HATEMAIL FROZEN

My Award winning short film Hatemail continues it's Festival run. Selected to screen at The San Francisco Frozen Film Festival
July 11th at The Roxie.

Rapscallions SUCK E.P.

Graphic design and Art Direction for this 2008 E.P.

LOVE YOU FOREVER

Inlay Label I designed for this 2005 7" Bootleg release of Mariah Carey/Barrington Levy
For Nick "Boxsaga" phillips' Radio Rhythm label.

Scott Pilgrim Vs The World

In Toronto shooting/designing VFX for Scott Pilgrim Vs The World. Dir : Edgar Wright. Cam : Bill Pope.

VFX Design for John Mayburys "The Jacket" :

One from the archive...

An article I wrote detailing my design work for the film "The Jacket" in 2005


Returning Gulf War veteran Jack Starks is accused of murdering a police officer and incarcerated in a Mental Institution. While in the care of Dr.Becker he is subjected to a series of brutal unorthodox confinement treatments designed to reduce his aggression. During these harrowing treatments Starks is convinced he is time travelling, he witnesses his own death and meets a mysterious lover, together they try and piece together the mystery of Jack Starks and avert his impending murder.

The challenge of creating the VFX for The Jacket was entirely design based, here we had a script in which the main character was hallucinating while experiencing mental breakdown, travelling through his own fragmented memories and time itself. Our task was to visualise this process. We had to convey Jacks disorientation, terror, disturbed state of mind and journey through time.

The design process began long before production, we had our initial meetings with the Director John Maybury who was chosen for the picture because of his experimental style. John has been making underground and experimental film and video for around 20 years which meant he was going to bring something very interesting to the film, it also meant we had to bring something very interesting to him. During our discussions John referenced numerous experimental artists such as Jordan Belson, Loren Sears and Stan Brakkage who had made 100’s of short films one of which he produced by crushing moths wings between celluloid and recording the resulting projection.


The Key for John was that although we were making high end visual effects that they should look Lo-tech, dirty and organic; the effect should also be disorienting and disturbing, beautiful yet terrifying, which is a very tough brief.

We talked at great length about what the mood and the effect of our work should be and after 2 meetings it was time for us to show him something. I set about putting together a sequence made up of various stills I’d taken, Gulf war footage, clips researched from other movies and material generated at double negative to provide John with a design outline of what we were thinking about. This was the starting point for what would become known as “The Jacket Sequences”.

During the production, which took place in Glasgow and Montreal I was constantly taking stills and video on and off set of anything I thought might be of use in creating the sequences. Peter Deming the D.P. would often shoot strange, interesting and disturbing images which he thought would be useful in the creation of “The Jacket Sequences”. Peter shot Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive for David Lynch so he’s got a pretty good handle on shooting disturbing and unsettling images.

As shooting came to an end the design process was well underway. We had played around with numerous ideas and one began to take shape. The experiences Jack Starks has in the drawer consist of his memories and his ‘inner landscape’ and they are essentially a journey which ends in a transition to some point in Jacks Future. From the earliest point in the design process we knew that Jacks eye was the entry point into his ‘Inner world” however we didn’t want to just go ‘through the eye’. So working closely with Effects designers Mark Michaels and Mike Eliis we presented an idea in which Jack’s experiences were played out ‘on the eye’ thus heightening the sense of claustrophobia, Jack’s Iris always being visible and reacting to the images playing out on the eye, John went for it and this became our initial concept.

Although we had shot numerous close-ups of Adrien Brodys face and Eyes what we really needed for the effect to work were extreme close-ups of his Iris that would be difficult if not impossible to photograph. This necessitated the creation of a photoreal CG Iris that would serve as the canvas for the ‘Jacket Imagery’ to play on. Effects artist Jesper Kjolsrud brought this element to life.

John and Emma were very keen that these sequences serve the story rather than be ‘whiz bang’ eye candy. They wanted to move away from the 2001 ‘stargate’ idea. Emma would put together pieces of footage to give a feel of what each ‘Jacket Sequence’ should be, this was essentially a montage of 35mm, super 8mm, digital video and stills; all the imagery having some relevance to Starks’ emotional state at various points in the film. We would take this footage and layer it up, integrate it into the CG Iris while creating various looks and treatments for each piece of footage depending on what was happening in the story at that point. There are sequences where Jack is disoriented and disturbed, sequences where Jack is at peace enjoying childhood memories, sequences where he is thinking about his lover all had to have a different feel.

