2016 - Angry Birds, Storks and The Little Prince

Happy New Year! It's been a while since I've had time to sit down and do a blog post. 2015 was a huge year. 


While working on "The Angry Birds Movie" at Sony Pictures Imageworks in Vancouver I was presented with the opportunity to be a lead. I must admit it was one of the most rewarding experiences of my professional career. It was tough and a huge learning experience, but I'm so happy I did it. The entire team was amazing, from the director to the animators on the team. The final product is going to look amazing.

Over Christmas, a super cute and adorable tv spot was released showing the hatchlings of the movie. Check out it below but beware...your head may explode into candy due to the cuteness.




After a much needed (albeit short) holiday I'm back at Sony in the new year for "Storks" a Warner Bros production being done at Imageworks also being released in 2016. I'm going back to animating on this project which I'm super excited about. Being a lead on ABM didn't leave me much time to animate myself, which I was okay with but I'm looking forward to keeping my speed back and learning more about animating on this fun project.

Check out the teaser trailer here:



Finally some good news about "The Little Prince" which I worked on out in Montreal roughly for a year through 2013-2014 before returning to Vancouver. It now has a release date for all the English territories! March 18 2016! I'm super excited for this to finally be released in English as it's been making the rounds in other countries to much success.

Here's the trailer in case you haven't seen it yet:



So 2016 is looking to be another big year, I'll hopefully be able to post more updates about these amazing upcoming movies.

Wishing you an amazing 2016!

"The Fifth Element" - Korben's Intro Scene

One of my all time favourite movies (for several hundred reasons) is Luc Besson's 1997 sci-fi action comedy romance futuristic everything "The Fifth Element". Upon recent re-watching, one scene stood out as a great example of a character introduction, that being of hero protagonist Korben Dallas played by Bruce Willis. Yes this is another Bruce Willis post.

So I wanted to follow up my "Last Boy Scout" post with another screen-grab-tastic post showing some stylistic choices and in my opinion a great way of introducing a character without any need of exposition dialogue (or as little as possible). And the sequence is fairly quick and by the end of it you know exactly who this character is and why you should be rooting for him the entire movie.

The previous scene ends dramatically with a superimposed skull of the film's unseen antagonist blasting at your face and cut's to Korben waking up out of what seems like a bad dream. His face quickly turns into the classic Bruce Willis dopey grin as he realises he was only dreaming.

 

People read the time and date backwards in 2263

Eric Serra's oddly urban percussion influenced song blasts on the cut with lights turning on in timed unison with the beat showing us who exactly this character is by choice of paraphernalia and vices.

 

This shot sets up the later scene point of the attempted robbery

Korben has a pet, audience members love hero's with pets. Now you do too.

I love this shot for it's simplicity and Bruce Willis' tired read of the line "Trying". In my opinion it sums up Korben's character as someone who is always in the wrong place at the wrong time (much like Bruce Willis' other notable characters) and even though there is a giant sign warning him, he just can't help but be the hero.

No food or groceries in his tiny fridge, which helps the story later on when he has to pile in a bunch of the soldiers to hide them from Cornelius and Leeloo.

Quick shot of Korben's multi pass identification showing again his mean special forces army photo.

The next few shots cut back and forth between the robber and Korben. Beginning with the camera looking over each others shoulders, with the robber clearly holding a sense of fleeting power as the dynamic of the scene slowly shifts towards Korben as the camera then becomes a collection of POV shots.

 He clearly isn't fazed at all by the giant gun in his face.

Interestingly enough this shot shows the most amount of Korben's tiny apartment then any of the previous shots in one frame. With his medals and trophies in one corner, it is a kind of summary of all the shots that's now confirmed in the audience's mind that this is the protagonist that we will root for till the end. Who also is a bad-ass.

I love the robber's dance and acting.

With amazing music from Luc Besson's usual composer collaborator Eric Serra and great cinematography from Thierry Arbogast (also a Besson usual) this movie is re-watched atleast once or twice a year.

