The word on the street is, Wonka
Wonka released in UK cinemas today! Currently holding an 85% score on Rotten Tomatoes, Wonka has been well-received by the press.
We provided all the right ingredients for Wonka, a generous cup of Concept Art, Pre-Production Services, On-Set Supervision, a Salt Bae sprinkle of Previs, Postvis, Design, and a spoonful of final VFX. The supervision team, led by overall Production VFX Supervisor Graham Page, included Martin Macrae, Head of the Art Department, overseeing concept art; Maike Fiene, Visualization Supervisor, guiding previs and postvis; and VFX Supervisors Robert Allman and Carlos Monzon, coordinating the VFX in MTL, LDN, and MUM.
Fallout Trailer ☢️
Amazon has released the first official teaser trailer for Fallout, the upcoming live-action series based on Bethesda’s best-selling video games. MTL and LDN delivered quirky creatures, aligning with the surrealist, comedic tone of the series.
During an interview at CCXP23, Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer himself, explained that he was “blown away” by the trailer. Read more here.
Setting up for Civil War
A24, perhaps the coolest film studio in the world, finally lifted the lid on Alex Garland’s new opus: Civil War. A poster materialised online, with a trailer due to drop next week. The film’s VFX was led by Production VFX Supervisor David Simpson (his second time working with Alex Garland), with on set supervision courtesy of Chris Zeh and brilliant work all round from our LDN artists, technologists and producers.
The dawn of Rebel Moon rises early
Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon will arrive earlier than expected. Rebel Moon: Part One – a Child of Fire will now premiere on the Netflix at 7 pm PT on Dec. 21st, hours earlier than its scheduled Dec. 22nd debut.
For the first few days, audiences will be treated to a cinematic digital billboard that will take over the streamer’s homepage globally. You can even catch a glimpse of our work for Part Two with the teaser trailer for Rebel Moon: Part Two – The Scargiver, showcased at the end of the movie.
Toyota | ‘Present from the Past’
Our LA VFX team helped bring to life Toyota’s touching new holiday spot, ‘Present From the Past’, which first aired during the annual Rockefeller tree lighting ceremony and was featured as pick of the day on David Reviews last week.
Dashing Through the Snow with Lexus
A person’s best friend is also their best co-pilot at Lexus’ annual December to Remember event with VFX provided by our LA team.
PUBG | Ground of Honor: Rondo
Our LDN team led by VFX Supervisor, Luigi Russo collaborated with stuntman, actor and director Sam Hargrave to create an adrenaline-fueled short film created in anticipation of a brand-new map for the battle royale-style video game, PUBG. The eight minute film stars high-profile actors Lee Jung-jae and Daniel Wu.
Dominoes | Plowing for Pizza
Domino’s Pizza Inc., in collaboration with WorkInProgress, is taking on wintry challenges in US cities with a new campaign directed by Framestore Pictures’ Jen Stafford. As the world’s largest pizza company, Domino’s is dedicating half a million dollars in grants for snow plowing. The goal? To ensure that even on the coldest, snowiest days, carryout customers can enjoy hot pizza. Because, let’s be honest, who can resist the allure of pizza, especially in the chilly season?
Press
Variety’s VFX Oscar Longlist
The Oscar visual effects longlist has been revealed by Variety and includes four Framestore projects; Barbie, Wonka, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire.
The shortlist will be announced Dec 21st with the final five nominations announced on Jan 10th.
Click here to read more about the finalists.
Gold Derby | Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Production side VFX Supervisor, Stephane Ceretti and Framestore VFX Supervisor, Alexis Wajsbrot spoke to Gold Derby as part of their interviews with Oscar contenders about the work that went into developing Rocket in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Speaking about our previous work on the charcter, Alexis went on to discuss how we evolved the character for his backstory.
You can watch the full interview here.
Art of VFX – Monarch: Legacy of Monsters
The Art of VFX spoke to production side VFX Supervisor, Sean Konrad about the various visual effects work done on Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. He went into detail about the work our teams in VAN and MTL did on the FrostVark seen in episodes 3 and 4, saying, “We were really fortunate that we had Arek, Kelly, Jye and the Framestore team” leading the effort on these complex creature.
Read the full interview to find out more.
Befores & Afters Loki S2
Befores & Afters interviewed Loki season 2 VFX Supervisor, Matthew Twyford this week on how the different departments – visual development, visualisation and visual effects–were all involved in the timeslipping shots. He also explored the complex spaghettification scenes in the show, and the VFX involved in Loki’s efforts to save the Temporal Loom in the final episode.
