"Star Trek" Fun

The banner image for Gizmodo's review of "Star Trek."

Here's an excerpt from a Gizmodo article titled, 'J.J. Abrams Admits Star Trek Lens Flares Are "Ridiculous"'

I'm curious to hear more about why you decided to use so many lens flares, and exactly when you decided to use them?

[Smiles] I don't know what you're talking about. [Laughs] I'm kidding. I know what you're saying with the lens flares. It was one of those things... I wanted a visual system that felt unique. I know there are certain shots where even I watch and think, "Oh that's ridiculous, that was too many." But I love the idea that the future was so bright it couldn't be contained in the frame.

The flares weren't just happening from on-camera light sources, they were happening off camera, and that was really the key to it. I want [to create] the sense that, just off camera, something spectacular is happening. There was always a sense of something, and also there is a really cool organic layer thats a quality of it... There are something about those flares, especially in a movie that can potentially be very sterile and CG and overly controlled. There is something incredibly unpredictable and gorgeous about them. It is a really fun thing. Our DP would be off camera with this incredibly powerful flashlight aiming it at the lens. It became an art because different lenses required angles, and different proximity to the lens. Sometimes, when we were outside we'd use mirrors. Certain sizes were too big... literally, it was ridiculous. It was like another actor in the scene.

We had two cameras, so sometimes we had two different spotlight operators. When there was atmosphere in the room, you had to be really careful because you could see the beams. So it was this ridiculous, added level of pain in the ass, but I love... [looking at] the final cut, [the flares] to me, were a fun additional touch that I think, while overdone, in some places, it feels like the future is that bright.

(To learn more about the lens flares from "Star Trek," click here and here.)

Here's a clever video that mixes the "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" worlds, from current.com titled "Starship Enterprise Destroyed by the Death Star."



Another clever video, bringing the original series visually up-to-date with J.J. Abrams' film, from YouTube user 'partmor':



Finally, a hilarious video (that requires multiple viewings) from The Onion, with the headline, "Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film as 'Fun, Watchable.'"


Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As 'Fun, Watchable'

Movie Marketing is Hard! "True Blood" and "Jennifer's Body"

Another in our Movie Marketing Is Hard! series.
Okay, so "True Blood" is not actually a feature film (it's the Alan Ball series on HBO), but the studio used this one-sheet as a prominent part of their publicity campaign. The series debuted in 2008, and the Megan Fox starrer "Jennifer's Body" comes to theaters later in 2009.

The posters are essentially dead ringers for one another, with the slight exception of one storytelling element: the "True Blood" poster features a subtle vampire fang, while "Jennifer's Body" has no such fang (since the film is about cannibalism, not vampires). But the similarities in overall composition, framing, color scheme, the heavy lipstick, tongue lick and blood drip are groanworthy.

Thanks to Alessandro for the tip!

Millimeter Magzine: Back On Trek

Millimeter Magazine recently posted a really nice article about the making of "Star Trek," with an emphasis on the cinematography, visual effects design, and the digital intermediate color timing process. As part of a discussion about the photographic style of the film, director J.J. Abrams, cinematographer Dan Mindel and visual effects supervisor Roger Guyett talked about the use of lens flares in the film. As a sequence supervisor at Industrial Light & Magic, one of my duties on "Star Trek" was to create synthetic lens flare aberrations for our visual effects shots that matched stylistically and technically with the first unit photography.

We used flares in "Star Trek" as a storytelling device in a way that has never been done before. The great thing is that J.J., Roger and I were on the same visual wavelength in terms of how, when and why to create the flaring aberrations in the film. The flares give the film a unique flavor of spontaneity and intensity, paradoxically giving the film a documentary-style grittiness, as well as a fanciful, otherworldly, abstract quality. I'll let them explain:

[The] technique was the strategic plan to build camera lens flares into the photography. For a sci-fi space film—or any film these days—that aesthetic is extremely rare, since filmmakers usually battle to remove flares from their photography, rather than insert them. Abrams’ and Mindel’s obsession with lens flares, however, was part of a strategic vision for the photography. The technique is so prevalent that Abrams jokes he may have designed “a future in which you’ll have to wear shades.”

“I can’t explain it with intellectual reasoning—I can just say it was important to me,” Abrams says. “Even though some people may think we went over the top with flares, I just loved that they made it feel like there was always something spectacular going on off-camera, as well as what was happening on-camera. It reminded me of the feeling I would get watching NASA footage. It might be a distraction to some people, and I apologize to them, but I loved that feeling that this was a more natural future, rather than a [stereotypical sci-fi] shiny future.”

