Meet the Artist - Jeff Okun

#24

Hi Jeff,

Would you liked to become a VFX artist if you were born a second time?

#25

He looks like Sean Penn, just throwing it out there.

#26

Thanks for responding to my reply of ur answer to my question! (i know, it sounds weird).

I kinna know what u mean though. I can look at my finished piece and say that ive put on so much ideas and effort into it, so many tales behind that piece. So much fun and adventure.

Or i can look at another piece and say, ‘good, everything went as planned’

I mean it takes the fun out of it …am i right?

Yep…im afraid of pushing that button and see what happen…i dunno why. Probably too comfy with my current workflow…which definitely has to change!

Thanks for the advice man…a really have to kick my butt more…have to keep moving. :slight_smile:

#27

Hello Jeff,

I live 20-30 minutes North of your film set in Port Edward and heard little bits and pieces about the movie through local friends and acquaintances who worked on the film or supplied the set with things (including the decals for the plane and etc.). Ironically, several months before the filming, I was in Maputo and parts of Mozambique on assignment as well (and stayed at Hotel Avenida).

We saw the movie when it came through and enjoyed the story and the local scenery and those streets in Maputo. I would have to agree with another post here that I didn’t remember seeing much if any VFX in the movie, so you did your work well.

As for questions - I am learning to use Vue 6 Infinite to generate realistic clips and effects and recently experimented with Matchmover from RealViz. I got my composite test clips close, but didn’t realize how much time and effort match moving involved! My test footage was 16:9 DV - is it easier to get good tracking points in HD and higher resolution footage?

I really like to see how VFX can be used to assist in telling a real story compared to fantasy. I assume it is easier to make fantastical/sci-fi effects rather than to try to simulate real world physics since the audience knows more of what the real world effects should look like while they have a limited frame of reference for fantasy/sci-fi scenes - would you agree? With your experience in both, do you prefer one kind of project over the other?

Thanks,

Sean72

#28

First, I would like to thank Mr. Jeff Okun for a great article. Best article about vfx and its role. Amazing! Thank you.

I’m a big fan of your work for a long time and your invisible effects/solutions always full of inspiration.

I know you serve as the Chair of the Visual Effects Society, my question is about a future of VFX organization. VFX is a new player in film and TV and its place is not clearly specified. Where is so many unresolved questions like: credits in film, workflow and integration with other departments, who is responsible for what.
In my opinion solid structure/rules will help to establish equal place of VFX in film making process, give artist more freedom and power to create what they best on. Do you think we can create something like ASC, I.A.T.S.E., DGA for VFX? Does Visual Effects Society interested to evolve in this direction? Or we need to start thinking about creating something else? What would be your suggestion/opinion? Is it possible and how?

Thank you again,

Lev
VFX Problem Solver
http://leova.com

#29

thanks for answering my question.
cheers, sneakybunny

#30

Wow Mr. Okun, I so envy both your skill and your job, being able to travel the world like you have, learn stuff about everything… I crave for that kind of stuff.

So okay, over to my “question”, and appologiez in advance if this question don’t belong here.

I feel that I somehow know the answer to all this (practice makes perfect)… But, what to do when your at the age of 24 and you see people that’s 17 or even younger producing stuff that’s hundreds of levels better then what you could produce? I can’t really find the time to work and develop my skills even though I really want to. I feel the interrest is there, and the will to improve, but the time simply is not.

Also I really am trying to observe my environment, but I get the feeling that I don’t really understand what I see or something. I mean, what I see don’t seem to get stuck inside my head if you know what I mean. When I watch the nature, everything seem so obvious “of course that shadow is supposed to be there and of course it’s supposed to have that color because of that” etc but when I later on sit down trying to recreate it, I have no idea what it should look like.

Reading about people “isolating themselves” in a room and doing nothing but drawing makes me wonder, how do they find the time to do it?? Bills has to be payed etc etc…
What is your tip to people like me to do? I’m pretty sure that I’m not the only one walking around with these thoughts. At least I hope I’m not.

Thank you in advance sir!

#31

Hi!

