John Sellings has been an integral part of the Pallas team since Dogs of Pulp. Working on both The Art of Escapism and Tergo with director Charles Willcocks. John’s experience and knowledge of the CG industry speaks for itself and his role on Harvest will be invaluable.

How long have you been working in CG?

I have been working for the last six years directly in VFX. Initially wanting to concentrate in the area of Nuke compositing, I have found that as I have a lot of experience in other areas such as production, editing and sound, I have ended up working in numerous areas at different companies. This has all fed into me working as a VFX Supervisor where my knowledge and skills of working on a set and then in the post production in both 3D and 2D has proved somewhat handy!

What is your background and what was route in to CG?

I actually first started off in the music industry working as a Sound and Video Engineer principally at a music venue in Harlow, Essex called The Square. I also had the pleasure of  working with several bands such as Iron Maiden and the Subways. At the same time I started to become very involved in TV and film work. And about seven years ago I decided to make the switch and study VFX. I’d always had a love of Canada and so decided  that Vancouver, which has a thriving CG industtry, would be the perfect place to study. I attended the short form courses at Van Arts for six months alongside learning on fxphd. I worked on developing my skill as much as I could concentrating, in particular on,  Maya (a computer and animation modelling tool) and Cinema 4D (Another CG animators tool). I was also introduced to Nuke, and it was here that I discovered my true love of compositing.

What are your inspirations for your work? 

Inspiration wise there are too many to mention but I find that coming from a love of old school film making I find a huge inspiration in traditional film cinematography as well as current 3D work. Having a love of the old classic directors such as Fellini and Tarkovsky through to the likes of Capra and Hitchcock. Horror films however have been my biggest inspiration with The Thing and basically anything by John Carpenter being a style and concept I constantly return to.

How do you work? What are your methods?

My work varies considerably because I am such a generalist. I, therefore, find myself mixing 3D and 2D work constantly. I have been very interested in pipeline so enjoy working out the various aspects to working on shots. This includes decisions on how, say, tracking a shot might be done, depending on how much info we have from the set and also what level of track is actually required verses what time we actually have to do it! Thus my methods are always organically evolving to accommodate each new shot.

What would you like to bring to Harvest and Pallas Pictures?

I am especially excited about working across the whole production and post production process on Harvest and future Pallas films and being involved as a VFX supervisor and Compositor role helping upping the quality of the images produced. I am also excited to be in a strong creative environment, which will push my own quality threshold as well as my skills in other ares like 3D.

What interests you about the project?

As a fan of Horror I am intrigued about the story and how it can feed into some unique and strong imagery. Being a fan of the likes of the Wicker Man, folk Horror tales have always interested me and the sense of the evil within humanity as well as that within a ‘monster’ character will be an interesting avenue to explore further.

What is the best CG you have seen recently?

Well, CGI has obviously moved on in leaps and bounds and so there is so much amazing work out there. It is fair to say that the work in TV shows such as Game of Thrones has pushed the boundaries of what can be achieved and it is a lot of the hidden VFX that inspires me most like the beautiful matte paintings, 3D and comp work. What I am also excited about is how CGI becomes less shiny and has a dirtier feel to it.

RL 2/1/16