The key to the development of the effect was a very close communication with the Cutting Rooms. They kept feeding us footage and, Emma would often say “we know this sequence has to be 5 seconds long and include this footage, have fun…” we would take their guides and push them in different directions coming up with visuals and transitions that just aren’t possible to create in a cutting room.










After the film was previewed John felt that we had to go more psychedelic with some of the effects sequences, this meant going back to the original ‘journey’ concept. For this I decided that we had to go through Jacks eye and into a void from which various images appear. The trick with the void was to create a feeling of movement and disorientation as we (the camera) travel through it. I thought that we could achieve this if we filled the void with some sort of particulate; the idea of travelling through a viscous liquid filled with bubbles. When you see underwater footage a lot of the feeling of movement is derived from particulate hanging suspended in the water so taking this idea to it’s psychedelic conclusion I decided that the void should be filled with thousands of tiny spheres, some of which are eyes, Irises and some like rivulets of blood .

The sequences all begin in the same way : The camera pushes in to Adrien Brodys tortured face and eyes, we then ‘impossibly’ continue in to the CG iris until it fills frame and starts dilating as Images from his minds eye appear, . This involved Multi-layer compositing with the CG Iris being composited into the photographed eye while numerous images originated from various sources were layered within the texture of the Iris and ‘projected’ onto the surface of the pupil, much of the imagery is warped to create seamless transitions that ultimately take us to the next scene which is at some point in Jack’s future.

Once we had completed the effects work John took some of the sequences to an experimental artist to paint scratch and draw on the negative. It worked particularly well in one sequence so it was included in the final effect. The Jacket Effect Is a great fusion of editing, CGI and traditional methods, you can’t tell where one ends and the other begins. The different variants of the effect throughout the film create an unpredictable and unsettling effect that ‘s completely integrated into story.

Children Of Men : VFX Seminar, Norway

Read The Article Here

The Joy of Low Budget Film Making

THE FOLLOWING IS A TRANSCRIPT OF E-MAIL CORRESPONDANCE BETWEEN ME AND THE ROYAL PARKS FILM OFFICE...

Hi,

I'm shooting a low-budget, self-funded film and would like to shoot a section of it in St.James' park. Specifically, around Duck island cottage.

Please find enclosed :

An application form, A detailed shooting proposal,
a copy of my Producers public liability insurance and a risk assessment.

I look forward to hearing from you soon

Frazer Churchill

Hi Frazer,

Your email has been passed on to me at The Royal Parks. If you would like to film in St. James's Park we will need you to complete our application form as it does differ from Westminster's. I have attached the application and also a copy of our rate card to give you an indication of what the fees will be.
Please contact me if you need any additional information.

Kind regards,
(film officer)

Hi (film officer);

As requested, please find attached my application for shooting in St. James' Park.
I have noted your fees and was wondering whether there was any
room for negotiation, the budget for this film is all my own money
and obviously I'm trying to make it go as far as possible.
I'm applying for funding but won't hear back from funding bodies for weeks.
I will also be submitting a proposal to shoot in Primrose Hill Park on the Morning of the same day.
I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,

Frazer

Hi Frazer,

I have attached the application and also a copy of our rate card to give you an indication of what the fees will be.
Please contact me if you need any additional information. There are no discounts unless you are a student.

Kind regards,
(Film Officer)


Hi (film officer);

Please find attached my proposal for shooting a short film in Primrose Hill Park.

This is linked with my proposal for shooting in St.James' Park, on the
same day.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,

Frazer Churchill

Hi Frazer,

Thank you for your email.
I have had a response from the St. James's Park office on your application and I'm afraid we cannot give permission for the filming to go ahead. The cottage on Duck Island is privately owned, as is the gated area around the cottage. The Park Office suggested that you might try contacting the RSPB to see if any of their locations are available.
Would you still like to go ahead with the Primrose Hill section of your request?

