Escapades! 5 minutes, 5 Questions

Alexis is the VFX Supervisor for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Wonder Woman 1984 amongst others. He gave a great presentation at our VFX Festival, so we nabbed him for 5 minutes whilst we could!

Number #1 in our ESCAPADES series- Five Questions in Five Minutes! ILM's Creature TD Emily Shordon answers the questions.

Since the Mandalorian, it seems everyone's heard of virtual production - images of huge LED screen backdrops powered by real-time engines and camera tracking tech; but whats it like to OWN and run one of these facilities? How is this technology changing the way film and tv is being made? We speak to Joanna Alpe and Rowan Pitts, co-founders of Bild Studios/MARS volume. As we conclude this series at 2022, EscapePod:20 looks forward to the next 20 years, what do today's students need to know and what's it like creating work with this technology?

As we look back on 2021, Rhys Salcombe, VFX Supervisor from DNEG, joins us to speak about his work as CG Supervisor on Dune: Part 1. We have a peek behind the scenes to find out about the sequences that DNEG worked on, which led to the film winning the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. We speak about the use of sand screens rather than green screen and how it helped to have amazing plates to work with. We're proud to say that four Escapees worked on Dune, so it's great to hear how the team worked together and created such a successful film.

2020 is the year Escape Studios became the first Unreal Authorised Training Centre in the UK - working with Epic Games and the games industry to train students and companies alike in this revolutionary software. Escape's Christian Avigni (MA Games Tutor) and Simon Fenton (Dean/Director of Interactive and Real-Time) have seen Unreal grow from the early days. Here they tell us about how Unreal changed the way they teach, how it became adopted across the media industries and how working with Epic Games has meant Escape is creating a new breed of real-time professionals.

Olivia Unwin was one of the first students to join our undergraduate courses in 2016. Here she talks about what made her become one of our early adopters, what it was like being a student on a course where everything was new and how it helped her get her break in the industry and go on get her dream job as a producer in a games company.

Escapee and current Lighting Lead at Framestore, Alastair Cross, joins us to discuss 2018's Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. We speak about the shots Alastair worked on and the challenges he faced before diving in to speak about his amazing career working as a Studio Assistant at Escape Studios all the way up to becoming Lead Artist - great inspiration to current students and aspiring artists!

In this episode former student, Gianluca Siciliano, returns to talk about his incredible career in which he has progressed to Senior Creature TD at Industrial Light & Magic. We discuss his time at Escape Studios, which guided him to his first job in the film industry working on Thor: Ragnarok! The topic then moves on to the other films and shows he has worked on which has led Gianluca to his current position. Don't miss this amazing podcast as Gianluca shares lots of wisdom on how to grow your career and how Escape Studios led him on this journey.

Tara Saunders is Sony Playstation London Studio Head; there's not a lot that goes on in the UK Games scene that she doesn't know about. Here she speaks to Escape Studios Director Ian Palmer about the crucial year 2016- the year of Uncharted 4 and preparation for VR Worlds. Also how in this year Sony Playstation partnered with Escape to help build our acclaimed Game Art degree.

Andy McNamara is Head of CG at Cinesite, but back in 2015 he was part of the legendary Rushes, a small but vital post-production facility in the heart of Soho that punched way above its weight with broadcast, pop promos, commercials, motion graphics and film work.

One of Rushes’ last jobs was the ground breaking UI work on Spectre. Andy tells us what core skills he thinks are needed and why first principles of photography are still essential in a world of increasingly complex software.

Hear how a short course in Compositing at Escape took Kajsa away from a career at CERN's Large Hadron Collider and took her on a journey of cutting her teeth on Ridey Scott's "The Martian" and mixing with (acting) royalty for The Crown tv series. Kajsa tells us stories of her work on Wonder Woman and some nifty invisible paint and prep work, before hopping onto the challenges of Altered Carbon. Hear why she loves working on a mix of film and tv, and why she enjoyed working on the Witcher.