Thanks for the kind words but there will be no presentation for me at Siggraph this year. However, there was a great amount of tracking on this project - both for the hand held and the mounted camera shots. The reason being that it was very important to allow the creative freedom of the camera in the telling of this story. That subjective camera motion drew the viewer deeper into the terror and the beauty of the story we were telling. Eduardo Serra, our DP, took a very deliberate approach to how he filmed the movie. While each camera style and exposure (over, under and at stop) was intenional, there was really no other way to draw the audience deep into the character and the character of the story without that handheld camera.

When I say that if a white person comes through a village or township taking pictures of the little kids they disappear - I mean exeactly that. It would appear that it is not uncommon for white people to take pictures of kids and then use the photo’s to sell the kids. The kids disappear… forever. It is not a pretty story, but it is real. And quite sobering for me.

Thanks for your comments and questions!

Best,

Jeff

#32

That is still the bottom line. You never really know when you are going to be stuck and what is going to break through for you. The best laid plans…

But in real life, even when you successfully acheive what you set out to do, it may not be enough to take the day. So we go back to that whole notion of being fluid, of keeping an open and active mind, and always, always be looking for something better.

My real life example of the Stargate has been told already, so here is another one: On the Last Starfighter, when I got hired on to help insure that the film’s VFX would be delivered on time, the first thing I did was run some calculations that showed that if everything worked perfectly, the first time through, and we could operate all the computers and new film recorders 24/7, the film would not be delivered until 11 months after the opening date. What to do?

The director, Nick Castle, and I spent the next period of panic looking over every single shot and it’s planned technique with the single thought in mind of “How can we simplfy and or delete, and still tell the most exciting story possible”?

Fortunately we had a great group of talented and creative people working with us at Digital Productions, Ron Cobb, Brad DeGraf, Gary Demos, John Whitney, Jr. and, well just everybody there.

Together we came up with several groundbreaking techniques to simplify the computing time while not changing the shots themselves. We explored using models and miniatures, and did use optical printing tricks with the CG images and so on to get the amazing amount of fantastical images done on time and on budget.

Back to your question: Do I see this being taought in VFX Schools? No. But then, they are not there to teach that. To make you aware of it, yes. It is up to you guys and girls who are in school or seeking a vfx education to dig in deep and read all about the past and ‘how they did that’ then. When you know that, when the magic of that fire is lit inside you, you will begin to seek out not only reference material on it but you begin to watch the older films to see what worked and why.

And when you know that stuff, when you have expanded your palette of tools & techniques, only then can you confidently understand the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of what the software does now, learn to trick it into doing what you need and make vfx decisions on set and in post that will get you where you need to be effectively.

Hope that this long and rambling reply answered your question!

Jeff

#33

Funny things that happened on The Last Samurai, or Sphere or Blood Diamond? Hmmmmm. Well then…

Does this one count? It was October 14, my wedding anniversary, and Tom Boland, my vfx producer, and I where in Japan filming The Last Samurai. It was the day that the crew photo was planned. However, I had been trying to track down a period village that I had heard rumor of. On the 13th, our Japanese production office had finally found the place and wrote out the instructions of how to get to it in Japanese and English… well, most of it anyway.

So at 5am we hit the railway station and off we went… on a journey that was supposed to be a few hours each way. Around 2pm after riding 2 bullet trains and one old fashioned deisel train we arrived at what we thought was the destination. Of course, each time we got off a train we thought that as well, but when we showed our instructions to the conductor they would take us to another train. Following our instructions, we hailed a cab for what we hoped would be a very short ride to the Village.

We showed the driver our written instructions. He grew very excited, began making placating hand gestures, then ran off. He returned after several minutes and indicated that we hop into his car and off we went.

Mind you we speak no Japanese and no one we found spoke English.

Our first big clue was that, after he got his tank filled up, he got on the phone and began laughing, pointing at us over his shoulder and so on… to several different people. Call after call. We were stymied. We were confused. And we remembered that we had a Japanese cell phone! With a pre-programmed number to the Japanese production office! So we called. And got only Japanese speaking people. After several attempts we got an English speaker and asked her to speak to the cab driver and find out what was going on.

