VES Nominees. Fun and Weird They Are.
Wednesday, January 14, 2015 at 3:41PM I'm typing up my final predictions article so while I'm doing that why not peruse my final predictions in the Screenplay categories (my big risk is Ida there) and something completely different: the Visual Effects Society nominations.
They looked at CG heavy 2014 on the big screen and small and declared that these were the things they most liked looking at! I do suggest hitting the jump to see the whole list because they have a lot of interesting and highly specific categories like "Outstanding effects simulations in a photoreal/live action feature motion picture" which pits that funny scene from X-Men Days of Future Past when Quicksilver runs around the kitchen in slo-mo with that looped destructive beach sequence in Edge of Tomorrow that goes on forever until Tom Cruise gets the hang of it.
The "supporting visual effects" is always an interesting category. I'm hoping Birdman wins but I can't for the life of me figure out what effects work went into The Imitation Game (???) which is also nominated! That damn movie, showing up everywhere! I liked it at first well enough but it's one of those films that can't bear the weight of all these honors and thus you begin to turn on it.
My favorite VES category might be "Outstanding created environment in an animated feature motion picture" because three of them are places you'd definitely want to visit for hours if you could exploring every pixel: The Boxtrolls Cavern, The Land of the Remembered from Book of Life, and Oasis (which I believe is Cate Blanchett's dragon sanctuary) in How To Train Your Dragon 2. The fourth, though, is my pick for runt of the litter "Into the Portal" from Big Hero 6 which is the weakest segment in their movie, narratively and though your eyes may disagree, I didn't care for that segment visually either.
The complete list is after the jump...
Outstanding visual effects in a visual effects-driven photoreal/live action feature motion picture
"Dawn of the Planet of the Apes"
Joe Letteri, Ryan Stafford, Matt Kutcher, Dan Lemmon, Hannah Blanchini
"Guardians of the Galaxy"
Stephane Ceretti, Susan Pickett, Jonathan Fawkner, Nicolas Aithadi, Paul Corbould
"Interstellar"
Paul Franklin, Kevin Elam, Ann Podlozny, Andrew Lockley, Scott Fisher
"Maleficent"
Carey Villegas, Barrie Hemsley, Adam Valdez, Kelly Port, Michael Dawson
Joe Letteri, David Conley, Eric Saindon, Kevin Sherwood, Steve Ingram
"X-Men: Days of Future Past"
Richard Stammers, Blondel Aidoo, Lou Pecora, Anders Langlands, Cameron Waldbauer
- All six of these films are eligible for the Oscar nomination with Godzilla, Transf4rmers, Captain America: Winters Soldier and Night at the Museum. Oscar will only have five nominees of course so I expect two of their nominees to fall out to make room for Godzilla. No X-Men film has received an Oscar nomination yet but could this be the year?
Outstanding supporting visual effects in a photoreal/live action feature motion picture
"Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)"
Ara Khanikian, Ivy Agregan, Sebastien Moreau, Isabelle Langlois
"Divergent"
Jim Berney, Greg Baxter, Matt Dessero
"The Grand Budapest Hotel"
Gabriel Sanchez, Jenny Foster, Simon Weisse, Jan Burda
"The Imitation Game"
Stuart Bullen, Lucy Ainsworth-Taylor, Simon Rowe
"Unbroken"
Bill George, Steve Gaub, Erin Dusseault, Dave Morley, Brian Cox
Outstanding Animation in an animated feature motion picture
"Big Hero 6"
Don Hall, Chris Williams, Roy Conli, Zach Parrish
"How to Train Your Dragon 2"
Bonnie Arnold, Dean DeBlois, Dave Walvoord, Simon Otto
"Rio 2"
Carlos Saldanha, Bruce Anderson, John C. Donkin, Kirk Garfield
"The Boxtrolls"
Travis Knight, Anthony Stacchi, Graham Annable, Brad Schiff
"The Lego Movie"
Chris McKay, Amber Naismith, Jim Dodd, David Williams
Outstanding visual effects in a visual effects-driven photoreal/live action broadcast program
"Constantine": "A Feast of Friends"
Kevin Blank, Elizabeth Castro, Yafei Wu, Chris LeDoux
"Game of Thrones": "The Children"
Joe Bauer, Steve Kullback, Stuart Brisdon, Thomas Schelesny, Sven Martin
"Hemlock Grove"
Matt Whelan, Chris Brown, Todd Masters, Johnathan Banta, Eric McAvoy
"Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."
