Stars of UK VFX set to shine at Creative Week in London
A wealth of talent from the UK VFX industry is set for a strong showing at BAFTA in London this coming Wednesday, as the inauguaral VFX-Imagination Unlimited conference gets underway.
Part of Creative Week , a series of exciting events from MBI, the publishing giant behind Broadcast, Shots and Screen International, VFX-Imagination Unlimited combines panel discussions, keynote presentations and inspirational case studies.
Highlights include an opening address from Alex Hope, MD and co-founder, Double Negative, celebrating the ideas powerhouse that is the UK VFX industry. This is followed by twin keynotes on the subject of Visionary VFX, where Mike McGee, Creative Director and Co-Founder of Framestore, and Graham Jack, Chief Technical Officer, Double Negative, will each explore possibilities for VFX by harnessing cutting edge technology and techniques and how it’s best to adapt to these advances.
The Creative Cross-Pollination session explores opportunities for mixing VFX skills with other creative ndustries such as gaming, interactive storytelling and experiential advertising and art, with contributions from Framestore’s Global Head of Digital, Mike Woods, MPC‘s Interactive Creative Director, Andre Assalino, Stuart Aitken, Creative Director at Axis and The Mill’s VFX Supervisor / Head of Nuke, Hugo Guerra.
Framestore VFX from Gravity (Warner Bros. Pictures)
An exploration of the VFX behind the blockbuster award magnet, Gravity, follows the session. It will be presented by Max Solomon, Animation Supervisor at Framestore, who was involved in the early pre-vis stages of the film and also led the team that painstakingly animated all of the astronauts’ movements by hand.
Changing the View, a session that focuses on how VFX studios are applying special techniques, technology and customised pipelines, and revolutionising VFX in the process is next, with another impressive line up of speakers. Hayden Jones,VFX Supervisor of the relatively young DNeg TV and Brad Blackburn, director from brand new IO Entertainment studio, join heads with Damien Fagnou, Global head of VFX operations at MPC, Bob Mayson, managing director of RealD, Gil James, Business Development and VFX Producer, Nvizible and Rob Holmes, Joint Head of 3D, The Mill.
Tim Haines, Creative Director of ITV Studios, is no stranger to VFX and he joins some great speakers on The Squeezed Middle, a session that aims to thrash out how VFX studios can deliver more value to productions – and keep profitable in the process. Experts such as Will Cohen, CEO, Milk VFX and Jellyfish CEO Phil Dobree discuss these highly pertinent issues with Jenny Cooper, Business Development of Nvizible and Carlo Massarella, creative director, Windfall Films.
How can the VFX skills gap be addressed? Are VFX studios really asking too much of their staff? These are just two of the topics up for debate in Unreality Checked, a panel that features experts such as The Mill COO Pat Joseph, Cath Spruce, Head of Recruitment at Prime Focus World, Richard Scott, Managing Director & Executive Producer at Axis and Amy Smith, Head of Recruitment at Framestore and the chair of the Visual Effects Skills Council at Creative Skillset.
The day will round off with an exclusive look at Our Robot Overlords, presented by Paddy Eason, VFX supervisor at Nvizible. The forthcoming sci-fi epic promises to be another exciting UK success, starring Gillian Anderson and Sir Ben Kingsley, and shot in Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man.
Our Robot Overlords
Visit the VFX-Imagination Unlimited page for more information and to book a last minute ticket