Mindel says the approach required an attitude adjustment on the part of the camera crew. “We have been spending the last 20 to 30 years trying to take flares out,” he says. “Here, we loved the way the anamorphic lenses flare naturally, and we were told to let them happen and we even put them in when they weren’t there. Other space movies have that non-believable aspect of being photographically sterile, and they rarely allow the idiosyncratic nature of light and movement into the arena, which gives you a kind of homogenized movie. We were eager to make sure that did not happen here. We felt a degree of believability comes with the idiosyncrasies that we allowed onto the film—those aberrations on the lenses, flaring, and even a little misframing or accidents. Often, it’s accidents that go on to make up the great pieces of movie art. We felt that by allowing flares in, we would get an organic infringement into the sterile frame—adding a bit of imperfection, a degree of reality.

“We developed an interesting, low-tech technique for it. We had two guys with flashlights flaring the lens constantly. There is a real expertise to it. The hardest thing about the technique was how to keep the lamp operators out of frame since they had to play very close to the lens. The trickery comes from knowing how to flare the lens and hide behind the flare."

But the flaring technique hardly stopped once the production left the set. Mindel’s camera work served as the inspiration for the creation of artificial lens flares for many bits of hundreds of visual-effects shots. These flares were created using a proprietary system developed at ILM to match the specific aberrations of Mindel’s anamorphic lenses.

ILM Sequence Supervisor Todd Vaziri was responsible for developing the artificial lens-flare software system, which the company dubbed SunSpot. The system essentially combines off-the-shelf software, certain proprietary ILM tools, photographed elements, and several custom paint elements to painstakingly match the flares captured on the negative.

“The technique gives compositors instant, highly realistic anamorphic lens flares for our all-CG shots that are indistinguishable from real, practical flares shots by the first unit,” Guyett says. “We used it to create flares for a variety of purposes such as spotlights on the exterior of the Enterprise, lights on synthetic set extensions, the Vulcan sun, and a dwarf star featured in the film’s prologue.”

The article is available online here (free registration may be required), and in its April 2009 print edition.

Full Credits for "Star Trek"

It looks like the full credits for "Star Trek" are available online at trekmovie.com.  Scroll down to the Industrial Light & Magic section to see the names of the 300 people who worked to create the film's visual effects.

Click here to see the full credits.

Remastering "Star Trek"

I recently came across a nine-year-old article to which I contributed. Frank Garcia was looking for visual effects professionals' opinions on the idea of creating new visual effects for the original "Star Trek" episodes. The article, from January 2000, was written in the shadow of the Special Editions of the "Star Wars" trilogy and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," each of which featured newly created visual effects.


CBS Digital ultimately performed visual effects facelifts to the episodes, and has since released them on video and broadcast. You can learn everything that Paramount wants you to know about the remastered episodes at startrek.com, which features plenty of articles and before-and-after comparisons.

I contributed to the article, "Special Effects Redux," and my comments hold up surprisingly well. I'm always hesitant to read some of my old writing and interviews, (a few of the reviews on VFX HQ still make me cringe) but am happily satisfied that, in this case, I made an ounce of sense. I still am of the opinion that these 'special edition' revisits are ridiculous and purely driven by commercial concerns, rather than artistic merit.

For a discussion on contemporary visual effects and exploring the idea of recreating STAR TREK'S SFX, Fandom asked two visual effects professionals who are working in the business today for their views. First is Todd Vaziri, a noted visual special effects supervisor whose artistry can be seen in DR. DOLITTLE and XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS. He also writes extensively about the visual SFX business at his website Visual FX Headquarters. After a full briefing of Digital Stream's activities, Vaziri's feelings were mixed, just as they are with STAR WARS' special edition releases, about which he has written previously. 'As a purist, I think it's rather ridiculous,' says Vaziri. 'At a certain point you have to call a piece of art finished. And when they're done, you let it be. And you move on to a new project. You don't continually go back and fix a mistake that you may have made or retread the same ideas you had before. 'I'm very much an advocate of preserving the past and looking forward to try and create new classics. Which is the current, most accurate film? Are we going to get special editions with every film every 10 or 20 years? When a film comes out I'm assuming already 'Okay, this is the first pass, the rough draft.' '

On the other hand, Vaziri recognizes the allure of a compelling idea. 'It was such a refreshing change to see in DEEP SPACE NINE's 'Trials and Tribble-ations' the technology and the detail we can get today of the space station and the Enterprise. It was an interesting gimmick. Replacing the SFX of a single episode, that would be kinda cool. You put it on UPN and get great ratings. But to get into it for the entire series or a couple of episodes, is ridiculous.'