Mark Kolpack, Sabrina Arnold, Gary D Amico, Kevin Lingenfelser, David Beedon
"The Flash"
Armen Kevorkian, James Baldanzi, Jeremy Jozwick, Andranik Taranyan
Outstanding supporting visual effects in a visual effects-driven photoreal/live action broadcast program
"American Horror Story: Freak Show": "Edward Mordrake, Part 2"
Jason Piccioni, Jason Spratt, Mike Kirylo, Justin Ball, Eric Roberts
"Black Sails," Episode 1
Erik Henry, Annemarie Griggs, Paul Graff, George Murphy
"Crossbones"
Kevin Blank, Ron Pogue, Andy Weder, Niklas Jacobson, Mans Bjorklund
"Penny Dreadful": "Séance"
James Cooper, Bill Halliday, Sarah McMurdo, Lorne Kwechansky
"Ripper Street": "Whitechapel Terminus"
Ed Bruce, Alan Collins, Joe Courtis, John O'Connell
Outstanding real-time visuals in a video game
"Alien: Isolation"
Jude Bond, Al Hope, Howard Rayner, Oriol Sans Gomez
"Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare"
Yi-chao Sandy Lin-Chiang, Joseph Salud, Demetrius Leal, Dave Blizard
"inFAMOUS: Second Son"
Matt Vainio, Horia Dociu, Jason Connell, Bill Rockenbeck
"Sunset Overdrive"
Jacinda Chew, Bryan Intihar, Grant Hollis
Outstanding visual effects in a commercial
"Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare": "Discover Your Power"
Paul O'Shea, Michael Wigart, Andy Boyd, Jacob Montgomery, Benoit Mannequin
"Destiny": "Become Legend"
Eric Barba, Carla Attanasio, Greg Teegarden, Dan Akers
"ESA": "Ambition"
Jakub Knapik, Tomasz Wachnik, Lukasz Sobisz, Michal Skrzypiec
"General Electric": "Childlike Imagination"
Benjamin Walsh, Jennie Burnett, Brian Burke, Dominik Bauch
"SSE": "Maya"
Neil Davies, Alex Hammond, Jorge Montiel, Beth Vander
Outstanding visual effects in a special venue project
"Hubei in the Air"
Andrew Roberts, Claudia Lachnitt, Yas Takata, Boris Schmidt, Sebastian Butenberg
"Ratatouille": "L’Aventure Totalement Torquee de Remy"
Tony Apodaca, Marianne McLean, Gilles Martin, Edwin Chang, Mark Mine
"Star Journey"
Adam Watkins, Viktorija Ogureckaja, Thilo Ewers, Omid Arzhang, Yas Takata
"The Hogwarts Express"
Chris Shaw, Rich Yeomans, Steven Godfrey, Peter Jopling, John Richardson
"The Lost Temple"
John Hughes, Walt Jones, Brent Young, Michael Smith
Outstanding performance of an animated character in a photoreal/live action feature motion picture
"Dawn of the Planet of the Apes": Caesar
Paul Story, Eteuati Tema, Andrea Merlo, Emiliano Padovani
"Dawn of the Planet of the Apes": Koba
Daniel Barrett, Alessandro Bonora, Mark Edward Allen, Masaya Suzuki
Kevin Spruce, Rachel Williams, Laurie Brugger, Mark Wilson
"Maleficent": Thistlewit
Darren Hendler, Matthias Wittmann, Jeremy Buttell, Elliot Rosenstein
Outstanding animated character in an animated feature motion picture
"Big Hero 6": Baymax
Colin Eckart, John Kahwaty, Zach Parrish, Zack Petroc
"How to Train Your Dragon 2": Hiccup
Jakob Hjort Jensen, Fabio Lignini, Stephen Candell, Hongseo Park
"Rio 2": Gabi
Jason Sadler, Ignacio Barrios, Drew Winey, Diana Diriwaechter
"The Boxtrolls": Archibald Snatcher
Travis Knight, Jason Stalman, Michael Laubach, Kyle Williams
Outstanding performance of an animated character in a commercial, broadcast program, or video game
"Freesat Freetime": Sheldon
Russell Dodgson, Grant Walker, Juan Sebastian Nino, Amar Chundavadra
Philip Meyer, Thomas Kutschera, Igor Majdandzic, Mark Spindler
"John Lewis": Monty the Penguin
Diarmid Harrison Murray, Tim Van Hussen, Amir Bazazi, Georgios Kyparissous
"SSE": Maya, Jorge Montiel
Alex Hammond, Daniel Kmet, Philippe Moine
Outstanding created environment in a photoreal/live action feature motion picture
"Captain America: The Winter Soldier": Triskelion headquarters
Johan Thorngren, Greg Kegel, Quentin Marmier, Luis Calero
"Interstellar": Tesseract
