Demystifying VFX – Everything you never wanted to know about my exploration at The Foundry | 03 Nov
By Jack Belford, Intern at TJ.
My first foray into the wonderful world of ‘networking’ with the delightfully interesting talk; Demystifying VFX at The Foundry, with Paul Simpson and Shervin Shogian. It went exactly as I thought it would. Rife with anxiety and awkwardness on my side, fascinating knowledge on the other. But on the plus side, free canapés and beer, so it wasn’t all bad…
I was tasked earlier that day to go to The Foundry to listen to VFX experts Paul Simpson and Shervin Shoghian. It was my first day as the new intern and I was to listen, learn, and importantly, network. I tried to do all three, mostly unsuccessfully, but I tried.
How I envisioned ‘Networking’
My first hurdle was the reception. Something that should, in theory, be pretty easy. But in practise was not. My name wasn’t on the list. Bollocks. I thought the well kept receptionist behind the desk would have demanded for me to leave, to get out, to stop trying to free load the ‘artisan’ fish and chips on a stick (which coincidently were quite tasty) but all she uttered was “oh, maybe you RSVP’d late, go in.” Funnily enough it wasn’t such a big deal. Who knew. Most people probably.
Opening the big double doors I was greeted by a boy similar in age as me, but was better dressed/groomed asking me if “Sir wanted a drink?”. Having just finished university and taking a string of internships it’s safe to say I am dirt poor. Actually dirt has value. So poorer than that. I’d have accepted a free anything. Which I did. All night.
Having digested various deconstructed traditionally working class meals on a stick (Fish and chips, burgers, pie and mash all skewered through the middle) and countless Italian beers (to the point where the waiters stopped asking me if I wanted a top up and just assumed I did) in the dark corner of the room I was ready to ‘network’.
Scattered across the room were the uber cool and stylish 30 something professionals chatting with each other about how their first child Damascus was learning Final Cut 7 and not X like those other plebs even though he was only 6, or how well their VFX company was doing in the current financial climate in comparison to those arrogant ad agencies . I was a little intimated by the situation. All I had to talk about professionally was how I managed a tough liaison with a client in a corporate setting. AKA getting into the VFX talk. But spurred on by Dutch courage I was ready.
I wandered around the room feeling like one of those kids that ate glue and had suspicious looking yoghurt stains on his woollen jumper, desperately wanting to hang out with the cool kids at lunch time. It didn’t really work. I stayed on the peripheries of the groups, laughed at the jokes I didn’t quite get, spilled beer onto my trainers and quickly got bored. Networking wasn’t for me at the moment. Especially when there’s all this free food and drink about. Seriously. I think I ate my weight in pretentiously presented food on a stick. I’m sure I ate a scotch egg on a skewer at one point. A scotch egg is designed to be eaten with no cutlery, skewer or otherwise.
How I felt
Finally settling down into my seat, despite all my melodramatic and frankly stupid ramblings I listened to an incredibly interesting talk about VFX.
Paul Simpson was particularly engrossing. Creator of Simon The Ogre an advert for Thompson Holidays he talked about how “The story was king!” and the best way to convey stories is through emotion. Using various techniques, he’s made the audience care about cheap and disappointing holidays to Alicante, which too me is amazing. Furthermore, he went on to talk about how CGI is just a very small process of the story, stating that “Prosthetics are supreme”. They created a beautifully complex prosthetic suit that took hours of sweaty labour to take on and off just to create a more realistic image. He also made sure to not cover the actors eyes in anyway just so that the real human emotions conveyed in the eyes couldn’t be ignored. This ad really was a piece of art. He hired a classically trained sculptor to help create the look of simon, moulding his features into soft clay, a man used to crafting objects society views as high art.
Shervin Shoghian also showed some extremely interesting work, even if at this point the large amounts of canapés were making my stomach tumble and the beers making it grumble. He showed extracts of his own film ‘shhh’ a short film that really explores the parameters of CGI and how it’s not confined to big budget hollywood companies but rather it can now be utilised by smaller companies as CGI is becoming more and more cost effective. He also stressed the importance that CGI is a tool not a crutch, use it when you need to, to help the storyline along rather than the main focus point. He created a terrifying monster, made out of physical work and adorned it with visual effects. The result was pretty unsettling.
Shervin Shoghian’s Monster
The whole talk was immensely interesting. It was genuinely engaging and I felt I learnt a lot from some real experts in the industry. I also realised that networking is tricky and free food and drink is always a no brainer.