Vaziri also has strong feelings from an artists' point of view. 'I think of the people who toiled feverishly over the original STAR WARS, getting the shots and how revolutionary they were. The original SW shots that were replaced, they'll never be seen again!' Although Vaziri recognizes that the original STAR WARS releases will live on with DVDs and videotape, he says, 'The Special Edition is the 'final edition.' 'They made those episodes as well as they could with the money they had,' he says. 'Don't betray their efforts just because, oh, 20 or 30 years have passed and they can do it much better now.'

Asked if it is likely for Hollywood to develop a practice of replacing SFX on other iconic film or TV projects, Vaziri replies that the bottom line is economics. 'It could be profitable,' he says. 'The studio executives have to look and say, 'Are we going to spend to revamp this 30 year old film?' Studios are even reluctant to making new video transfers. They think it's not worth it. I think it will be very sparse.'


If there are any sins in Hollywood, in the way that visual special effects are produced, says Vaziri, are those projects that are spectacle over substance. 'I'm constantly pushing towards the use of SFX as a portion of the film,' he says. 'Not as a character gimmick or 'Hey! Look at me!' The best films are always about stories and characters. The SFX creates the worlds in which they live. In rare cases, the SFX are the characters, like JURASSIC PARK or THE PHANTOM MENACE where an entire character is being generated as SFX. For the most part, they should never take center stage. They shouldn't draw attention to themselves. The best SFX I've ever done are the ones people haven't noticed because they were so caught up with the film. We did about 50 or 60 visual effects for A STIR OF ECHOES, and there were only two or three that were really 'in your face.' Nobody noticed any of the other SFX. That's a big compliment because the work doesn't draw attention to itself. People don't walk out of the theater saying, 'Wow! Great SFX!' I think invisible is important.'

Contextual usage of SFX as part of the film is also very important, says Vaziri. Sinful 'spectacle over substance' effects films includes THE AVENGERS, LOST IN SPACE and GOZILLA, says Vaziri. In the case of a Digital Stream-created STAR TREK vision, Vaziri also has a problem with the forced comparison between the original and a new edition. 'That's extremely distracting. You're going to see an episode where the sets were so cheaply made that you can see a little gap on the floor and then you cut to this new, perfectly detailed CGI SFX shot? It totally does not fit within the context of the film! It takes you out of the film and draws attention to itself. If new SFX are made for 'The Doomsday Machine,' they're out of place and context. It draws attention to them rather than being a service to the story and characters.'

We Are America

For quite possibly the first time ever, I wholeheartedly agree with a Fox News anchor. Here's Shepard Smith speakin' the truth, with some salty language, as an added bonus!



Update: Our friend Stephen Colbert had something to say about Smith's antics.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
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Our Director

If you only read one article about director J.J. Abrams and his approach to creating a brand new "Star Trek" film, read this one. Here are some choice excerpts:

LATimes: You know that no matter what you do, you'll get an earful from hardcore fans.

Abrams: The key is to appreciate that there are purists and fans of "Star Trek" who are going to be very vocal if they see things that aren't what what they want. But I can't make this movie for readers of Nacelles Monthly who are only concerned with what the ship's engines look like. They're going to find something they hate no matter what I do. And yet, the movie at its core is not only inspired by what has come before, it's deeply true to what's come before. The bottom line is we have different actors playing these parts and from that point on it's literally not what they've seen before. It will be evident when people see this movie that it is true to what Roddenberry created and what those amazing actors did in the 1960s. At the same time, I think, it's going to blow people's minds because its a completely different experience than what they expect.

...it felt to me that the key to "Star Trek" was to go from the inside-out: Be as true to the characters as possible, be as real and as emotional and as exciting as possible and not be distracted by the specter of all that the "Star Wars" film accomplished.

"Star Trek," directed by J.J. Abrams, featuring visual effects by Industrial Light and Magic, hits theaters on May 8. Watch HD trailers for "Star Trek" at Apple.com.

Los Angeles Times Interview with J.J. Abrams, part 1 and part 2.

"Button" Buttons Up VES Awards

The visual effects teams from "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" nabbed four VES Awards last week, with "The Dark Knight" earning three and "Changeling" earning two.

