VFX Bake-Off

by chris cunningham

And now for something completely boring…

This week every year the Visual Effects Bake-Offs are held to determine who gets into the final three for the larger Academy to vote on for the Oscars. All week the sound editors, visual effects artists and makeup and hair stylists all get together and choose who’s best. Or, the least sucky on bad years.

It’s a Hollywood tradition since the 40’s but they didn’t get their name “Bake-Offs” until Kay Rose, the first woman Oscar winner for sound editing, coined the term. It’s titled that because of the blue-ribbon like atmosphere in which the best work of the year is shown to a group of peers in 15 minute reels and then judged. There are no pies or killer brownies involved.

It’s one night where the vfx people get to come out of their dark gopher hole offices and display their lousy social skills. So the way it works is the Visual Effects Supervisor gets up and introduces the 15 minute clip. He talks about; what they had to do, some of the challenges, what’s on the reel and who was involved. There’s a little red light on the stage next to them that lights up when their time is up. Some get a little long winded. Then they show the 15 minute clip. After the clip all of the FX Supervisors come up and say a few more things and answer any questions. Then the little red light comes on again and they have to get off the stage. This goes on for 7 fims so it makes for a long night. The great thing is that all of the really awesome effects are shown in one 15 minute blow out reel. It’s just a night of eye candy. Screw the plot, it’s all about explosions! All those films where you go *ugh* that was terrible but the effects were great? *cough*poseidon*cough* What, what? Someone say something? Well, this is the perfect way of seeing those films.

I think it’s pretty cut and dry this year as to which will be the three finalists and which will win. So my guess as to the final three will be X-Men, Superman Returns and Pirates of the Caribbean. There’s just no way Pirates isn’t going to go on to win the Oscar. The Davey Jones cg characters are so perfectly done it’s frightening. Great great great. Should probably see the movie now as I’ve fallen asleep everytime I’ve started it. Starting a movie at 1am is futile. The first hour is good.

And in other exciting news my friend Keith is back at the South Pole doing rocket science type stuff. Working on the IceCube project and searching for things called Neutrinos. [South Poler]