Merc joins Team Bloom for Movember

You'd think that growing facial hair being "my thing" and all that I would have participated in Movember before now. And yes, I have lazily grown various designs of face-fur during the month of November in past years, maybe in an attempt to at least belong to the group of men everywhere braving dirty 'staches to raise awareness for prostate/testicular cancer. But this year I vowed would be different. Movember 2012 has begun and I've made my decision to join fellow cinematographer Philip Bloom's "Team Bloom' as part of it. This was an easy decision (hair grows back, right?) right up until I grabbed the electric razor and did the deed. So of course I had to document it properly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmj93FcKH5I

My beard has made the ultimate sacrifice, but something of a phoenix will rise where it once stood proudly. Mustache-growing season is on.

Please do me a huge favour and visit my Mo Space page to donate and also check out the other members of Team Bloom. The more support I get, you can bet the more I will toss updates on here. If time permits, and if I'm moved by enough donations and cries of favour, I might just create a short video to upload at the end of the month as a proper dedication to this month.

Good luck to all the guys out there, especially the ones who know damn well they don't look good with a soup-catcher hanging under their nostrils.

Iron Sky: 800+ Incredible Visual Effects, 8 Months, and 20 Artists

The morning after seeing the movie Iron Sky, a story of Nazis secretly hiding on the dark side of the moon for 70 years preparing for their imminent attack on Earth, I sit here at my laptop with my coffee, eggs and bacon (all getting cold) to bring you this message: It was worth the wait.

Since hearing of this film over a year ago and watching the trailer some months ago, the anticipation to seeing this vfx spectacle has been slowly building up. Not just for the twist of a story concept. And not even for its political humour. The visual effects of this production are as epic as the fleet of Nazi spacecraft they depict assaulting the Earth.

With a total budget of 7.5 million euros, about 16% of that was crowdfunded or invested by fans.

Energia was the company behind the visual effects for this production with CEO Samuli Torssonen as the VFX Supervisor. The task: to complete more than 800 complex visual effects shots within 8 months with a team of 20 artists. If you've seen the trailer, you know that these are no sub-par independent film effects. They produced Hollywood-caliber eye-candy with little time and less than a couple dozen workers. Achievement Unlocked: All Work and No Play.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py_IndUbcxc

Especially considering the challenge laid before this team of intrepid artists, it was very exciting to see such the delicious fruits of their labour and feeling relieved that after a year of expectations building I had not been disappointed.

In the time of post-production the team toiled away and also kept their interested fans well updated. Of particular interest is this video update from Samuli showing a fairly lengthy behind-the-scenes look at the visual effects team at work on set and in post. You can watch it and more production diaries at this playlist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9raYQYdh-E

Even with a cheesy concept, the story itself is not too overly campy to become completely ridiculous (not like some other films like Mega Python vs. Gatoroid). That is, if you can overlook how the Fourth Reich got set up on the moon and established a massive armada with no natural resources save for a bit of Helium-3 (which actually exists in abundance on the moon). If for nothing else, go see it for the eye-candy shots like I did.

'Love Never Dies' Premiere & VFX Contest

The latest movie from Possibility Films, Love Never Dies, premieres at the Bookshelf Cinema on October 28th at 9pm. Merc did some visual effects magic on the short flick. Unfortunately I can't attend the screening due to some business elsewhere, but I still want to see how well my vfx fooled you. So I'm issuing a challenge out there for those who attend. Watch the video and read on afterwards for the details.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWUVXqgzM9E&feature=g-upl

Attend the screening at the Bookshelf and see if you can spot the 3 types of vfx that I did. There are approximately 25-30 shots total, but they can be all be categorized into 3 groups.

Leave a comment on the Merc Media Facebook wall with your answer. Those who guess correctly will be entered into a draw for a $25 gift certificate to Future Shop.

Winners will be announced a week following the screening on Nobember 4th on my channel and website.

Good luck and happy hunting!