VFX Bake-off

I drove down to LA with my friend Sam for the visual effects “bake-off”, which is the process of determining the three official visual effects academy awards nominees from the long list of seven.  Each film presents a 15 minute reel along with an introduction and questions.

This year the long list consisted of “Avatar”, “Harry Potter”, “Transformers 2”, “District 9”, “Terminator 3”, “Star Trek”, and “2012”.

I-5 was closed near the grapevine, so we had to take the longer 101 route which got us into LA just before the presentations were beginning at 7pm.  As fortune would have it, there was a parking space across from the theatre, and at the entrance we happened upon  our Weta supervisor Joe Letteri - who  greeted us by name and extended his hand with a smile.  The stars we in alignment that night.

A couple other friends had reserved front row seats for us, so we dashed towards the front of the theatre - shaking hands with various friends and co-workers from days past…

There was really great work this year.  While I hated 2012, I really have to give a lot of credit to the guys that worked on this.  District 9 had another impressive presentation - their budget of $30 million looked more like $100 million, and you could tell people were both awed and frightened by this accompishment.

Avatar is presumed to win by almost everyone and Joe’s presentation was flawless.

So those will be the three nominees this year I believe.

As a member of the visual effects society, I do vote for awards but not for the academy bake-off.  Its just a fun event where you can see everyone in the industry, as Siggraph has become in a way.   So, afterwards it was off to drinks and dinner and fun, playing the Hollywood game which can be pleasant in small doses.

Three days is my definition of small dose, so I flew back up Saturday at 6am, just in time to meet my running group at 8:30 and complete my six mile run with them.