Via this means we discovered that:

  1. This cab drive was going to cost us $1200 (I think)
  2. We would not be back in time for the last train out of this village, and
  3. We had traveled something like 600 - 1200 miles so far and had another 200 miles or so more to go.

I said it before and I will say it again… What to do?

Well, Tom negotiated with the driver via our cell phone translater to cut the fee to a flat $500. Next, we extracted a promise that no matter what, even if we do not get to our destination, he get us back in time for the last train home.

SO with all deals done, our driver put the peddle to the metal and suddenly we were passing everyone in sight… on a very narrow, long, intensely winding road with a sheer clift on one side, a solid rock mountain on the other side… and on occasion, a tourist bus coming head on at us.

I literally called my wife and said my goodbyes. Tom in the meantime was becomming very car sick. And our driver was having the time of his life!

We eventually arrived and I began taking pictures of textures and so on. I shot exeactly 37 images before the driver grabbed both Tom and I by our collars and literally threw us back in the car and began the return drive down the mountain at crazy speeds, risking life and limb.

We returned to our hotels at 2am. We had to get up at 5am to move to the next location… about halfway back to where we were the day before.

And yes! We sure did use those images in the film! If you look really hard, you can almost see a bit of one in a really wide shot of the Samurai village at night. Yep. It was definitly worth the trip.

Hope you enjoyed our little adventure. And this is the short version.

Thanks,

Jeff

So Tom and I

#34

On Blood Diamond we used 8 different vendors. They ranged from a single individual to bigger shops.

We pick the vendor based on history (mine with them), their artists (the people who are actually doing the work), the vendor’s attitude (they need to be excited about the job), and finally, inevitably, price (needs to be fair for what we are asking them to do). Now that formula changes on each job.

Here is a list of who we used:

Illusion Arts
Rising Sun Pictures
Flash FIlm Works
Pixel Magic
Cos Effects
CIS
Brian Jennings
Look Effects

#35

obvious follow up question :slight_smile: how does one come into consideration ? =)

#36

I build my system using filemaker pro. It grew and changed over the years and I have long since passed it over to people smarter than I am. George Macri at Pixel Magic is one of those guys. Another incarnation of my system is still blossuming with my various past coordinators, Rom Adriano and Jack Geist (who is now producing himself, having won a VES Award for Magnificent Desolation).

It was for sale for several years by a company that has since gone out of business. I would be happy to tell you more privately.

All I can say is good luck and have fun! I had a blast designing and perfecting mine!

#37

Hey Peter! The answer to this one is:

I worry all the time! How can you not wonder if you are making a huge mistake?

Sometimes I see a movie that makes me feel like I should just quit becuase I could never do anything as elegant, smart and good as that. That feeling haunts me each and everytime I take a job on. And no matter how much you think you know, or how much experience you have, you can always screw up. Stuff happens.

But then, history says that so far I have managed to salvage screw-ups, sometimes even turning them into victories.

So everytime I make a choice I am aware that the opportunity for failure is here. And while I never yet been caught short, it does make things exciting and thrilling. And maybe that is why I really love what I do. At least it is never boring.

The process of prepping a show, and then living it while you gather all your plates and shots and measurements, references and so on has nothing to do with feeling confident that you are making the right decision. Things can change so fast on a set and unless you need to protect the shot above and beyond the show, you need to roll with them. However, there are those times when you need to stand your ground. And let me tell you how hard it is to have an entire film crew staring at you waiting for you to say it is okay to shoot and you just cannot say it because there is just no way to make it work like this.

Having a back up plan helps. That and knowing how you can cheat, fake, change, steal, barrow or pitch a new version of the ever evolving plan. You know, just staying focused.

It also helps to know who to call when you think you are in trouble. Getting advice is a wonderful thing… and the VES, I think, has helped foster this exchange of ideas and opinions. Once was the time that we were each protecting our secrets from each other!

So in conclusion, yes, it’s a bit scary, but it is also an amazing rush!

