Output details

The Visual Effects Research Lab, 'Visual Effects For Artists' : [Series of four commissioned films: 'Olympia' (Wendy McMurdo), 5 minutes, 'Digital Cinema' (4K), 'Eagle' (Rory Middleton), 2 minutes Hi-Definition; 'Lolcats' (Rachel McLean)10 minutes Hi-Definition; 'Trail of Tears' (Reid and Roger),10 minutes Hi-Definition.]

VERL and Creative Scotland commissioned four Scottish based artists to develop new innovative digital films.

As Principal Investigator my research centred around developing innovative methods to enable artists to use prohibitively expensive technologies hitherto reserved for high end commercial film makers. The research consisted of devising new workflow methodologies that enabled artists to draw upon photo-realistic post production processes and apply them to speculative, curiosity-driven film projects. The widespread application of these research methods can be seen in the seamless integration of computer generated imagery into pre-shot live action sequences as evidenced, for example, in 'Olympia's' use of CGI to overcome the mechanical limitations of a real animatronic hand to create a filmicly-convincing image of reality. In 'The Eagle', the team I directed used real landscape footage and then built a CGI house which was combined with a real and CGI eagle crashing through a CGI plate-glass window; in 'LolCats' the artist/narrator retells popular folkloric tales whilst interacting with surrealist-inspired CGI environments.

The research produced new paradigms for artists' digital film production which were disseminated throughout the community of researchers and practitioners via conference presentations, published papers and screenings. The impact of the project is exemplified by the team's commission by government agencies, Screen South in the UK and Film Fyn in Denmark to produce a new project with European filmmakers.

I conceived the workflow methodologies and managed the primary research with VERL researchers, external experts and Masters students acting as technical operators of the technologies. In my role as producer I then budgeted, hired external experts, tasked, oversaw and managed the five shoots. Acting as post production producer, I conceived, designed and oversaw the visual effects sequences. The completed films form a package which was screened across Europe at various venues during 2012 and 2013.