Tom Bracht, Graham Page, Thomas Døhlen, Kirsty Clark
"Lucy": Times Square
Richard Bluff, Steve Bevins, Steve DeLuca, Tiffany Yung
"Noah": Antediluvian Earth
Grady Cofer, Dan Wheaton, Susumu Yukuhiro, Ben O'Brien
Outstanding created environment in an animated feature motion picture
"Big Hero 6": Into the Portal
Ralf Habel, David Hutchins, Michael Kaschalk, Olun Riley
"How to Train Your Dragon 2": Oasis
Sun Yoon, Liang-Yuan Wang, Ted Davis, Shannon Thomas
"The Book of Life": Magical Land of the Remembered
Glo Minaya, Amy Chen, Sean McEwan, Jeff Masters
"The Boxtrolls": Boxtroll Cavern
Curt Enderle, Rob DeSue, Emily Greene, Jesse Gregg
Outstanding created environment in a commercial, broadcast program, or video game
"Coca-Cola": Snowy Forest
Tom Bardwell, Kevin Ives, Kyle Cody, Jimmy Gass
"Game of Thrones": Braavos Establisher
Rene Borst, Christian Zilliken, Jan Burda, Steffen Metzner
"Penny Dreadful": Séance
Mathew Borrett, Lorne Kwechansky, Graham Day, Jason Gougeon
"War Thunder": Battlefield
Andrey Bogdanov, Mikhail Datcik, Dmitriy Ovcharenko, Ekaterina Bogdanova
Outstanding virtual cinematography in a photoreal/live action motion media project
"Dawn of the Planet of the Apes"
Keith Miller, Jonathan Paquin, Alessandro Saponi, David Houghton Williams
"Edge of Tomorrow": Beach and Paris Attacks"
Albert Cheng, Jose Enrique Astacio Jr., Michael Havart, Dion Beebe
"Interstellar": Tesseract
Faraz Hameed, Stephen Painter, Hoyte van Hoytema, Dorian Knapp
"X-Men: Days of Future Past": Kitchen scene
Austin Bonang, Casey Schatz, Dennis Jones, Newton Thomas Sigel
Outstanding models in any motion media project
"Big Hero 6": City of San Fransokyo
Brett Achorn, Minh Duong, Scott Watanabe, Larry Wu
:The Boxtrolls": Mecha-Drill
Tom McClure, Oliver Jones, Raul Martinez
"The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies": Laketown
Leslie Chan, Alastair Mayer, Niklas Preston, Justin Stockton
"Transformers: Age of Extinction": Knightship
Landis Fields, John Goodson, Anthony Rispoli, Dae Han
Outstanding effects simulations in a photoreal/live action feature motion picture
"Captain America: The Winter Soldier: Helicarrier broadside and crash
Dan Pearson, Sheldon Serrao, Jose Burgos, Eric Jennings
"Edge of Tomorrow": Destruction and sand
Steve Avoujageli, Pawel Grochola, Atsushi Ikarashi, Paul Waggoner
"The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies"
Jon Allitt, David Caeiro, Ronnie Menahem
"X-Men: Days of Future Past": Quicksilver Pentagon Kitchen
Adam Paschke, Premamurti Paetsch, Sam Hancock, Timmy Lundin
Outstanding effects simulations in an animated feature motion picture
"Big Hero 6"
Henrik Falt, David Hutchins, Michael Kaschalk, John Kosnik
"How to Train Your Dragon 2": The Battle
Spencer Knapp, Baptiste Van Opstal, Lucas Janin, Jason Mayer
"The Boxtrolls"
Kent Estep, Peter Stuart, Ralph Procida, Timur Khodzhaev
"The Lego Movie"
Carsten Kolve, Jayandera Danappal, Matt Ebb, Miles Green
Outstanding effects simulations in a commercial, broadcast program, or video game
"Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey"
Dominique Vidal, Isabelle Perin-Leduc, Sandrine Lurde, Alexandre Lerouge
"DirecTV": Landing
Jeffrey Dates, Jimmy Gass, Iwan Zwarts, Ryan Coster
"SSE": Maya
Alex Hammond, Peter Agg, Sam Driscoll, Jimmy Gass
"Vikings": Invasion storm sequence
Jeremy Dineen, Eric Lacroix, Kyle Yoneda, Norman Ran
Outstanding compositing in a photoreal/live action feature motion picture
"Dawn of the Planet of the Apes"
Christoph Salzmann, Florian Schroeder, Quentin Hema, Simone Riginelli
"Edge of Tomorrow": Beach
Craig Wentworth, Matthew Welford, Marie Victoria Denoga, Frank Fieser
"Interstellar": Water
Raphael Hamm, Isaac Layish, Sebastian Von Overheidt, Tristan Myles