#38

I thought I was one?

If I could be born a second time, I would prefer to be Zak Starkey - the Drummer for the Who and Oasis.

Jeff

#39

I have been told that before… Also, like BIll Mahr too.

#40

True. And this begs the question that maybe we have made what we do to ‘famous’ for our own good. Think about it for a minute. Before we started showing how we did what we do to the public (DVD behind the scenes material & TV Shows such as the now defunct MOVIE MAGIC) we were the only ones who really knew how it all worked.

Now, every director, producer, movie & TV studio executive has read or seen it all. And now they are telling us how to do it, when to do it and why to do it.

If I get asked to just push the “Do it” button one more time… let alone the “do it faster” button or the “Secret button” that will “Just Do it”…
:slight_smile:

#41

Hi Sean!

Thanks for writing. I loved the Avenida by the way, but the Palano was my favorite!

It is much easier to track and match move to higher resolution images. Much.

Also, you are correct about reality vs. fantasy. The issue being that everyone knows what reality looks like, acts like and is like while not a great deal of us have flown in space, confronted aliens, surfed wormholes to new dimentions or driven vehicals through the center of the Earth to discover the Mole people.

But, doing reality is fun too. It is your chance to see if you observe life in a special and fun way that others agree on.

However, doing Sci-Fi and fantasy is the opportunity to create new worlds that maybe no one has ever seen or been to. Opening up minds to new possibilities.

And, you can combine the two into something completely different - real but fantastical.

It’s a great time to be alive!

Be well!

Jeff

#42

Hey Peter! The answer to this one is:

I worry all the time! How can you not wonder if you are making a huge mistake?

Sometimes I see a movie that makes me feel like I should just quit becuase I could never do anything as elegant, smart and good as that. That feeling haunts me each and everytime I take a job on. And no matter how much you think you know, or how much experience you have, you can always screw up. Stuff happens.

ah that’s ‘nice’ to know. You’re right, some times a film comes along where everything has been solved so nicely and elegant that it just works perfectly. Maybe that’s when it can really be defined as art?

So everytime I make a choice I am aware that the opportunity for failure is here. And while I never yet been caught short, it does make things exciting and thrilling. And maybe that is why I really love what I do. At least it is never boring.

hehe, thats good =)

The process of prepping a show, and then living it while you gather all your plates and shots and measurements, references and so on has nothing to do with feeling confident that you are making the right decision. Things can change so fast on a set and unless you need to protect the shot above and beyond the show, you need to roll with them. However, there are those times when you need to stand your ground. And let me tell you how hard it is to have an entire film crew staring at you waiting for you to say it is okay to shoot and you just cannot say it because there is just no way to make it work like this.

Having a back up plan helps. That and knowing how you can cheat, fake, change, steal, barrow or pitch a new version of the ever evolving plan. You know, just staying focused.

It also helps to know who to call when you think you are in trouble. Getting advice is a wonderful thing… and the VES, I think, has helped foster this exchange of ideas and opinions. Once was the time that we were each protecting our secrets from each other!

So in conclusion, yes, it’s a bit scary, but it is also an amazing rush!

I like the term ‘living’ the show. Maybe it’s the only way to be involved enough to make sure you get what you need and cover everything.

I’ve always found that the people who don’t want to share their ‘secrets’ are the people who are above average, but not extremely good. Where as people who rest in the fact that they are really good at what they do, and know that they can come up with new solutions if needed, are really nice about sharing and helping!

thanks for all your input… it’s greatly appreciated!

Peter

#43

This is Diana Huang from Tom Leeser’s Senior Thesis class at Otis College of Art and Design. Thank you again for coming to my class to talk about this movie. This is really a fantastic movie and the article here is absolutely interesting on all levels. I am so glad your team was able to give some aid to people and help out the community with projects like rebuilding roads and furnishing the schools. It is too sad to think about at times but this stuff needs to be known so people can take action. Well when I have the money I’m going to do a whole bunch of stuff like the Kiva.org micro loan program. Thanks for doing this! Happy to have met you!