Professional

On directing Extraction Protocol

One of the most exciting projects I’ve worked on at FXhome is the upcoming short film Extraction Protocol. It’s a sci-fi love letter to the cyberpunk genre and the Deus Ex: Human Revolution computer game and it’s going to be released next week.

It’s by far the biggest production I’ve directed and it’s been a thoroughly satisfying challenge from start to finish. It started in the autumn last year, when we brainstormed a few ideas for short films we could put together that would show off the new HitFilm software and appeal to our community. At the time I was hugely excited about the impending release of DE:HR (it turned out to be one of my games of the year, as I wrote about over on Potential Gamer recently) so I couldn’t resist using that as inspiration. (more…)

By Simon Jones, ago

Some VFX updates

Above is a quick test I made using HitFilm, FXhome’s new super-amazing-does-everything video software. I may be biased. I made a little tutorial to go with that video: The lovely thing about making tutorials for HitFilm is how responsive it is – you don’t need to do any massaging of Read more…

By Simon Jones, ago

Arms Race

I’ve begun work editing Arms Race, the steampunk period peace set during an alternative Crimean War directed by my friend Nigel Clegg. We shot it last summer out in the wilds of Norfolk. So far it’s being kept under wraps, so that we don’t spoil the nifty set, costumes and Read more…

By Simon Jones, ago

107092 – Character death

Written an enormous amount tonight (for me, at least), romping through a particularly crucial scene. Very, very exciting stuff. Notably it also marks a major character death, which was extremely creepy to write – all the foreshadowing leading up to it, the long, drawn-out moment itself, and the too-late realisation. Read more…

By Simon Jones, ago

Busy busy busy

What a busy couple of weeks I’ve had! As part of a project we’re doing at FXhome some new promo footage was required, as the stuff we shot a couple of years ago wasn’t ideal and before that we hadn’t shot anything fresh for years. While Suzy did a good job on our little greenscreen shoot back in the day, all the shots were a bit disjointed and not very appropriate for the new project (which we’ll be revealing more about soon). (more…)

By Simon Jones, ago