical Achievement Awards, takes place and we are incredibly pleased to say the Framestore Render Farm – FQ – will be honoured. Designed and built by our R&D team, FQ has underpinned our ability to deliver incredibly complex VFX work, and volume of shots, across multiple projects. The selection process was rigorous: interviews and demonstrations were given to a panel of technical experts who benchmarked multiple studios systems against one another. It really is a great Technical Achievement to come out on top. You can find more details about the awards here.

Peeking Behind the Bakeoff Curtain

Get a sneak peek behind the VFX Oscar bakeoff curtain with this short video showcasing BTS work from this year’s nominees which, of course, includes Top Gun: Maverick.

The Gods are Back

Take a look at this exclusive first look film poster for Shazam! Fury of the Gods. The film will arrive in theatres on March 17th and features the godly work of our VAN studio.

A Whole Lot of Arrows

This week started off strong with a host of our shortlisted work at this year’s British Arrows. Congratulations to our teams (we’re super proud of you!) and to our clients and partners involved in these fantastic projects including Three Mobile’s ‘Jeff’s World‘, Paramount+’s ‘A Mountain of Entertainment‘, Nike’s ‘The Footballverse‘ and ASDA’s ‘Have Your Elf a Merry Christmas‘. The awards ceremony will take place on Thursday, March 30th.

Beyond Powerful

Our LDN IA team joined forces with Uncommon Creative Studio for ‘Beyond’, a powerful new campaign for Jordan, brought to life by females in front and behind the lens with aspiring baller Kamaya Jones as lead, musical direction by Teyana Taylor and the global debut of singer Kaelynn Hayes. The spot was also featured in AdWeek’s ‘Spot of the Day’. Read more here.

Virtual Production Showcase with SMPTE

The Framestore Pre-Production Services team showcased their capabilities in designing photorealistic environments with UNREAL 5.1 at a Virtual Production showcase with SMPTE – Society of Media Professions, Technologists and Engineers. The event took a studio and virtual audience through the latest technological features and benefits of virtual production via an immersive studio setting on a custom built LED volume. Performances from actors studying at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) brought to life the application and effects, demonstrating how easily a LED Volume enhances a production and captures realism on-set. Thanks so much to all the team involved, art directing, designing the environment and manning the “Brain Bar”.

Press

Befores & Afters

Top Gun: Maverick VFX Supervisor Ryan Tudhope sits down with Ian Failes from Before & Afters to take a deep dive into our nearly invisible VFX work for the Oscar-nominated film. Read more here.

BBC Front Row

Our Chairman, William Sargent, joined Sean Clark, the CEO of Aardman for a special BBC Front Row interrogation of the UK’s VFX and animation industry. You can listen to the whole episode here on BBC iPlayer at 30mins in. Unfortunately, the interview is only available for UK audiences.

In other news

Framestore Take Over at the VFX Festival

VFX Supervisor Alexis Wajsbrot and Global Talent Development Director Simon Devereux attended the VFX Festival with Escape Studios. Alexis gave a presentation on the VFX behind Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Simon joined a panel discussion on how today’s young talent can break into the industry.

CHI Holiday Party

The CHI office celebrated their belated holiday party with a Havana Tropics theme. The team danced the night away to the beats of Orquesta Charangoa, a local Cuban band and concluded the evening playing Shuffleboard at the Royal palms.

Talk by Gavin Strange

This week, our LDN studio welcomed Gavin Strange, Director and Designer at Aardman Animations, to the stage. Gavin gave the audience a behind-the-scenes look at his work at Ardman as well as a run-through of his passion projects. Keep an eye out for more upcoming talks at our LDN studio!

Framestore Podcast

This week’s special guest is Russell Dodgson, Visual Effects Supervisor & Creative Director whose career spans two decades. Russell is best known for his five-year journey as overall VFX Supervisor (and occasional director) across all three seasons of His Dark Materials. Joining us for this week’s episodes as co-host is London-based VFX Production Coordinator Sana Rehman, who also worked on His Dark Materials. Catch up on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

On a Trail to Success

MTL-based Production Coordinator Mathieu Ardon Ktistakis produced a short film last winter, titled Trail, which follows a lone hiker during one of his trips into the wilderness as he makes a macabre discovery. Since the beginning of its festival run in early January 2023, the film has garnered a ‘Best First Time Director’ nomination and won the ‘Best Cinematography’ award during the 2023 edition of the Digital Griffix Awards, as well as the New York Cinematography Awards! Moreover, it won ‘Best Thriller’ during the 2023 edition of the Montreal Shorts film festival. It is also scheduled to be featured at various festivals across Canada, the United States, and Europe within the coming months and until the Fall of 2023. Congratulation to Mathieu and the team – we love seeing what our Framestorians are up to in their free time!