Meet Dave and Jim, CG Directors
This month’s Artists-in-Residence are Dave and Jim from Fifth Wall VFX.
Dave and Jim are long-time friends and collaborators of ewanme and have been instrumental in our success; sharing our ethos that every project, large or small, has to be treated with the same high level of care, creativity and commitment.
Together we have collaborated on projects for Peroni, BT, White Claw, Vodafone and DFS to name but a few. We caught up with them at their studio for a chat…
How did your partnership with Ewanme come about?
Dave: We've known and worked with Ewan and his team for the best part of 20 years - it's been an incredibly supportive and productive relationship.
We've been partnering with Ewanme since the day we founded the studio. We love to work with what we call "Extended Family", and they are so agile, and have such a huge contact book full of Artists, Editors, Colourists etc that whatever skill a project requires - if we can't source it in-house, we know we can go to them and have someone in place that we can have total confidence in the next day.
Whatever it takes to get a project over the line is always just a couple of phone calls away.
Why Fifth Wall?
Jim: We wanted to create a Studio that would feel like an in-house CGI Department. Not every Agency or Facility can fund a CGI Team for the 4 or 5 times a year that they need one. Having to re-crew with freelancers each time is haphazard, expensive and time-consuming. Our offer has always been - when you come to us, you will always speak to the same person. We will remember you and what you needed last time. Whatever Brand, Agency or Production Company you move to, we will always be here because our relationship is with you, we're not tied to one location or one client - it’s the same with ewanme, we share that ethos and that’s one of the reasons we work together so well.
How do you see the current state of CGI animation in terms of how it is used creatively and what are the benefits of most recent tech advancements?
Dave: The biggest change for me is the power of the kit, and the ability to generate so much more amazing footage in a day or a week than might have been possible only 2 years ago. Speed is the main thing that can break down barriers between the Artist and the Client.
Jim: Yes, at Fifth Wall we prefer to screen-share with Creatives and Directors so they can direct lighting and animation and feedback in real time. As time goes on, those barriers will come down further and hopefully it will go back to feeling as if we're all sitting in the same room collaborating, like we used to every day!
What does the future hold - how will AI and Unreal Engine impact things?
Jim: The real danger of AI, and to an extent Unreal Engine is the way it's being sold to clients - as if it's essentially a free "Magic Bullet" and we don't need to assign any value to Image Creation. Both have incredible things to offer - AI is wonderful as a Pre-Vis tool and will clearly become part of the production toolkit once the huge legal barriers over copyright theft have been overcome. But you still need to sit with a Creative Director or Art Department over a couple of days to develop what they and the client would like to see.
Dave: Exactly, Unreal Engine can transform creative possibilities on set, but it can take weeks or months in pre-production using the same tools that any other CGI film would use - not something that's always communicated to clients in Sales Pitches. Whatever technology we use, we've always got to value Image Creation across the whole industry, because that's the only part of the process that the audience actually sees.
If you would like to know more about ewanme and how we can help you with your CG project, please contact Ewan.
