Framestore has completed three ad spots for three different companies:
NO RESTRICTIONS is a beautiful, exuberant new spot created for South African telecommunications company, Neotel. Designed to emphasize the freedom from the old restrictions that the company can offer its clients, the spot takes human (and animal) icons from South African prohibition signs and liberates them via some CG animation.
Framestore was one of only a handful of digital effects studios chosen to work on THE DARK KNIGHT by director Christopher Nolan, who notoriously prefers to work in-camera and practically as much as possible, turning to digital effects only when they offer him otherwise unachievable and un-improvable results. Framestore's shots for the film encompassed matte paintings, digital doubles (including a CG Batman), vehicles, crowds, and the highly sensitive Harvey Dent/Two-Face CG work.
Anyone near the Southbank on the evening of March 27 would have noticed something special going on at Tate Modern as Lord Puttnam hosted the Escape Awards 2008 in partnership with Autodesk and AMD.
Key players from some of the biggest companies in Visual Effects, Games and Design Visualization were on hand to rub shoulders, enjoy a few cocktails and admire the stunning view.
However, there was also some serious business to be done as everybody was eager to hear who would take the top spots across the eight award categories.
Framestore CFC, who created the vfx for THE GOLDEN COMPASS (and won an Oscar doing it), is wading into film production, VARIETY reports.
The new Framestore Features is getting behind Richard Linklater's ME AND ORSON WELLES, shooting now on the Isle of Man, supernatural thriller TRIANGLE from Chris Smith and five genre movies from Generator Entertainment, an new Irish house.
Framestore will executive produce, but will also serve as technical advisor on films that normally can't afford fancy vfx.
Framestore CFC used MAXON's award-winning BodyPaint 3D texture painting software on New Line Cinema's THE GOLDEN COMPASS.
Framestore CFC created various CG characters, most notably the armored polar bears. MAXON's BodyPaint 3D was used for painting texture maps for the bears and their armor, plus props, digital doubles and environments.
REALVIZ will be joining U.S. reseller partner Simulistic on Dec. 7 at the Reston Multiplex Cinema in Reston, Virginia, for a special screening of New Line's THE GOLDEN COMPASS.
Prior to the film, there will presentations on the latest in 3D technology from REALVIZ and a select group of other software vendors, as well as the opportunity to meet with local Autodesk Maya, Autodesk 3ds Max and Autodesk MotionBuilder users from the greater Washington, DC area.
A Russian fishing trawler trudges through a foggy, mill-pond flat sea. A work-stained fisherman on a break takes a last swig of his drink and reflexively crushes the can and hurls it into the sea. He turns and starts to walk away when the can flies back out of the water, hitting him. He peers into a now roiling ocean, and sees mysterious objects glittering and moving beneath the surface.
Not so long ago, auto insurance company Geico and ad agency The Martin Agency approached animation and effects company Framestore NY to draw on the 3D talents behind such projects as WALKING WITH DINOSAURS, DINOTOPIA and HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE and "reinterpret" the already-beloved Geico Gecko mascot.
Framestore CFC not only collaborated on CASINO ROYALE'S stunning title sequence, working with title designer Daniel Kleinman, but also provided the film's full digital mastergrade.
CASINO ROYALE, the 21st film in the 44-year-old James Bond franchise, set an opening day franchise record of $3.3M in the U.K. on Nov. 16 and bows Nov. 17 domestically through Sony/MGM. It marks the debut of Daniel Craig as the sixth 007.
For CHILDREN OF MEN (opening Christmas Day through Universal Pictures), director Alfonso Cuarón approached Framestore CFC to handle the film's most challenging single vfx element: a CG baby, which is first seen actually being delivered.
Framestore CFC's animators have created some new characters for the new Vauxhall spots, FOLLOW THAT CAR and GET UP & GO. Created by agency DLKW, directed by Dom and Nic and produced by John Madsen for Outsider, the two :40 spots begin airing in the U.K. this week.