Framestore's VFX Supervisor Stuart Penn joins Anita in the Escape Pod to discuss the most amazing film of 2013, Gravity. So how do you make a movie look like it is shot in the endless void of space? Stuart discusses how the film could not have existed without previz, and how it takes the dedication and collaboration of all departments involved.

2012 was supposedly the end of time in the Mayan Calendar, but instead we had the Olympics and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. Portuguese Escapee Ricardo Ferreira found himself staying on in London and at the centre of the explosion of Stereo 3D films - creating stereo 3D compositing for Dredd, Wrath of the Titans and even Tim Burton's Frankenweenie in the same year! What was it like being in the middle of the Stereo3D goldrush and how did that lead to later work on Oscar-laden classics like Gravity and Interstellar?

2011 was the year of the final entry in the Harry Potter series. We are joined by Michael Davies who worked on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and Philip Meredith who worked on the video game version. We discuss the tools that were used to make both versions, how much has changed over the years and what is coming next in the industry!

2010 was the Year of  "Inception" and Paul Franklin was the VFX supervisor who brought Nolan's visions to the screen. Hear about how an Icelandic volcano nearly scuppered preparation for the genre-defying dream heist film, and how Paul coped with a mix of film and digital formats to create one of the best films of the decade, and went on to win his first Oscar!

Our 'Evening with' guest speaker Christopher Townsend joins our industry guru Anita in the Escape pod. The VFX Supervisor on most of Marvel's best known films, joins us to discuss his route into the industry, perseverance,  problem solving with global teams, and dedicating yourself to a project until it's a wrap.

Animation Director, Robert Valley, who was a previous guest of Escape's 'Evening with', spent many years working with our industry partner and mentor, Passion Pictures. He returns to chat with us about his move to London at a time when his animation style was most influenced.

It's 2007, and its the year of Transformers! Escape's super sleuth Anita tracks down David Prescott, Visual Effects Supervisor on the first film, and now Senior Vice President of Creative Production at DNEG Animation. So what was 'Bay-hem' really like, and what advice does David have for todays students? Transformers, more than meets the eye!

Escape's roving reporter and friend of the stars Anita Gribble meets VFX legend Steve Begg in a secret subterranean location in Soho to hear all about his role in 2006's Casino Royale film, with its unique mix of physical and digital effects, and how Steve's experience in both led to some amazing effects. Steve also talks about the skills needed to replicate reality in VFX, and why he's still not convinced about Virtual Production.

Mark Spevick, Escape’s Head of Industry Training, takes time out from his work on the latest Thor movie to have a chat with Anita about the scrapes they got into on 2005’s Brothers Grimm at ex- Monty Python Terry Gilliam’s Peerless Camera Company as it transitioned from models and rostrum animation. Hear how Mark’s work on an animatronic tree airlifted into Prague ended on the cutting room floor, and how difficult it is to mimic a chocolate river without unpleasant connotations!

The film of 2004  was "Troy" with Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Brian Cox and Peter O'Toole. Famous for its swords, sand and sandals, it also forged the way for innovative crowd simulations and 3D digital environments. At the heart was Escape's 3D tutor Cenay Oekman, plucked from a small town in Germany to join MPC and create some of the amazing 3D work. Hear how he fared, and what came next.

Back in 2003, Dan Shutt was a fresh faced 3D animation whizz-kid tutor, and Paul Harrison his student, a 2D animator cutting his teeth for the first time on 3D software. Hear their memories of what it was like to teach and learn 3D software, and some of the strange things that happened in London when the industry was just entering into a new 3D phase.

Klaudija Cermak, Escape Studio's own "Queen of Compositing" tells us how she came to work on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets that burst on the scene in 2002. Hear how she managed to avoid working on spiders on the film, and how her cheek and a chance meeting at a party led to her getting her hands on some million pound computers  to play with, at an incredible time in London's creative history.

What better way to kick off the Escape Studios Podcast than with the original brains behind the operation - our founder Dom Davenport. Travel back to the early noughties with us and hear about how an industry grew around Escape Studios.