Kind regards,
(Film Officer)



Hi (Film Officer),

Yes, I'd like to go ahead with the Primrose Hill section of the request.
Do you know who owns the cottage? As I could apply directly to them.
It seems a little unusual that permission is flatly denied with no reason given.

Frazer



Hi Frazer,

You will need to contact the St. James's Park office to find out who owns the cottage - their number is 020 7930 1793 - however I understand that it is used for residential purposes, rather than public purposes so they may not be happy to provide you with these details.
Also, since the cottage is not actually a bird sanctuary the Park Office may be reluctant to have it portrayed as one.

Kind regards,
(Film Officer)



Hi Frazer,

Thank you for your email.
I have checked with the Park Office responsible for Primrose Hill, but I'm afraid we don't allow anything to be tied to the trees in any of our Parks. If the location of the Park you want to use isn't important to the story, I suggest that you try contacting Battersea Park. I'm not sure if they allow things to be tied to their trees either, but some of their rules and regulations are a little more relaxed than ours (their filming fees are lower too).
You can speak with **** at the Wandsworth Film Office on 020 7223 6241.

Kind regards,
(Film Officer)



Hi (Film Officer);

The particular tree that I want to use in Primrose Hill was the result
of a 4 week search of every green space in London, so obviously I'm a bit disappointed.
the tree in question has a particular geographic configuration which is unique. What would the answer be if I didn't tie anything to a tree?

Regards,

Frazer




Hi Frazer,

I'm sure Primrose Hill would be happy to consider your filming request if you weren't looking at tying anything to a tree. All of our trees are protected by our byelaws and we cannot contravene them for filming purposes.
If you would like to go ahead with you request, please give me details of exactly what you would like to do and I will check with the Park Manager to see if he is happy for the filming to go ahead. The fee will be £420 +VAT.

Kind regards,
(Film Officer)



Hi (Film Officer);

Just to follow up on my two applications to shoot in St. James' Park and Primrose Hill.
I can confirm I'd like to go ahead with the Primrose Hill application.
The details of the application remain broadly the same, with one exception : No-one will be tied to any trees.

With regards to the St.James application :
I have been in touch with the London Parks and Gardens Trust (who are the tenants) and they have no objection to me shooting at Duck Island cottage.

I spoke with ***** from St.James' Park office and she said that she had no objection to me shooting at Duck Island Cottage.

In light of these responses I would like to proceed with the St.James'
application.


I look forward to hearing from you.


Regards,

Frazer Churchill



Hi Frazer,

I wasn't aware, from my discussion with ***, that you had discussed the request with ********. I'm sure that if she's happy for you to have access to the Cottage that this won't then be a problem. The reason I asked you about the donations box is because we can't allow anything to be hammered into the ground - so obviously better if it's free standing.
I'll get back to you when I've heard back from Primrose Hill and the St. James's Park Manager with regards to donation box etc.

Kind regards,
(Film Officer)


Hi Frazer,

I have heard back from the Primrose Hill Office. Unfortunately we do not allow cycling in the Park - we can also not allow a crossbow to be brought into the Park. Given that we can also not allow anything (or anyone) to be tied to any of the trees, would you still like to go ahead with this request? If you would, please can you give details of what you plan to do instead.

Kind regards,
(Film Officer)



Hi (Film Officer);

Given this set of circumstances there is no point me shooting in this park.

Thanks

Frazer


Hi Frazer,

I'm just writing up your licence agreement for the St. James's Park filming. I have spoken with Lee about access to the Cottage and Lee informs me that it was agreed that the actor could have access beyond the gate, but the camera crew and anyone else involved with the production will need to stay the Park side of the fence. I also understand that the Park Manager has requested that an in-depth risk assessment be completed before the filming can be licensed. If you do not have a risk assessment template there is one on our website (www.royalparks.gov.uk/business).

Kind regards,
(Film officer)


I did eventually make the film and shoot all the scenes I needed in London Parks.

They don’t make it easy…!

HATEMAIL : Playing at Festivals around the world

www.2fc.co.uk

Mocked by the Monkey of Fate

I made this short last year for the smoke & Mirrors 48 Hour Film Festival : Mocked by the Monkey of Fate

Hatemail plays in LA tomorrow!

Hatemail plays at the LA United Film Festival