Fame and Glory (kinda)

There's an article up on one of the Visual Effects sites about how we did the work on Hellboy 2. I even get quoted. Crikey.

Look, My Baby all Growed Up

It seems that the cat is well and truly out of the bag. This Harry Potter making of documentary has been airing world-wide and has now hit youTube. It's in three parts but the section which covers the part of the film I worked on is here from about 7 minutes in:

So there you are folks, I, along with a bunch of amazingly talented people, spent 18 months making Grawp and although the documentary only shows the first part of the process we went through, that of capturing Tony Maudsley's performance, you can see a whole load of the shots I made. I really like the first close up, there's a gentleness to the performance there and, although you can't tell in the youTube video, Grawp's skin had months of work put into its detailing and surface properties. There's also some lighting on him of which I'm very proud. Anyone who gets to see the film before I do (this Sunday) I'm keen if you can let me know how it all looked, it seems quite dark to me but that may just be the video on youTube.

The Eagle Has Landed

I am so tired I can hardly type. Though I am naturally a worrier by inclination I did manage to sleep on Friday night before the move but I was a bag of nerves come Saturday morning. I'm the same when I travel anywhere, always thinking of the worst case scenario. By lunchtime the last of the packing had been done at Atrocity Mansions and a mountain of packing boxes stood by the door awaiting the arrival of the van. At five o'clock on the dot, Victor, the driver, parked up outside and then with the assistance of Tommy Dog we loaded the van in thirty minutes flat. A stately drive from South London to Bloomsbury followed with the redoubtable Victor easing the gas to ensure there were no breakages in the back.

We arrived at Schossadlerflug a half hour after departing and then spent another hour unloading the van and taking my worldly possessions up the lift to the top floor. Tommy Dog was an utter hero and has earned himself a slap up dinner of steak frites and a decent bottle of Fleurie at The French House on a date of his choosing. In two hours everything had been moved from Atrocity Mansions across the river to the resplendent Schossadlerflug. We made up the bed as a first priority moved a few boxes around, built a bookshelf and then, exhausted, decamped to Pizza Express for pizza and beer, both of which were well earned.

I have chosen the name Schossadlerflug for the new place on the blog because of a pleasing alignment of the fates. The name pertains to part of Tinseltroos' ludicrously long full surname, also to the fact that the street we now live on has an eagley theme and we are the top (or penthouse as we like to think of it) flat in our block so it has an eyrie kind of feel. So Schossadlerflug it is and we are delighted with it.

On Sunday Tinseltroos and Sisoftroos had to put the finishing touches to the cleansing of Tinseltowers to ensure the maximum return on their deposit. Any lingering doubts that T may have had about wishing to move to a new place quickly vanished when, as she took another bin-bag of rubbish out, she found a tramp and his boyfriend in flagrante delicto in their outdoor bin cupboard. Delightful. Some may say that this adds colour and cultural diversity to their former neighbourhood, I am not so sure about that so soon after breakfast.

I spent the morning assembling shelving, hi-fi equipment and unpacking my myriad boxes of books and putting them on the shelves which are now dotted throughout the new flat. I am told that the generally desired effect is to put the most impressive volumes in the room guests are most likely to visit. I didn't quite manage this so there are more comics on the shelf in the living room than anywhere else but hey-ho I'm sure no-one will really mind, they will at least get a farily honest appraisal of my tastes and predilictions. Next up was clothing. I managed to hang up all my clothes, leaving plenty of room for Tinseltroos' impressive wardrobe and then set about sorting out computer space in the studio/office/second bedroom. Post tramp-shock and book shelving we met up for a late lunch at Balans before Tinseltroos came back home with me to survey the mess I'd made. I cooked our first meal in the new flat: pasta with a cream, courgette, black olive and Parmesan sauce followed by one last round of unpacking before bed.

And that's pretty much where we are. There's still odds and sods in boxes; there will be the inevitable re-arranging of things we've already arranged when a better configuration suggests itself but we are pretty much moved in now. Tonight I will store the boxes of cables, art materials and whatnot in a tidier manner in the studio and then we will be in good shape for the weekend. It's tiring and boring unpacking but I love our flat and I'm so happy we've moved in together.

Done and Dusted

Well it appears that it's over. The last finals from my bit of HPatOotP were approved today and so I am done, finished and off the project bar the debriefing and archiving of assets. I should be leaping about, singing and getting roaring drunk but I'm not. You'd think 18 months of work, the last 8-9 of it very hard work indeed would be worthy of some kind of massive celebration but it was announced by a short e-mail acknowledged by those of us left on the show with a tired nod and left at that. When you start out in visual effects most of us have the idea that everyone works incredibly hard up to a deadline, the project is delivered and on the crest of a wave of achievement you all go to the pub. Except it never seems to happen like that. The project finishes a bit at a time, many people will already be on other shows as keeping a whole crew on stand-by to look after the last few stragglers is unnecessary, so it tends to be the few members of the core team who are left and they tend to be the most tired.

My current emotion is very similar to those war veterans who have a melancholic depression following their discharge as though they don't quite remember what they used to do before they went off to fight. This film has been so consuming of my time and energy for such a long period of time that having my life back is a very strange feeling. There are so many friends I haven't seen for weeks or months, so many activities I've missed out on that I should be delirious, but much in the manner of the mole poking his nose out of his burrow, still woozy from a long hibernation, it's going to take a little while to get my bearings and put my feet back on the ground.

Looking back I'm sad that the work doesn't look better than it does. There are a host of reasons for that which it would be impolitic to discuss here but, suffice to say, without much work and many late nights it would have been a great deal worse. No-one's going to get sued but I don't think it'll win many awards either. I suppose that's another reason for the malaise, given what we put in I wish we'd got more out. Ho hum, at least it seems it's done at last. And with that I'm off to bed.

Felix Meet World, World Meet Felix

So it turns out that my lovely friend Jelly didn't have trapped wind for nine months, in fact she's just had a baby. Born in Melbourne last night, little Felix weighed 3.7 kg or 8lbs 2ozs in old money. Jelly and Bradlington must be pretty thrilled. Bless their little faces. All my friends seem to be growing up, it's a little unnerving but I'm so excited for them.