It wasn't easy to find coverage of the VES Awards from the Visual Effects Society itself. If you go to VESAwards.com, there is no information on the winners listed (only applications and nominees). No email went out to VES members, which is strange because VES is usually pretty good about disseminating information via email. I went to visualeffectssociety.com, and on the far right side is a tiny link to a hastily prepped PDF file, which contained the names of the winners. The site contained no photographs of the event, no video, no acceptance speeches, and no links to other press coverage of the event. Disappointing, to say the least, especially for VES' biggest night of the year.

One of the many elaborate matte paintings for Clint Eastwood's "Changeling"

As for the awards themselves, I heard that it was a fun show. They gave lifetime achievement awards to the one and only Phil Tippett, as well as the monster producing partners Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall.

As for the awards themselves, I was, of course, rooting for my fellow ILMers for our nominations for "Iron Man" and "Indiana Jones." I especially was hoping for an "Indiana Jones" win for Best Created Environment, since I contributed to the Temple Heart sequence (hopefully more on this in a future post). But "Button" and "Dark Knight" swooped up most of the awards, and for the most part, rightfully so.

An image from "The Science Behind Benjamin Button"

If you haven't seen it yet, make sure you visit the well-made The Science Behind Benjamin Button, which nicely highlights some of the visual effects challenges from the film.

Here are some press clippings that I was able to muster:

• Variety: 'Button' Tops Visual Effects Awards
• VFXWorld: Backstage at the VES Awards
• FXGuide: VES Awards Report and Photo Gallery

And here are all of the winners of the live-action feature film categories. (To see all the nominees, click here.)

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Motion Picture
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
Eric Barba, Edson Williams, Nathan McGuinness, Lisa Beroud

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Motion Picture
CHANGELING
Michael Owens, Geoffrey Hancock, Jinnie Pak, Dennis Hoffman

Best Single Visual Effect of the Year
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON - Benjamin's Secret
Eric Barba, Lisa Beroud, Steve Preeg, Jonathan Litt

Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Motion Picture
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON - Benjamin Button
Steve Preeg, Matthias Wittmann, Tom St. Amand, David McLean

Outstanding Matte Paintings in a Feature Motion Picture
CHANGELING - 1928 Downtown L.A.
Romain Bayle, Abel Milanes, Allan Lee, Debor Dunphy

Outstanding Models and Miniatures in a Feature Motion Picture
THE DARK KNIGHT - Garbage Truck Crash Models and Miniatures
Ian Hunter, Forest Fischer, Branden Seifert, Adam Gelbart

Outstanding Created Environment in a Feature Motion Picture
THE DARK KNIGHT - IMAX Gotham City Scapes
Peter Bebb, David Vickery, Philippe Leprince, Andrew Lockley

Outstanding Compositing in a Feature Motion Picture
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON - Benjamin Comes Together
Janelle Croshaw, Paul Lambert, Sonja Burchard, Sarahjane Javelo

Outstanding Special Effects in a Motion Picture
THE DARK KNIGHT
Chris Corbould, Peter Notley, Ian Lowe

"Button" Buttons Up The Oscar

“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton and Craig Barron

Hearty congratulations go out to the visual effects teams behind "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," which won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects at the 81st Academy Awards. Here's Eric Barba's acceptance speech:

Oh my God. On behalf of myself, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton and Craig Barron, I'd like to thank the Academy for this incredible honor. I'd also like to thank Edson Williams and his team at Lola Visual Effects and Nathan McGuinness and his team at Asylum as well as all the other visual effects teams that worked so hard on this film. I'd like to thank our amazing team at Digital Domain, my mentor Ed Ulbrich, my wonderful producer Lisa Beroud, the woman who is my biggest supporter, my wife Roma, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Ceán Chaffin, for trusting that we could actually pull this off. Brad Pitt for an amazing performance. And of course David Fincher for giving us all the opportunity to work on this film. To my kids, Cole and Nicolette, I'd just like to say, "Work hard, do good work and never give up." Thank you.

This was a rare year in which all three nominees were worthy of Oscar, in my opinion. And it was extra special to see my friend Craig Barron holding that statuette on the stage of the Kodak Theater. Way to go, Craig!

I even updated the Academy Awards section of Visual Effects Headquarters. How about that?

Update: Here is the backstage Thank-You cam, where Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton and Craig Barron were allowed to make their thank-you's.

...and there are the four winners, answering questions from the press backstage.

"Transformers 2" Superbowl

Not only did a new commercial for "Star Trek" appear during the Superbowl last week, but the very first images from "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" landed on television screens. Head over to Apple's Quicktime page to view the new commercial in HD.

