The latest trailer for STAR TREK BEYOND

This is overdue by several weeks, but here is my blogspot link to the new Star Trek Beyond trailer. I like it much more than the first one:



I was especially happy with how one of my shots in it turned out. The rendering on the environment looks incredible. Hats off to the final VFX artists who made that happen:

2015 Super Bowl commercials and trailers

At the end of last year, I worked on several commercials at Proof, inc. Two of these commercials, one for Turbotax and one for Pepsi, aired on television yesterday during the Super Bowl. A new trailer for the upcoming Furious 7 feature film aired as well, which contained shots I did previs and techvis for back in 2013.

TurboTax: "Boston Tea Party"
I did previs for the first few shots of the Sons of Liberty storming the HMS Surprise (one of the replica ships in the collection of the Maritime Museum of San Diego), and modeled previs characters for the other sequences. I was a bit surprised at seeing so many YouTube comments showing outrage for the mockery of the founding fathers. I thought it was a funny spoof.


Pepsi: "Halftime Touches Down"
Continuing with their recurring U.F.O. theme that they've done for decades, Pepsi's halftime commercial featured previs by our Proof, inc. team. The segment I previsualized involved teenagers playing music in their garage with a nearby dog:


Furious 7 movie trailer
Coming to theaters April 3, Furious 7 has a new movie trailer to get people excited about the upcoming film. I helped previs and techvis the sequence of a Lykan Hypersport crashing through the Etihad Towers in Abu Dhabi, and did previs for the cargo drop skydiving sequence.


As always, I enjoyed working on the teams for these and learning about new ways to use Maya and After Effects to achieve what our directors were striving for. Each project was a new challenge in its unique way, and I liked how the commercials came out. It will be fascinating to see how Furious 7 turned out this Spring.

New FURIOUS 7 trailer is now online

After an emotional roller-coaster of filmmaking, the trailer for the new Fast & Furious movie is here. Entitled 'Furious 7,' the movie will have daring stunts and more of the high-stakes action fans of the franchise expect. Working on it was a fun challenge, and I'm happy with how our previs looks to have transitioned to the final photography.

Here is the official trailer. It starts off with our cargo drop sequence and transitions into the bus rescue. These were the first sequences I worked on when I started on the project last year. I hope the fans enjoy it.

Steven on Steven: Studying Staging with Spielberg and Soderbergh

I'm late on this, but I wanted to reblog this Steven Soderbergh post about his exercise to study the "staging" (moving the camera and its subjects) of Raiders of the Lost Ark, after removing all the color and replaced the audio with a techno track. This is a great way to study staging, and it's part of why it's great to watch old black and white movies, even if you're making the latest Hollywood visual effects-oriented films.

The definition of unforgettable staging. 

I recently watched a 1950 noir film by Elia Kazan called Panic in the Streets, which used particularly inventive staging back when camera movement was much more limited. In order to keep his long takes interesting, Kazan repeatedly blocked his scenes out so that characters would move close up and far away from the camera. This resulted in a single continuous shot that would overtime go from a wide shot to a medium shot to a close up and even back to a wide shot at times. There is an uncomplicated scene with just two characters, where the husband (Richard Widmark) goes around their bedroom to retrieve different parts of his Naval uniform, where this is done well. The simple things, if done well, can make all the difference with staging.

A fantastic noir outbreak disaster movie, by Elia Kazan.

 Although I cannot be 100% sure Soderbergh has seen Panic in the Streets, I would venture to guess he has, because it was a notable early "outbreak disaster film" that could have served as useful reference for Soderbergh's own outbreak movie Contagion. Watching any of these movies would greatly help a student of film understand how to build tension with advanced staging. Although I've heard it attributed to Ingmar Bergman and not David Fincher as Soderbergh does, the notion that there is only one "best" way for a scene to be staged is a high standard, and one that should be aspired to by all filmmakers.

Steven Soderbergh's own take on the outbreak disaster genre.

THE MAZE RUNNER is now in theaters!

Although I have not seen it yet, I have high hopes that our previs came out well in the final picture. Congratulations to all the people who helped make the movie happen.

New TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES Trailer

Featuring the mountainside "batter up!" shots that I worked on (0:59):



This project was unique because of the exposure we had to the director and second unit director. Plus, it provided an opportunity to revisit the Turtles movies that I loved as a kid for work reference. You don't get that every day...

Congrats to the team on another fun upcoming release.

New GODZILLA trailer is here!

It seems like only a few weeks ago that Godzilla had its first teaser hit the web. Now, there's a full-length trailer for people to enjoy. Bryan Cranston's voice completely puts you in the horrifying atmosphere of the film.



If it wasn't already clear by now, the movie is a complete 180 degree turn from the 1998 film of the same name. I couldn't be more excited for it.