Ending this post once again with that dopey grin.

"The Last Boy Scout"

After being on a 90s action movie fix since the Christmas holidays, and re-watching the "Die Hard" movies, I remembered another lesser known Bruce Willis, and in my opinion, classic action 90s movie not may people have seen. That being director Tony Scott's 1991 Action Crime Comedy "The Last Boy Scout" starring Bruce Willis and Damon Wayans.

 Definitely comic book film noir influenced

I personally like to think of this movie as "Die Hard 2.5", fitting somewhere unofficially between the 2nd and 3rd movies. And although I agree with my friend Sam's assessment that this movie is pretty much "Sin City", all they needed to do was call Bruce Willis' character 'John' instead of "Joe' and left it ambiguously at that. Maybe this was done intentionally.

I would never have thought to put the camera behind Damon Wayan's character lying on the floor of the bathroom like this

It's pure early 90s action, violent and visceral, the bad guys were really bad and the good guys were flawed and broken, on the cusp of being washed up. And with amazing dialogue banter from writer/director Shane Black, known for writing fairly popular movies like "Lethal Weapon" and "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang", oh and he directed a little movie called "Iron Man 3" as well.

Classic scene, dialogue and a build up of tense interaction

What stuck out for me the most was the cinematography and lighting. Bordering on the "film noir" in parts, it's dark and moody, some scenes playing out with the actor's faces obscured in darkness or behind smoke. Great use of dutch tilt interesting camera angles and camera locations, and all the usual 'rule of thirds' fancy stuff also included. It conjures up memories of watching classic movies where whole scenes would play out with little to no lighting. An age of movie making that things weren't (usually) fixed later in post.

My favourite is this shot, Damon Wayan's character's face is completely obscured yet the frame is filled with so much stylish visual information

So this blog post is out of appreciation for Director of Photography Ward Russell's cinematography in this underrated classic action movie. Go watch it if you haven't.

"The Little Prince" Article

"The Independent" have released an article about Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's "The Little Prince" and subsequently the animated feature coming out in 2015.

Follow the link below:

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/the-little-prince-the-new-film-of-the-boy-who-fell-to-earth-9949079.html

"The Little Prince" International Trailer

 

The International trailer for "The Little Prince" directed by Mark Osbourne has finally been released! Unfortunately for English speakers, it's in french but I'm assuming a English trailer will be released soon.

It's great to finally start to see trailers and promotional materials be released to the public, this movie was amazing to work on and hopefully it will be received well around the world.

Vancouver 2.0

  

(I spent a lot of time making this)

Back to the beautiful west coast city of Vancouver. After a year stint out 'east' in Montreal, my time at Mikros and on "The Little Prince" finished up and I have fortunately returned to Sony Pictures Imageworks to work on the "Angry Birds" movie directed by Clay Kaytis and Fergal Reilly set to be released in 2016.

I had a great time in Montreal (even though half the year was covered in snow), and "The Little Prince" was amazing to work on.

Can't wait to post more "The Little Prince" and "Angry Birds" movie related posts on here!

Cloudy 2 Animation Reel

While being back home in Sydney on a short vacation, I've finally had enough time (and motivation) to put together the shots I did while at Sony Imageworks on "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2" back in 2013.

Looking back at this amazing and fun project, I became all nostalgic with a permanent smile on my dial as I reminisced on the good times and great friends I made. Not to say it wasn't a challenging and or difficult show, but I have incredibly fond memories of the time spent working on this film.

Here is my reel:



Thanks for viewing :D

Sony's Popeye Animation Test

Sony Imageworks have released the animation test for "Popeye" directed by Genndy Tartakovsky on to their YouTube page.

Incredibly inspirational and insanely cartoony!



I'm so glad they decided to release this and hopefully it becomes a feature sometime in the near future!