These four still frames were chosen by the Randomizer 2009™ software, featuring ArbitraryBoost 3.0.

"Star Trek" Superbowl

So, a little movie called "Star Trek" debuted a new commercial during the Superbowl last week. Make sure you watch the commercial (in sweet, sweet high definition). In the meantime, here's a frame from the commercial, chosen by the Randomizer 2009™ software, featuring ArbitraryBoost 3.0.

And The Nominees Are...

Here are the nominees for Best Visual Effects for the 81st Annual Academy Awards:

“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton and Craig Barron

“The Dark Knight”
Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Tim Webber and Paul Franklin

“Iron Man”
John Nelson, Ben Snow, Dan Sudick and Shane Mahan

Congratulations to all the nominees and everyone who contributed to the visual effects of these three films! The winner of the Academy Award will be announced February 22, 2009.

VES Announces Nominations for 7th VES Awards

Hi, all! Here's the press release sent out by the Visual Effects Society, announcing their nominees for the 7th Annual VES Awards. I'll provide some personal notes in a forthcoming post. What follows is an edited list of nominees, listing live-action feature film categories only.

-todd

VISUAL EFFECTS SOCIETY (VES) ANNOUNCES NOMINEES FOR 7th ANNUAL VES AWARDS
"Iron Man" Leads with 5 Noms, Awards Ceremony Scheduled for February 21, 2009

Los Angeles, January 19, 2009 - The Visual Effects Society (VES) today announced the nominees for the 7th Annual VES Awards ceremony recognizing outstanding visual effects in over a dozen categories of film, animation, television, commercials and video games. Nominees were chosen Saturday, January 17, 2009, by numerous panels of VES members who viewed submissions at the FotoKem screening facilities in Burbank.

In making the announcement, Jeffrey A. Okun, Chair of the Visual Effects Awards Committee said, "Because visual effects continue to grow in complexity and intensity, touching every aspect of the entertainment industry, we are proud to announce the nominees and their work, which have been deemed by the judges as the best of the best. I congratulate all the artists on their achievements."

The nominees for the 7th Annual VES Awards are the following:

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Motion Picture
THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA, PRINCE CASPIAN
Wendy Rogers, Dean Wright, Andrew Fowler, Greg Butler
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
Eric Barba, Edson Williams, Nathan McGuinness, Lisa Beroud
HELLBOY II THE GOLDEN ARMY
Michael J. Wassel, Lucy Killick, Adrian de Wet, Eamonn Butler
CLOVERFIELD
Kevin Blank, Chantal Feghali, Michael Ellis, Eric Leven
IRON MAN
Ben Snow, Hal Hickel, Victoria Alonso, John Nelson

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Motion Picture
CHANGELING
Michael Owens, Geoffrey Hancock, Jinnie Pak, Dennis Hoffman
EAGLE EYE
Jim Rygiel, Jim Berney, Crys Forsyth-Smith, David Smith
VALKYRIE
Richard R. Hoover, Maricel Pagulayan, Peter Nofz, Daniel Eaton
NIM'S ISLAND
Camille Cellucci, Scott Gordon, Fred Pienkos, James Straus
SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK
Mark Russell, Richard Friedlander, Eric Robertson, Brett Miller

Best Single Visual Effect of the Year
CLOVERFIELD - Statue of Liberty Crash and Woolworth Tower Collapse
Michael Ellis, Chantal Feghali, David Vickery, Ben Taylor
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON - Benjamin's Secret
Eric Barba, Lisa Beroud, Steve Preeg, Jonathan Litt
THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL - Newborn Klaatu
Jeffrey A. Okun, R. Christopher White, Thomas M. Boland, Ben Thompson
INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL - Valley Destruction
Stephanie Hornish, Pablo Helman, Jeff White, Craig Hammack
IRON MAN
Ben Snow, Wayne Billheimer, Victoria Alonso, John Nelson

Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Motion Picture
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON - Benjamin Button
Steve Preeg, Matthias Wittmann, Tom St. Amand, David McLean
HELLBOY II THE GOLDEN ARMY - Elemental Sequence
Colin McEvoy, Christoph Ammann
IRON MAN
Hal Hickel, Bruce Holcomb, James Tooley, John Walker
THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES - Hogsqueal
Todd Labonte, Michael Brunet, Nathan Fredenburg, Aharon Bourland

