New interview on the TALKING MOVIES podcast

Recently I was on a podcast talking about the previs and animation work that I have done on films here in Los Angeles. Topics covered include: The Avengers, Divergent, Godzilla (2014), Night at the Museum 3, Furious 7, and The Thief of Bagdad (1940).

Talking Pictures w/Paul Booth and Josh Lange, Previs for Divergent and Godzilla 11/03

2013 Annie Awards

The Annie Awards were held here in town tonight at UCLA. Wreck-It Ralph received Best Animated Feature, and two projects I worked on at The Third Floor also won: The Avengers, for Visual Effects in a Live Action Production (awarded to ILM); and the Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem theme park ride won for Animated Special Production (awarded to Illumination). Congratulations to the people at those companies who saw those projects through to a successful end! It was a lot of fun to be involved with each of them.

Now I've got to start seeing all those great films! Deadline has the full list of Annie winners here.

Oscar Nom for The Avengers!

'Marvel's The Avengers' (couldn't leave off the "Marvel's?") was announced today as garnering a Visual Effects nomination at the Oscar site. Exciting! A good number of people across many companies were involved with its visual effects, so I get a kick to think of all the other people out there who are also happy with this news. Although it's probably an underdog against The Hobbit, since WETA and Peter Jackson were 3/3 for Visual Effects Oscars with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and The Hobbit was nominated in two other categories this year, I'll be crossing my fingers for it on Oscar night.

StudioDaily article on the pre/tech/postvis of The Avengers

An excellent piece that goes into good detail on what The Third Floor's work was for the blockbuster movie. All of the teams did a great job.

List of VFS graduates on The Avengers

Link to the Vancouver Film School blog post is here. Nick and I first met each other there in Class 28, and Aaron was one term ahead of us in 27 (I'll never forget his "vulture burglar" reel). The rest of the names I don't recognize, but I'd like to say "congratulations" to them all.

FXGuide's writeup of the VFX in The Avengers

A nice and thorough account of how the visual effects teams worked together on the movie.

Previs'ing the Avengers

'The Avengers' takes Los Angeles

Now that The Avengers is wrapping up its record-breaking opening weekend, I thought I'd post some pictures of ads I've seen around town.
 

Setting up for the world premiere on Hollywood Boulevard

Highland

Barham

La Brea

Hollywood/Highland

Hollywood Blvd. Site of the world premiere.

Wilshire

'Avengers Assemble' art show at Gallery 1988

On the way home from work last night I stopped by Gallery 1988's new space on Melrose (across from their original gallery, which is still there) to see their new "Avengers Assemble" art show, with art inspired by the movie. I could only stay a short while, and it was a day after the opening night (which meant that cupcakes, Joss Whedon, and Clark Gregg had been long gone), but I enjoyed seeing the variety of styles and takes the artists used to reinterpret the famous characters. I ended up purchasing one of Anthony Petrie's "Some Assembly Required" prints, which I was happy with:

Also on the walls of the gallery was NC Winters's excellent Iron Man piece:

 And many more:

Collider did a nice post about the opening night show here. LA is definitely the best city to be in for fans of movie art. Nuff said.

The Avengers is now in theaters!

Earlier this week I was able to finally see The Avengers. I attended one of the cast and crew screenings at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with my longtime friend Sean. He and I had created and drawn our own comics as kids, so seeing the movie together all these years later was very special. Cellphones were not allowed inside, but the theater was incredible: 1,000+ spotless seats, red drapes over the screen, and a huge golden Oscar statue on either side of the screen. I had to pinch myself throughout the movie to make sure I wasn't dreaming. The film came out incredibly well: funny, well-paced, and the visual effects are top-notch. It is truly a blockbuster in every sense of the word, and I feel very fortunate to have been involved with it. You could definitely tell it was a cast and crew screening at the end, because no one got up when the credits started rolling. The cheers and shows of support from everyone in the room made it a very touching experience.

Sean and I outside the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, after watching The Avengers.

The Third Floor credits at the end of The Avengers (I'm on the left side).

Most of the shots I worked on were mentioned in an earlier post, but I noticed a few more that made it into the final edit, which I will mention after the break (spoiler alert!).

New Trailer for The Avengers

The new trailer for Marvel's The Avengers went live today, and like the previous trailer, there are a few shots in it that I worked on.
Watch in 1080p:

Shots I worked on:

1:53 Hulk catching a falling Iron Man and scraping against a building
2:15 Non-CG shot of Thor and Cap looking up
2:19 Monster chasing Iron Man around corner of building


I think it's the best trailer yet, and I couldn't be more excited to see this one when it comes out on May 4. There is also a gallery of hi-res stills from the trailer here.

New Avengers Movie Trailer

The new Avengers trailer came out this week.



Two shots that I worked on it are in the trailer:

0:56 Damaged flying Quinjet
1:09 Thor reaching out and catching his hammer Mjolnir