"The Little Prince" First Japanese Teaser

Here's the first of many posts that will be "The Little Prince" related over the next several months as more and more start to become released.

A Japanese teaser (that can only be described as the teaser-iest of teasers) has been released. Showing one shot of the fantastic stop-motion work and one tiny slivered sampled section of a huge amazingly animated 3d shot done by Tania Simeons.




Here's the translation : 
Dear Le Petit Prince, where are you now, what are you doing? I miss you........(StopMo)....(CG).......Title: The Little Prince and Me.....brought by the original animation... to you... 2015 WINTER

Cloudy 2 Deleted Scene

With the release of "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2" on DVD and bluray EVEN SOONER THEN BEFORE, Sony have released a deleted scene.

Watch it here:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2014/01/23/cloudy-with-a-chance-of-meatballs-2-exclusive-deleted-scene/4789893/

I'm super glad this was released as so much amazing work went into every shot of this movie, and even though it happens on every movie, its always hard to see such great work and gags get cut from the movie. I love Flint's puppetry arm waving at his dad, it was such a brilliantly executed gag. And the glimpse into Flint's OCD neurotic behavior when he fixes the remote on the table.

Cloudy 2 Whiteboard

During my time on "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2" I decided to have a collaborative drawing whiteboard, and also something to remind me of when cutoff for director review was (as it usually changed daily). The idea was I would start with a blank whiteboard on Monday morning and either leave it till someone would start drawing upon Dan desk visit, or I would start with something small and simple which would grow by Friday (or Saturday).

"Animators are disturbed creatures"

"Pirate plant"

"Expressionist Animators"

"Too much coffee"

"Dino" - by Simon Black

"Bleeding Pac man ghost?"

"Poo joke" by Simon Black

"Bathtub monster"

"Julius' rabbit" by Julius Kwan

"Julius Kwan" by Philip Rudolph and myself

"Director visit" by Cody Cameron and myself (while drinking all my Jameson)

"No" by Julius Kwan

"We're done"

My faves of 2012

Movies:

Life of Pi
Read the book a few years back, and was amazed at how faithful the movie is to the source material. Watching this reminded me of why I love movies.

Music

Imagine Dragons: Night Visions
Thanks to the trailer of "The Host" which used the opening track "Radioactive", this album is on constant repeat.

Tv series

The Walking Dead (Season 03)
Intense, suspenseful, great acting and a crap load of zombies. Best season yet.

Book

A Dance with Dragons
I didn't have the chance to read too much in 2012 but I did read this insanely huge book. Can't wait for
"The Winds of Winter"

Despicable Me 2 trailer

New trailer for Despicable Me 2 was released, with more minion awesomeness. I love how it can make me want to go see it straight away, even without showing the main character of Gru in both trailers so far.


Love it, can't wait for this!

Hotel Transylvania Theatrical Trailer

New trailer for "Hotel Transylvania" is out!

Skhizein - short film

I originally saw this short, a few years back, but it was sent around at work today so I thought I'd share.



Entitled "Skhizein" by Jeremy Clapin

Tron: Uprising

Really looking forward to this. Been a huge fan of the original Tron since a little kid and loved Tron Legacy (music and all).



Thanks to Spungella for posting it.

http://spungella.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/tron-uprising.html

Tangled Ever After

Amazing short from Disney Animation entitled "Tangled Ever After".



Not much to say other then it's ridiculously awesomely animated.

Enjoy!

Jason Schleifer talk

TEDx Youth talk with Head of Animation on PDIIDreamworks' new film "Peabody and Sherman" Jason Schleifer. He talks about the importance of individual moments in the character's story arc.



Great talk! Check out his website here:

jasonschleifer.com

"My Family and the Wolf"

A great teaser for animated film "My Family and the Wolf" from Headless Productions. I love their visual style and hope they keep doing more films!

Hotel Transylvania Trailer

The trailer for "Hotel Transylvania" is out!




:D