Dark Shadows and Method Studios

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| June 1, 2012 | 5:13 pm or 5:13 pm GMT

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from the Art of VFX article:

What is your background?
I started making movies as a kid, my father owned a video camera, the kind where the tape was housed in a separate machine you hung off your shoulder. I made sketches and sent them in to the BBC with my friends and a youth club that I was part of. I still have the videos and I think they are pretty good! The BBC always wrote back and said they were grateful to me for sending them, as they needed VHS tapes to keep the door to the toilet open on hot summer days.

I was always interested in movie making, and where I lived, a small film studio called Oxford Scientific Films shot time-lapse and other types of special effects photography for films, tv shows and commercials. I wrote to them countless times, eventually getting a chance to work there as a runner. At the same time I was doing a degree in visual communication and design in London, and managed to get on to the moving-image course, which boasted a Harry and a HAL. (Those modern types reading this will need to consult the interweb to work out what they were!) Think Nuke with all it’s arms and legs cut off, both eyes poked out and a sock in the mouth covered in paint thinner. But back then it was state of the art and it was a brilliant opportunity to get from our degree in to the industry.

After the degree, I went and worked at Quantel, from there to Los Angeles to a great boutique called Digital Muse. I was running the compositing department there in LA for about 5 years, before moving up to Vancouver to be the senior compositor at Rainmaker. A few years later and I made the mystical transition to VFX Supervisor and over saw a few small TV shows before supervising features.

How did Method Studios get involved on this film?
We have worked with vfx supervisor Angus Bickerton before, and he contacted us to bid shots for the film.

How was the collaboration with director Tim Burton?
I only spent a little time in person with Tim on set during the shoot of our visual effects plates. Shoots are manicured craziness and most of the “collaboration” was between Angus and myself.

What was his approach about visual effects?
Angus has a very organized and developed style of film making, always preferring to plan ahead, rather than shoot from the hip. The style seemed to work very well on this movie, allowing Tim to shoot the movie he wanted to make, but allow Angus the freedom to shoot the visual effects correctly.

How did you collaborates with Production VFX Supervisor Angus Bickerton?
Having worked with Angus on several films prior to DARK SHADOWS, we have developed and are continuing to develop continuity in the ways we both like to work. We both love to target the preparation of any visual effects shot, whether that be in previs, or just experimental effects work, trying to come up with a look that will drive a procedure or way of shooting it on set.

What have you done on this movie?
We created the environment of Collinsport (both for 1750 and 1972), a sleep east coast Maine town. We also created a couple of unique scenes where Barnabus walks down a mirrored hallway, showing for the first time how he does not reflect. We also did a sequence where Victoria Winters arrives at Collinsport by train, creating both the train, platform and environment in CG.

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Categories:

• Visual Effects

Tags:

• dark shadows
• mark breakspear
• method studios