14/09/17
VFX Grads Work On Architects’ Latest Video
We recently caught up with Futureworks’ VFX Grad Katie Bates to ask her about her latest film project. Katie and fellow Grads Dan Browne, Oliver Bates and Emma Bates have recently finished creating the VFX for the latest music video from the British metalcore band, Architects.
How did the project come about?
“In June I was contacted through Linked in by the director Stuart Birchall, who asked me if I could do some VFX work on one of his projects. It was a few VFX shots for a Thai-based heavy metal band. I was quite busy working at Space Digital at the time but didn’t want to pass up on this exciting opportunity so I decided to get some more VFX artists involved and divide the work up between us. Luckily I had made a lot of contacts during my three years studying 3D VFX at Futureworks so I had lots of people I could get in touch with. The team consisted of me, Dan Browne, Oliver Bates and Emma Bates. After being pleased with the work we did for this project Stuart contacted me again in July to discuss working on the new Architects music video. This was a special project for the band as it was a tribute to their founding member, Tom Searle, who they tragically lost last year. The band wanted the video to be released very close to the anniversary of Tom’s passing, so after chatting through all of Stuart’s ideas and being given the deadline of the end of August I decided to get the team involved again to work with me on this project too.”
How did you prepare for the shoot?
“We started preparing VFX assets very early on in the project, a lot of the shots Stuart wanted us to create were set in space, so we started researching the different ways space was represented in films. From this research and some discussion with the director we decided to go for an organic style and use ink drop footage to create these shots. In order to get ultimate control of these elements we decided to film the ink drops ourselves. To do this we hired a Red-Scarlet W, allowing us to record the ink in 4K at 120 frames per second.”
What was the process?
“The band shots were filmed at the start of August. On the filming day me and Dan headed down to London to supervise as it was a fully green screen shoot. This was a great experience and allowed us to get the best possible shots to work with. Then came the mammoth task of doing the bulk of the work. In total there were 174 visual effects shots in the video. We worked closely with the director throughout August to achieve the visuals that he had in mind, and we managed to complete all the VFX by the end of the month.”
How was the feedback?
“After the video was released we were amazed to see it reach one million views across all social platforms within 24 hours! After seeing all the great feedback and unbelievable response from the fans we put together a VFX breakdown, which can be found on our website wilddragonvfx.com”
What’s next?
“We’ve got a couple more projects lined up to keep us busy. At the moment we’re in the process of setting up our company ‘Wild Dragon’. We’re hoping this will allow us to become more accessible to clients and allow us to take on even bigger projects in the future.” – Katie Bates, Futureworks VFX Graduate
All VFX assets were shot at the Futureworks Studios campus based in Media City. If you’re interested in our school of Film, Television and Media and would like to follow in the footsteps of graduates like Katie then head to our website for more information on our VFX/film/TV degrees.