vfx blog

Tomorrow is Oscar Night (sounds like the name of someone).
Unfortunately Journey 3D didn’t make it to the final 3 (as expected) but I know a handful of guys who worked on Iron Man so I guess I’ll be routing for them.
I haven’t seen Benjamin Button yet as I’ve been very busy for the past month and a half settling up here in Vancouver, but maybe I’ll find the time soon to go and if not, I guess I’ll buy it on Blu Ray and watch it on my 50″ plasma screen which arrived last week.
I managed to sell my old one back in Iceland so I bought the newer version of it over here. going from a 1:10000 to a 1:30000 ratio in contrast is really nice. Finally the blacks that I’ve always wanted.

Anyways, I guess I’ll be watching the Oscars on it tomorrow and see what happens.

I should have written about this almost 2 weeks ago, but I’ve been busy and lazy I guess.

Two weeks ago I attended Spark FX ‘09 here in Vancouver. It was a 5 day thing with speakers and classic VFX films shown during the evenings. I only went on the Friday night and Saturday morning to see Dennis Muren himself. I was pretty psyched about seeing him as he worked on the films that made me want to do what I do for a living and on Friday night he introduced Terminator 2, Judgment Day, one of my all time favorites.
What he had to say was interesting and fun to hear… short stories about what was done and how they did it. Then the movie started and it was great to sit in a darkened theater with a bunch of VFX geeks watching a movie we had all seen million times before.

On Saturday morning I went to the Dennis Muren Speaker session where he talked about the things that make up a good VFX shot. It was very interesting and I took a lot of what he said with me to work on Monday and I think my shots got slightly better!
Dennis spoke for good 2 hours and then took some Q&A which continued after he left the auditorium. He was very generous with his time and knowledge and it was a blast to meet one of my heroes.

The second event that Saturday morning was a session with Shane Mahan. For those who don’t know, he has been working for Stan Winston Studios (now Legacy Studios) since the begining with the original Terminator movie, Aliens, Jurassic Park and Iron Man to name a few. And for those who don’t know, I actually started my VFX career doing make-up effects, so yet again I got a chance to meet one of my heroes. Shane’s talk was a lot of fun and mostly funny stories about how things ended up looking like they did or funny stories from the set.

There were a lot of great speakers lined up, one of them even from Frantic Films, and I would have loved to go to each and every one of them, but we were still settling in so I just went to very specially selected events and I had a blast!

Now I can cross out one of the things on my to do list…. Meet Dennis Muren…. check!

Even though it’s old news, Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D, the film I worked on with Frantic, has just got into the semi finals for the Oscar nomination.
What happens is that films get picked and then they narrow it down to who gets the nomination. So Journey 3D is in the last group before the actual nomination. The nominations will be announced on January 22nd.

Here’s the link to the official press release.

Even though I don’t think we have a shot at the Oscar it’s cool to know it made it that far. It means that my work is almost Oscar worthy!

Once again I find myself in Vancouver…. but this time I’m not alone and I’m here to stay…. for now at least.

The past couple of months have been crazy, especially the first few days of the new year. We decided to pause everything during the holidays to give Brynjar a sense of Christmas without the hassle of packing and worrying about moving. That meant of course that we had to fast forward everything when we began and we packed our apartment in 3 days!! Some of the stuff we sent to Vancouver (still not here though) and some went to storage in Iceland.

I’ve done my first week at work (Frantic Films for those who don’t know) and it feels good to be back. Our house is big and empty, but we managed to get ourselves a dining table and chairs. Before that we sat in the stairs and ate there. Right now there are renovations going on in the house…. guys painting and fixing some stuff that should have been done before we arrived, but I guess it’s better to have it fixed while we’re there than not at all.

One of the things that I’m very happy about are the opportunities in a city like Vancouver. For instance I’ll be attending a visual effects film festival held here in Vancouver where people like Dennis Muren and Shane Mahan will be speaking. I’ll even go to a screening of Terminator 2 where Dennis will be talking about the work done there. I’m super excited as T2 was one of the films that made me decide that visual effects was what I wanted to do. This is next weekend so stay tuned for more news when I’ve been there.

I’m back in Iceland for now.
I’m happy to report that I’ve found a house for my family in Vancouver and I’ve signed a contract with Frantic Films again.
So in January 2009 we’ll all be heading out to Vancouver to live there for a while. The timing is great as many of you know the financial situation in Iceland is pretty bad.

The plan is to stay in Canada for some time to begin with… see how we like it and then maybe stay a bit longer. I don’t think we’ll be moving out there permanently but we will stay a few years I suppose. The house I found is perfect for us. It’s quite big, but I think we’ll be needing the extra room for friends and family when they come to visit.

I guess I won’t be writing a lot before we move as there is a lot that needs to be done. Moving a family of 4 across the ocean is not a small feat. Deciding what stays, what goes and what will be thrown away is what I’ll be doing for the next few weeks.

I spoke with my family not too long ago and my little girl Matthildur has strated to laugh.
Her brother Brynjar was doing some crazy dancing when she started to laugh at him. Now, she’s only 3 months old, but it was the cutest thing I’ve seen in a long time. In 2 weeks I´ll be with them all again and I’ll experience it first hand…. I can’t wait.

Well, I find myself once again in Canada…. Vancouver to be exact.
It looks like we’ll be moving out here for a while, and I’m here on my own looking for the right place to live with my family.
I’ve seen quite a few places but still haven’t found the perfect one yet. I guess there’s no rush as I’ll be here for at least 3 more weeks.
Like always it’s hard to be away from the family, especially with a 3 months old girl back home, but I miss them all.
The good about being here is seeing old friends again. Rui is still with Frantic at the Vancouver office and David is still at The Embassy. I’ve met up with them both and I hope to see more of them before I leave again to Iceland.

My wife is a hero staying at home with both of our kids. I don’t know how she does it, but somehow she holds the fort at home and waits for the lone soldier to come back. I can’t wait.

I quietly updated my showreel only a few days before my wedding.
I had received some of my shots from Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D and I decided to put them in as I’m currently on the lookout for my next project.
I’m talking with several companies scattered across the world…. two in Vancouver, two in London and one in Denmark.
Things are still just on the talk stage, but be sure that I’ll give updates on how it goes.

Here’s a link to my updated showreel.

Today is my birthday.
Today also happens to be the premiere of Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D here in Iceland.
The Icelandic production company that oversaw filming here in Iceland is True North and I happen to know a few good people over there since I worked on Flags of Our Fathers, and some I know since I worked at Storm.
Anyways, the good people over there managed to get me tickets to the premiere, since it is my birthday and I happened to work on this movie.

Who knew I’d have a kid and get married before actually seeing this movie.

So tonight I’ll be at the premiere where Anita Briem will be attending. She is the lead actress and also happens to be Icelandic.Go Iceland!!

P.s. I’m 32 today.