Diversity & Inclusion in VFX
Our Director of Global Talent Development, Simon Devereux was featured in TVBEurope this week speaking about AccessVFX and the sustained drive for diversity and inclusion in the VFX industry. He speaks about the ways different perspectives and representation are being included in narratives both on screen and behind the scenes.
See what else he has to day here.
Events
Asifa India’s International Animation Day
CG Supervisor, Prashant Nair attended this year’s Asifa India’s International Animation Day event to share his experience in bringing different digital characters and creatures to life. He also gave a similar talk at the VFX Summit 2023 a couple of weeks ago, where he indulged the audience with an interesting set of details that went into creating the very-loved characters and creatures of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
2023 Animal Logic Academy Showcase
Last week we had some of our MEL staff represent Framestore at the 2023 Animal Logic Academy Showcase to celebrate the outstanding projects from this year’s Master of Animation and Visualisation students.
They heard about the challenges the student’s faced when producing their short film ‘Coffee Brake’, which was developed in only 10 weeks using ‘Blender’ and ‘Grease Pencil’, and watched the premiere screening of their 3D animated short film ‘Alone’.
Awards
An Emmy for Ms Marvel
We’re absolutely thrilled to announce that our work for Disney+ and Marvel Studios’ Ms. Marvel has won an Emmy for Outstanding Motion Design! A huge congratulations to the team: Ian Spendloff, David Lochhead, Daniella Marsh, David Stumpf, Philip Robinson, and Matthew Thomas on this prestigious achievement.
The team also received messages of praise from friends and family, with Ian and Matthew’s mums saying how proud they were via Instagram.
Achtzehn Hundertneunundneunzig
Hearty congratulations to VFX Supervisor, Christian Kaestner for winning the VFX/Animation category at the DafF Deutsche Akademie für Fernsehen (German Television Academy) for his outstanding work on 1899. Christian Kaestner served as the Overall VFX Supervisor on the show collaborating closely with showrunners, Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese.
Televisual Bulldog Awards
Big congratulations are in order for Black Mirror Season 6 (1st) and His Dark Materials Season 3 (2nd) for coming first and second respectively in the Televisual Bulldog Awards VFX category. Voted for by readers of Televisual they are alongside the best shows on our screens this year and couldn’t be more deserving.
Congratulations to everyone involved in these projects from the team in LDN who brought horror to the Mazey Day episode of Black Mirror, to the teams in LDN, MTL, and MUM who pulled out all the stops on the the final season of His Dark Materials.
RTS Craft and Design Awards
A huge congratulations to the artists, producers and technologists who worked on the final season of His Dark Materials – your incredible work landed this year’s Royal Television Society Award in the Effects – VFX category!
Said the jury, “The winner showed a rich variety of VFX of an extremely high calibre. The attention to detail on the scale of costumes was integral to ensuring the believability of the mythical characters. The animation of the creatures was particularly noted by the jury, and the interaction with the actors and seamless integration into the scenes was beautifully done. The jury felt that it was a visual feast of complex and very well executed work.”
This is the second time the show has landed this prestigious award, so a huge round of applause to our teams in LDN, MTL, MUM and NY for this truly global effort!
In other news
Framestore Podcast Wrapped
Check out The Framestore Podcast’s Spotify Wrapped stats! Since we launched the podcast a year ago, we’ve amassed a massive 60 episodes and spoken to Framestore luminaries such as Tim Webber, Prashant Nair, Patricia Llaguno, Michel Waxman, Russell Dodgson and many, many more! The final episode for the year will be released next week featuring all the best bits from 2023.
Final Football of 2023
A friendly game for the LDN football team against On of Us last night, against a really skilled team. The final result was OOU 3 – 1 Framestore, a better performance and scoreline from the last game.
This was the last game of the year, but Framestore football fans have nothing to worry about as The VFL League begin in early spring 2024.
For those looking for more information head over to the leagues Instagram or LinkedIn.
LDN’s Delicious Holiday Décor
The LDN studio has been beautifully decorated for the holidays including a Wonka themed Christmas tree and lights, garlands and bunting in the cafe. We want to say a massive thank you to Assistant Facilities Manager, Lauren Burgess and her Facilities Assistants oompa loompas for all their hard work putting this together.
That’s all folks!