photos by Douglas Birnbaum
On October 17, the Executive Committee of the San Francisco Coordinating Committee (SFCC) hosted The Future of Storytelling, a Visual Effects (VFX) seminar. Held at 32Ten Studios in San Rafael, the event was designed to provide information on how cutting-edge VFX are created and how they can be used to enhance storytelling.
Following a welcome from SFCC Education/Mentoring Subcommittee Chair Jani Vournas, the DGA member attendees were able to benefit from the knowledge of several experts in the VFX arena.
The seminar kicked off with a presentation by 32Ten Studios Co-owner/Model Fabricator Sean House (Jurassic World) where he screened a reel of clips of their work. House also spoke about the history of the company, from its inception at the famed Marin County lot of George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) to its development into the practical effects studio it is today, still occupied by some of the talent responsible for creating the groundbreaking VFX for the original Star Wars.
In the next presentation, Atomic Fiction’s Executive Vice President/Head of Production Sandra Scott (Star Trek Into Darkness) and Director/VFX and Stereo Producer Camille Cellucci (Elysium) took the stage to discuss the challenges of recreating 1970s New York City and Paris and the process of making the Twin Towers come alive for Director Robert Zemeckis’ new 3D feature The Walk. Cellucci has been a DGA member since 2004.
Motionwerx founder Roger Nelson explained the technology behind his motion capture company that captures physical movement movements in real time/real life environments, with minimal need for post-processing, and how easily it can be used to aid filmmakers.
In her presentation, freelance VFX/Animation/Motion Capture/Stereo Virtual Reality Producer Jacquie Barnbrook (The Hunger Games) compared producing The Bus to Canton, a low budget virtual reality documentary about Jerome Bettis and his rise to the Football Hall of Fame, to her work producing the large budget project The Martian VR Experience, a narrative interactive and immersive cinema experience.
Then Google Spotlight Stories Producer Kim Adams — who began her career as a PA at ILM — spoke about producing with ATAP, Google’s fast track innovation group, a new mobile platform that turns a smart phone into a window for a narrative 360 degree immersive world.
The attendees then got a live demonstration of motion capture and face replacement technology in action and were able to see how easily it translated the movements on the stage to the computer screen.
The seminar ended with a panel discussion with Sean House, Kim Adams, Jacquie Barnbrook, and Camille Cellucci as they touched upon a variety of issues including when to use practical effects versus CGI, rendering effects shots on the cloud to save money, and innovating on the fly. The panelists also took questions from the audience.
About the Committee:
The San Francisco Coordinating Committee was formed in 1978 to coordinate Guild activities in the Bay Area. The Committee hosts a number of educational presentations and networking events during the year, in order to fulfill its objectives of facilitating the exchange of ideas, maintaining contacts with other guilds and unions, and furthering professional opportunities for all Northern California DGA members.
