Gravity

The making of Gravity required meticulous planning. I was brought on to the project early in pre-production by Tim Webber (VFX Supervisor) because of my technical background and previous experience with motion control.

I set up the tech-vis team and developed the tools that would allow us to visualise how the previs might be turned into into shootable moves. We investigated many options for making shots appear to be in Zero G. A combination of approaches were required, from full motion control with robots and a LED Lightbox, to wire rigs, to having the actors on office chairs.   Every shot was carefully planned so that on the day all the elements would be accurately positioned on stage.  Working with cinematographer Emmanuel "Chivo" Lubezki, I helped develop the pre-lighting of the previs that would give us a template for lighting the actors and for the lighting in post. This pre-lighting was fed into the tech-vis solution to provide an accurate plan for the lighting as well as any rig movement. The tools I developed allowed to check the moves were achievable within the robot and rig operating parameters and transfer motion between the camera rig and actor rig to optimise movement.

During the shoot at Shepperton Studios, I supervised the testing and running of the motion control moves and other more manual set ups. I worked closely across multiple departments ensuring on the day ensuring the shoot followed our closely made plans.

In post production I was a sequence lighting supervisor, looking after some of the exterior space sequences. I won a VES Award - Outstanding Created Environment in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture for the Gravity Exteriors. Our work on Gravity won an Oscar, a BAFTA and 6 VES Awards.