Outstanding Matte Paintings in a Feature Motion Picture
CHANGELING - 1928 Downtown L.A.
Romain Bayle, Abel Milanes, Allan Lee, Debor Dunphy
INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL
Richard Bluff, Barry Williams, Yanick Dusseault, Yusei Uesugi
SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK - Matte Paintings
Brett Miller, Garrett Eaton, Matthew Conner
SPEED RACER - Overall Matte Painting Presentation
Lubo Hristov, Dennis Martin, Ron Crabb

Outstanding Models and Miniatures in a Feature Motion Picture
THE DARK KNIGHT - Garbage Truck Crash Models and Miniatures
Ian Hunter, Forest Fischer, Branden Seifert, Adam Gelbart
INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL
David Fogler, Craig Hammack, Brian Gernand, Geoff Heron
IRON MAN - Suit Up Machine
Aaron McBride, Russell Paul, Gerald Gutschmidt, Keiji Yamaguchi
MY DARLING OF THE MOUNTAINS - Hot Springs
Taro Kiba, Kenji Nagatani, Yuki Minagawa, Hideo Udo

Outstanding Created Environment in a Feature Motion Picture
CLOVERFIELD - Brooklyn Bridge Sequence
David Vickery, Phil Johnson, Victor Wade, Sean Stranks
THE DARK KNIGHT - IMAX Gotham City Scapes
Peter Bebb, David Vickery, Philippe Leprince, Andrew Lockley
INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL - Temple Heart
Michael Halsted, David Fogler, Steve Walton, David Weitzberg
THE MUMMY - TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR - Avalanche Sequence
Mike Meaker, Rich Mahon, Jason Iverson, Sho Hasegawa
SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK - Created Environment
Brett Miller, Garrett Eaton, Matthew Conner

Outstanding Compositing in a Feature Motion Picture
THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA, PRINCE CASPIAN
Stuart Lashley, Arundi Asregadoo, Mark Curtis, Richard Baker
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON - Benjamin Comes Together
Janelle Croshaw, Paul Lambert, Sonja Burchard, Sarahjane Javelo
IRON MAN - Head Under Display - HUD Compositing
Jonathan Rothbart, Dav Rauch, Kyle McCulloch, Kent Seki
QUANTUM OF SOLACE - Sienna Chase and Fight Sequence
Anthony Smith, Christian Kaestner, Adrian Metzelaar, Jon Thum

Outstanding Special Effects in a Motion Picture
THE DARK KNIGHT
Chris Corbould, Peter Notley, Ian Lowe
THE DARK KNIGHT - Garbage Truck Crash Mechanical Effects
Scott Beverly, Robert Spurlock, Jon Warren, Brian Kelly Hahn
DEFIANCE - Special Effects
Neil Corbould, Steve Warner, Anne Maria Walters, Alan Young

This year the VES will present producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall with the VES Lifetime Achievement Award and Phil Tippett with the Georges Méliès Award.

For more information on the VES Awards, sponsorship and tickets, please visit www.visualeffectssociety.com.

Abrams: "It's Amazing"

From Sci Fi Wire:

J.J. Abrams, who directed the upcoming Star Trek reboot movie, addressed the film's new take on starship battles...

Earlier in the evening, screenwriter Roberto Orci described the battles as still maritime-influenced, despite the new, lavish look. Abrams clarified.

"They're big ships, so I'd say that there is a little bit of that, but there's a little bit more flash and fun and action than you've seen before," Abrams said in a group interview. "There are some pretty spectacular visual effects. ILM outdid themselves. It's amazing."

The List of 7

It's Bake-Off time! The visual effects branch of the Academy have narrowed their 'list of 15' films to the seven films that will be participating in the bake-off for the race for this year's Oscar nominations.

• “Australia”
• “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
• “The Dark Knight”
• “Hellboy II: The Golden Army”
• “Iron Man”
• “Journey to the Center of the Earth”
• “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor”

The Executive Committee narrowed the List of 15 to these seven earlier this week. The Bake Off, which features 15 minute reels from each film, will take place on January 15, where the entire visual effects branch gets to vote on the final three nominees for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. As always, the entire Academy then votes for the winner of the award.

My predictions were way off this year. While I got four films right, I thought "Indy," "Caspian" and "Spiderwick" would have made it to the bake-off, rather than "Australia," "Mummy 3" and "Journey."

My not-to-be-trusted predictions for the three nominees? "Dark Knight," "Iron Man," and "Benjamin Button," which are coincidentally my personal choices of the three films that deserve a nomination.