So that’s a wrap on Jack the Giant Killer, well at least on second unit – they’re still soldiering on over on main unit. I think it could be a pretty good film (at least the VFX will be!) check it out here http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1351685/. It's due out next year and I cant wait to see the finished product.
I had so much fun on the movie but I’m glad of the rest I can have now! It was my first job as a data wrangler and the leaning curve was, how should I say, steep?! My job basically involved collecting lots of camera data i.e. camera tilt and height; lens info; the T stop; focal distances as well as a couple of other measurements. I worked with a fantastic team mainly from Digital Domain, http://www.d2.com/, who have taught me a hell of a lot about the job and how to do it well. Best of all though I managed to get a couple of free hats out of it! I'm easily impressed.
The film is the first one that I've worked on to be actually shot in 3D with RED Epic cams. Now apart from the fact that they broke down literally every single day, I was mightily impressed with the quality of the images that it produces as well as the 3D that the pair of cameras create and how you can watch the 3D images come in over the monitors live! The camera set ups were quite complex involving mirrors and moving parts and it's far to complicated to put here. It's not that I don't fully understand it. Honestly.
We did 52 days on second unit including a week of night shoots, which were fun… I went through so many coffees I lost track, and as for snacks from craft? I think the caterers have had to reassess their bill!
The production was based down at Longcross studios but we also had some great locations. We spent a week at Stratfield Saye, the county estate of the Duke of Wellington no less, which basically involved getting horrifically sunburnt on the first day and then having to spend the rest of the week chasing a camera car and 20 horses up and down what felt like the biggest hill in the world in 30 degree heat. We also spent time over at the Hampton estate which is beautiful. This is where the night shoots took place and where apparently arctic conditions descend by about 11pm every night until 6am in the morning!
My favourite place to shoot was back at the studios out on the skid pan as there were a couple of really fantastic sets. Unfortunately I can't really say much about it until the film is released but take my word for it, they were both very impressive.
The whole cast and crew were great fun to work with and very professional. The VFX team was a veritable who's who of VFX personnel. The supervisor was, quite frankly, a genius. Hoyt Yeatman has been in the business for over 30 years and has even directed his own big budget VFX film G-Force. Anything he doesn't know about how the industry works isn't worth knowing. Seriously he is like a font of worldly facts, spewing forth information that you didn't even dream of thinking of. We also had people who had worked on some of the biggest films for the past decade: Lord of the Rings; King King; Avatar; Transformers and Pirates of the Caribbean to name just a few!
As well as meeting all these great people and learning so much from them we also had a great time making the movie (there were a few off days but we wont go into that here!).
Right, well I guess the only thing to do now is to hold tight until the trailer comes out later this year.
Time for a well earned drink I think.
Dan
