People, Pixels and Production

I just took a short break from posting, after blogging a few times per week since June 1st. To get back on track, here are a few links of interest on VFX, business, smart questions, CG films and yay, being happy:

• VFXworld talks about the many digital effects featured in the new TV season in the US;

• I previously mentioned how I enjoyed a popular post about networking for introverts at Businesspundit.com; you can now read about selling for introverts;

• “How to Ask Smart Questions” from Dumblittleman.com;

• The first teaser for the upcoming “Kung-Fu Panda” from Dreamworks Animation is out. I guess we’ll have to wait for the official trailer to see a better amount of CGI;

• “11 tips for Feeling Happier Right Now” at blog.Liferemix.net.

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A few quick pointers from my presentation at ADAPT 2007 about careering in digital media; especially since we’re going through demo reels and resumes:

• The resume

Short, brief and to the point. Employers first want to know where you’ve worked, what you’ve worked on, and to a lesser extent, what training center or school did you attend. Never mind the part-time job in a hardware store, we don’t care. At least do not waste precious resume space by explaining that your duties included “keeping the lawnmower inventory up to date”.

• The reel

Again, short and to the point. If you have enough material to leave out your less than stellar work, do it. An employer will decide in about 10 seconds if he/she wants to continue watching your reel, so you better have the best 10 seconds of your professional career right at the start.

• The Interview

If you’re up to the interview part, then you have enough experience and talent for the job. Now they want to know if you’re ok to work with, period. Just be nice. Be interested in the company. Have stories to tell. Prepare good answers for common questions (see link below). Show you’re a great person to work with and the job is yours. I know it sounds corny, but nobody likes to work with jerks, no matter how talented they are. This business is about teamwork, creativity and long hours.

A few links on getting a job:

VFX Hack : Making a Demo Reel That Doesn’t Suck

The Career Gamer : Part I – Getting The Job
(4 part editorial)

50 Common Interview Questions Q&A
(one of my favorites)

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We Own the Night

Great interview at studiodaily.com with James Gray, writer and director of the film We Own the Night. It’s about how he worked with Digital Domain to add pouring rain in a complex car chase shot *entirely on a sunny day*.

The best tidbit:

What was your relationship with the guys at Digital Domain?

Basically, what you do — I don’t know how familiar you are with this crap — they bring you in there, and you have a little bell and you ding it when the shot is done. You go ding!. And everyone applauds. There were 103 shots in the sequence. The first attempt I see, I go, “That’s terrible.” And I was really depressed. You give them notes. “Go back and do this, this, and this to it.” Sometimes you don’t know why it doesn’t look right. You just know it looks phony. So they do another version. They keep adding elements, subtracting elements, doing this and doing that. Finally they hit it — version 36 is the one you go with, and you go ding! and everyone claps. That’s the process. And you have to do this with every shot in the sequence.

…I said, “That’s the look of the rain that I want.” And you saw all of them go, “[Long pause] … OK.” Because they knew the technical challenge would be huge. It wasn’t just rain they had to add. They had to add an intermittent blurring effect that would mimic the effect of the wipers. They were not happy with me about that. Apparently it drove them quite crazy.

You can read the rest at www.studiodaily.com.

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We already work with a lot of fine freelancers, but I think one of the best aspects of being a business owner is hiring new employees. Modus FX is proud to welcome its first employee, Martin Pelletier.

Martin is an experienced 3D texture/lighting artist and matte painter. After getting his diploma in graphic design at Laval University in 2000, he went at Cyclone in Quebec City for a year of professional 3D training. Since then, he has been working non-stop as a modeling, lighting, texture and matte painting artist in renowned effects houses like Hybride and Buzz. He has been a Photoshop Instructor at the University of Montreal since 2003.

On top of his contribution to numerous TV spots, his filmography includes Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Racing Stripes, Sin City, Snakes on a Plane, 300 and the upcoming Imax feature Legends of the Sky.

He is also a member of CGunit.com, a popular website dedicated to CG artists and designers. You can view some of Martin’s work on his CGunit crew page.

Welcome to Modus, Martin!

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The 36^th edition of the Festival du nouveau cinema will start this week in Montreal. The FNC is committed to highlighting and contributing to the development of new trends in cinema and new media. It is a showcase for new, original works, particularly in the fields of independent cinema and digital creation.

Modus FX will take part in the half-day conference on 3-D stereoscopic cinema on Saturday, October 13. The afternoon will start with a presentation of the existing technologies and the current situation of 3-D stereoscopy in movie theatres with technical showings by Meteor Studios, DamnFX and Sensio to name a few. We will conclude with a 1 hour debate on what we can expect in the future.

The session is part of “The Future of Cinema?” event, done in collaboration with the Society for Arts and Technology , a group very used to new medias and upcoming technologies in the field of communication. It will take place at their studio on St-Laurent Street.

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I’m back from the Boston edition of the Avid “Make Your Mark Tour”, where I was a member of the panel on how to break into the digital media business. My fellow panelists were professionals from the world of music production, video editing and independent films. It was quite exciting to meet experts from industries I’m not familiar with.

A lot of the talk was centered on music and film production, but even with our very diverse backgrounds, our panel agreed that contacts and networking are crucial to get a good career going, as well as simply being a good person to work with. “Just don’t be a jerk” concluded Matt Dentler from the SxSW festival.

Todd Akita was hosting a session on the creative process at Psyop using Softimage XSI. It was great to see him outside the hectic pace of Siggraph! We spent the two days in Boston with our good friends from Softimage.

… and I love eating out with people who can enjoy sushi as much as I do, so that way we can go for a good ol’ boat of fish.

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Modus FX is now a proud member of the Quebec Film and Television Council. The QFTC’s mission is to promote the province of Quebec as a world-class center for the production of film and television.

The Council is a natural partner for any business in our industry. In fact, we know very well many of the current members and it’s a great place for networking. We already took part in our first cocktail last Friday where we met American producers who were in Quebec for some location scouting.

We also had a chance to chat with colleagues from Rodeo FX, Damn FX and FX Cartel. With all our acquaintances we are very eager to contribute in the development of our industry in the region.

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I finally got through my presentation on Friday morning. I was afraid I would not get a big turnout with the Halo 3 party the night before, but the room was actually quite full. I have to admit that another presentation scheduled at the same time was postponed a bit, so it probable helped my attendance numbers…

The session went smoothly and I got positive feedback right on the spot by quite a few attendees. I’m used to giving presentations on VFX productions with lots of pretty pictures and making-of videos. This time it was all talk, giving the best advice I had on careering in our industry. I’m glad it went all right because I’ll be participating in something similar this week in Boston.

Right after my speech I walked across the Complexe Desjardins (where ADAPT is happening) to the offices of Revenu Québec, to get a plethora of corporate numbers for our business. Even during the week of ADAPT I’m still a company manager.

Early in the afternoon I caught the presentation by Pierre Raymond, with a great recap of Hybride’s productions since Mimic in 1996 right up to 300. For me it was a trip down memory lane and the vast amount of versatile and remarkable visuals presented was indeed impressive.

And what a finale; Dreamworks, Disney and Sony Pictures sharing the stage and going through the numerous production aspects in creating a CG film. Having three different points of view on the creative and production process of major CG films was nothing short of amazing. Too bad some of the slides were unreadable; but it was a very exciting presentation by key people from the industry.

And for ADAPT 2007, that, as they say, is a wrap.

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