Framestore CFC has named U.K. Film Council commissioner Steve Norris md of its film division, reports THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.
Norris has held the lead Film Council post since 1997, overseeing a period in which more than 200 international films with budgets totaling around $6 billion were filmed in U.K., including several vfx heavy productions such as the HARRY POTTER franchise.
London-based Framestore CFC and Moving Picture Co. (MPC) will be the lead vfx houses on THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA sequel, PRINCE CASPIAN (a summer 2008 release from Disneys Buena Vista), reports IGNFILMFORCE and confirmed by the production company. Dean Wright resumes overall vfx supervision. Framestore and MPC have worked on several Hollywood franchises, including HARRY POTTER and X-MEN, and are among several London vfx houses that have recently expanded their 3D character animation.
Framestore CFC has hired Camille Eden as 3D resource manager. With more than 12 years of experience in film, television and visual effects production, will oversee the care and management of the company's flourishing 3D team members, including 3D artists, lighting and technical directors.
Framestore CFC has welcomed back Andy Lomas to the newly expanded post of head of CG, which will encompass features, commercials and longform TV.
Lomas returns at a significant time for Framestore CFC, with the recent announcement of the company's move into feature animation production (THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX) and the need to optimize CG work.
Framestore CFC created the ethereal and lovely vfx for CLOUDS, a new spot for British Airways. Made by Ed Edwards and Dave Masterman at BBH, and directed by Daniel Kleinman for Kleinman Prods., the spot is currently appearing in :30 and :40 versions in markets that include the U.K., the Middle East and Africa.
Iridas has sold two seats of FrameCycler DI to Framestore CFC. The application provides disk-based, full-resolution playback; conform of Edit Decision Lists (EDLs) for online review of the editors' work; primary color grading for look development; and Iridas' new ReviewLink technology for interactive review session from multiple locations.
Framestore CFC has announced the formation of Framestore Feature Animation. Heading the new venture will be David Lipman, who joins the company as managing partner after eight years at DreamWorks Animation, where his roles included producer on SHREK 2 and co-exec producer on SHREK.
Alain Bielik chats with Framestore CFC and Double Negative about creating the character animation and environmental vfx, respectively, in Doom.
Framestore CFC was honored when Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles (CITY OF GOD) and cinematographer César Charlone brought political thriller THE CONSTANT GARDENER to their London premises. In addition to providing some 35 VFX shots, including the creation of the fire elements for a burning village, Framestore CFC created the film's Digital Intermediate.
If you had to find a new way to represent the raw energy, the elemental skills and the essence of the combat that takes place on a football field, how would you go about it? How about removing the ground altogether, leaving only the lines that define the playing area? Then recreate these lines as metallic rails suspended in a dark but spot lit space. Then have a set of top players demonstrating their extreme talents while running and jumping along these rails.
Framestore NY has completed work on POETRY, a :30 spot for GMCs new Envoy Denali via agency Carol H. Williams. POETRY, which develops around the visual motif of materializing fantasies, features underground hip hop artist Mos Def and began airing May 7.
The promo for the latest Chemical Brothers single, Believe, which premiered last month on MTV, offers an unnerving and blackly humorous glimpse of a mind at the end of its tether. Directed by Dom & Nic, and produced by John Madsen for Factory Films, BELIEVE features artful 3D and compositing work from the Framestore CFC Commercials team.
From their gleaming new space in Manhattans SoHo neighborhood, Framestore NYs team of artists recently manifested WORKDAY and TRIPLETS, new visual effects-driven spots in the ongoing high-profile Cingular Wireless More Bars in More Places campaign.
Framestore NY has completed work on an artful :30 spot for BBH NY: Baileys BUBBLE, directed by Kathryn Bigelow (POINT BREAK, STRANGE DAYS) and lensed by Janusz Kaminski (SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, SCHINDLER'S LIST). It's a expert example of the sort of work that Framestore NY has been creating for nearly a year now from its SoHo, New York City premises.