"The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies"
Simon Jung, Ben Roberts, Matthew Adams, Jordan Schilling
Outstanding compositing in a photoreal/live action broadcast program
"American Horror Story: Freak Show": "Edward Mordrake, Part 2"
Tommy Tran, JV Pike, Rob Lutz, Matt Lefferts
"Game of Thrones": "Wight Attack"
Keegan Douglas, Okan Ataman, Brian Fortune, David Lopez
"Game of Thrones": "The Watchers on the Wall"
Dan Breckwoldt, Martin Furman, Sophie Marfleet, Eric Andrusyszyn
"The Knick": "Abigail's Nose"
Vance Miller, Aaron Raff, John Bair, Rebecca Dunn
"Vikings": "Invasion"
Ovidiu Cinazan, Gary Couto, Doug Cook, Angel Li
Outstanding compositing in a in a photoreal/live action commercial
"Destiny Become Legend"
Dan Akers, Nitant Karnik, Matt Smith, Kym Olsen
"Kia The Truth"
Paul Lambert, Dan Akers, Carlos Morales, Holly Horter
Nike Hypervenom - "Mirrors ft. Neymar Jr."
Dan Williams, Daniel Morris, Ilia Mokhtareizadeh, Greg Spencer
"SSE"
Neil Davies, Leonardo Costa, Gianluca DiMarco
Outstanding visual effects in a student project
"Deep Dance"
Marco Erbrich, Christoph Westphal, Vincent Langer
"Dragon Clan"
Yahui Fan, Sheng Xu
"Murphy"
Bruno LeVeque, Xavier Lafarge
Roman Kaelin, Falko Paeper, Florian Wittmann, Paolo Tamburrino
Reader Comments (9)
The effects in "The Imitation Game" seem rather obvious to me. All the warfare stuff, mostly. Remember the bomber planes and submarines? There was probably quite a bit done with the war-torn England also.
Jonathan -- lol i didn't remember that there were submarines at all.
GOTG, Interstellar and Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes are absolute locks at this point, so there in. The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies is a near lock but I could see a surprise snub like Revenge Of The Sith got in 05. I don't see Maleficent getting in; and as much as I'd love to see DOFP get in, I think it will probably be snubbed too. Therefore, I imagine *sigh* Godzilla will get the last spot with Captain America: The Winter Soldier - which is very deserving of a nod - getting in as well, if The Hobbit is indeed left out.
Personally, however, these would be my choices:
Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Interstellar
X-Men: Days Of Future Past
Edge Of Tomorrow
Alt: BOTFA, Under The Skin.
Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes should also get nommed for Art Direction; brilliant, stunning work. But I have a feeling a snub is coming.
Daniel: If two things are getting removed to make way for Godzilla, I'm hoping it's Maleficent (culturally important for it's first half but not very good, especially on a VFX level) and Battle of the Five Armies (if it isn't removed, that's THREE films with VFX by WETA (Godzilla, Peter Jackson Middle Earth 6 and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) and that should at least be viewed as a bit much).
When are you posting your final predictions? Excited to see what your opinions are.
@Nathaniel, sorry I didn't know where else to ask this, but your Oscar predictions chart still has DuVernay as a lock. Is that because you haven't had the time to adjust your charts or do you still believe she is a lock and Eastwood is just a third-tier possibility? (if so, I hope to god you're right!)
It's beyond me why they nominated the "Into the Portal" segment of Big Hero 6 when the movie's true visual marvel is that deliciously populated, culturally mish-mashed city of San Fransokyo.
In case you were wondering - the VFX breakdown in The Imitation Game:
http://youtu.be/JVfb9hBlhNw
The categories are quite fascinating, and make me wish VFX would get at least two categories at the Oscars - an additional one for secondary visual effects.