…Wants to be a VFX Artist
Another film I spent a little time working on has had the trailer released. I’ve been charmed by Fantastic Mr Fox ever since I first saw the models. I think it’s looking great!
This is the first time some of my work has been used in a Feature Film Trailer. The very first shot is one of mine. Awesome! Can’t wait to see the whole thing, it opens at the London Film Festival later this year.
-Matt
A couple of weeks back I twittered that I was up to something absolutely ridiculously epic, and that no one would guess what it was in a million years.
I was spending a day at sprout design doing compositing work on the Dinosaurs into Top Gear. Pretty Fun! I sneakily stole these images via the BBC Iplayer - if you want to watch it’s Season 13 Episode 6.
Awaiting clearance for my showreel - though those who have been asking, the Dinosaurs are all on-set animatronics/people in suits (These are the same dinos as walking with Dinosaurs) with digital work being done to remove peoples legs or in the case of the T-Rex, a support system which rolls underneath it. The work was quite fiddly - and the end result imperfect as most outdoor shots were shot through a fence, providing poor reference to use to patch with. Though overall I felt they were nicely graded and snappily edited into the show, fitting them in nicely.
Fingers crossed I’ll be cleared to show some breakdowns, though I won’t have time to edit anything together for a while. And I may never get clearance. So we’ll see!
-Matt
Lately I’ve been really busy, in the most fantastic of ways. A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to work on the Dead Weather music video for ‘Treat Me Like Your Mother’ directed by Jonathan Glazer which was a fantastic experience.
I’m still very busy though some things will have to remain secret until trailers/release!
-Matt
Matt Plummer Compositing ShowReel Q1 2009 from Matt W.B. Plummer on Vimeo.
It’s been a while, I’ve just had a very exciting 6 months working (finally!) in the film industry. Having a chance to get my hands dirty has been fantastic, but it didn’t leave me much time for much else. I am planning to rehaul the site and rebrand the showreel in the near future. In the meantime, here’s my latest.
-Matt
At the start of this month, The Hunt for Gollum was released and I was finally able to start getting some breakdowns ready for my reel! The whole film is available to watch for free online over here on dailymotion.
There’s some stellar VFX work in there all created by amateur and junior artists like myself. I’m really proud to have been involved.
I also finally found a use for the lovely reconcile3D node…
‘OMG’, is an Ashley Wing Short film about one mans quest to find mobile phone signal and continue his conversation which I’ve just finished 10 VFX Shots for. The nature of the work involved lots of screen tracking & replacement on the mobile phone and then adding in some phone towers.
The film now goes into audio and grading, more news when it happens over on Ash’s site, here.
-Matt
For around a month I set about re-coding and restructuring Slack Alice Film’s website. It’s been a pretty mammoth task and I’m looking to solve a couple of smaller problems, though the site is now live. You can check it out here.
Whew. Top guys over there.
-Matt
Being completely honest - it seems that I am eternally unhappy with my showreel efforts yet forever lacking the time to really throw at creating something I am thoroughly pleased with, so behold : Something I am unhappy in moderate amounts with over on my home page.
Slightly retimed elements and applied a new shot transition to the entire reel in order to theme it a little better, better documented the beauty work for Fletcher Wilson and added the most tricky shot I did on NightShift.
In the future, I’d like to finish and add some of the FXPHD coursework I’ve done - and whilst I usually tend to stick to using non-tutorial work I think I’ve deviated far enough from the norm (what is on everyone elses fxphd reels) to justify their use.
Will also sort out the breakdown on the final shot at some stage over the next two weeks and silently update it, as well as swap out the current track with the slightly unsightly stock effect spark with the one that was used in the film.
*breathes*
It will be done, oh yes. it will be done.
‘Poppies’ by Ashley Wing - a film which features a flashback sequence on which I composited additional smoke, atmosphere and gunfire effects into, has recently been featured over on the BBC’s website here.
I’ve always believed Poppies to be a visually cool as well as poetically touching short. Hopefully the exposure serves Ash well!
When I haven’t posted for a while, it’d be easy to assume I’ve been away from Visual Effects for a little while - which is as always, the complete opposite of the truth. 
A while ago I announced I was working as a Compositor (and although I don’t like to say it, VFX Supervisor) on a micro-budget pseudo-sci-fi short. I say pseudo because having seen the film I noticed it has very little sci-fi about it other than being set on another planet.
Around the same time as this I started working as a Compositor on another short, this time by the well established editor Mark Hawtin on his film ‘NightShift’. A cool little action film. I handled some motion tracking and in-screen displays for the film, I think a total of around 20-25 shots which I only finished recently.
It’s been a real pleasure working with Mark, not only because he’s a genuinely nice guy - but also because his years of working as an editor have given him a greater appreciation of how good organisation really saves a lot of time when it comes to bringing other people in on your project. In short - the work was without any problems, fun. I hope to work with Mark again next year, although likely in a more heavyweight capacity. More on that when it happens.
After that I spent some time paid to comp in some general war visual effects on the short film ‘Picture the Past’ by director Peter Christopher Harmer, a nice little war story acted by grandchildren of men who fought. A cool little project.
Right now - what I’m up to is secret, though also takes up a large amount of my time and energy. Getting work done on the sci-fi film is going slow and as a result we’ve extended our deadlines. There is still a whole lot to do and as a result I have to admit that I am still a social caterpillar.
But that’s alright, I quite like this kind of craziness.
-Matt