An alien life force merging with two scientists; backdrops of Sherlock Holmes-era London, Paris and Germany; and a giant train explosion have landed award nominations for two Vancouver visual effects (VFX) studios.
Vancouver-based Image Engine Design Inc. and the Vancouver studio of London-based Moving Picture Co. (MPC) have been nominated for Visual Effects Society (VES) awards, which will be awarded February 7.
Image Engine landed the nomination for its work on The Thing, in the category of outstanding animated character in a live action feature motion picture.
MPC has been nominated for work on Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and Source Code – both in the category of outstanding supporting visual effects in a feature motion picture.
Jason Dowdeswell, Image Engine’s head of studio, said the VFX community follows the peer-selected VES awards wins even more closely than the Academy Awards.
“There’s a lot more scrutiny [from the VFX community] because it’s the community that’s voting essentially, whereas with the Academy it’s everyone in the Academy – from actors to directors, the whole gang,” he said. “This is purely just visual effects.”
Dowdeswell said landing a VES nomination can be a key boost for a VFX company. He cited the business gain Image Engine saw from its previous VES recognitions: three nominations and one award for the company’s 2010 work on District 9.
“That was kind of the first project that put us on the map,” he said.
He added that getting nominated again is no less significant for the company.
“You always run the risk of people wondering if you’re a one-hit wonder,” he said. “So the fact that we’ve been nominated again for more creature work just reiterates the point that Image Engine is a successful animation shop for visual effects.”
Michelle Grady, head of film and top of the food chain at MPC’s Vancouver studio, maintained that “the Oscars” are still the ultimate accolade in the industry. But she said VES recognition can boost studios’ stock in the VFX community and help them land the key talent they rely on.
“We work on attracting talent all day every day; It’s our single biggest challenge ... and knowing that therefore you’re going to land good-quality projects is exactly what we’re targeting [to attract talent].”
For both companies, the nominations recognize ambitious projects.
Dowdeswell said that for The Thing, Image Engine built a creature that was in constant transformation – the Edvard/Adam character, in which an alien life force takes over a scientist and then merges with a second scientist.
“It’s a crazy-looking creature: two heads, eight legs and dangerous,” he said. “But it wasn’t just that we were building a character; we had to constantly, through its sequence, evolve it. And that meant a lot of complications and challenges for all our departments.”
Grady said that for Sherlock Holmes, the sheer volume of work – 400 shots – made the project challenging.
Doug Oddy, MPC’s producer for both of the company’s nominated projects, explained that the Sherlock Holmes project involved creating accurate depictions of London, Paris and industrial Germany at the turn of the 20th century.
For Source Code, he said, MPC worked on a train explosion sequence that gets repeated throughout the film.
“It was the single most important visual effects component of the film from my standpoint,” he said.
This is the first VES nomination for MPC’s Vancouver studio. •
