Lovely computers
9/12/2009 11:12:00 a.m.
Weta Digital’s James Ogle.
THERE are benefits to being a geek.
Just ask James Ogle, who works in the digital models department of Weta Digital. He creates scenes and “pretty pictures” for movies on computers alongside other visual effects artists.
Ogle says he has the perfect job.
For a year and a half he has worked on scenes from The Lovely Bones using 3D scans of actors and props or working from photos and paintings. There were many late nights spent honing and perfecting the post-production of the film, and when that was put to rest Ogle worked on James Cameron’s Avatar and Scott Derrickson’s The Day the Earth Stood Still.
“I’m creating stuff that has to be believable,” he enthuses. “Working with incredible environments and artwork... And every scene is different.”
He read the book as soon as he heard he would be working on The Lovely Bones. Ogle says the strong characters, dealing with the brutal rape and murder of a teenager who watches from heaven as her family deals with the tragedy, make the story ideal for cinema.
In the film, Saoirse Ronan plays the victim, Suzie, Rachel Weisz plays Susie’s mother, and Mark Wahlberg, her father – with music by Brian Eno.
“I’m interested in how the different characters respond to the death; how it affects the whole family; how the dynamic changes when she dies,” says Ogle.
“I haven’t had someone die unexpectedly like that so I don’t know how I would react.”
Ogle proved he had what it takes to work at Weta Digital after completing a Digital Post Production course at Broadcasting School in Christchurch.
His portfolio included a short film called Operation Bagel, a two-minute movie about a fly that whizzes into a cafe hunting for bagels. It turns out that the fly is in fact being controlled by people sitting inside its eyeballs.
Despite the enjoyment Ogle got from writing and directing his own film, he is unsure if he would like to give up special effects for the director’s chair.
“I just want to make pretty pictures,” he says.
“I’m not so much about telling stories – [even though] it’s a great job. I’m a bit of a geek. I like the technical aspect using the latest computers and software and creating things that people wouldn’t think could come out of a computer.”
He adds that Wellington is very lucky to have such an abundance of good films coming out.
Ogle joined the Weta Digital team part way through the making of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring almost 10 years ago.
“After working on the LOTR for so long (since 2001) it was fun working on I, Robot, which used a very different set of models.”
With 18 Weta Digital titles behind his name, Ogle saves a compliment for Peter Jackson.
“In meetings it is all business. [Peter Jackson] makes you want to do your best work. He is so enthusiastic.”
While Ogle’s technical brain rules out a belief in ghosts (unlike Jackson who recently admitted to seeing a ghost with a screaming face in a Wellington apartment), what truly gives him shivers is the first instalment in the LOTR trilogy.
“I crank it out a couple of times a year. It still sends shivers down my spine.”
The Lovely Bones Wellington Red Carpet Premiere: featuring Susan Sarandon, Saoirse Ronan, Rose McIver and Carolyn Dando, 6pm, from the corner of Blair St and Courtenay Pl to the Embassy Theatre, December 14. The film will be released in NZ cinemas on December 26.
Road Closures – Monday, December 14, 11am-12 midnight:
• Courtenay Place (Tory Street to Cambridge Terrace)
• Cambridge Terrace (Tennyson Street to Wakefield Street)
• Kent Terrace (Wakefield Street to Elizabeth Street)
• Majoribanks Street (Kent Terrace to Roxburgh Street)
• Edge Hill (controlled access only)
• Alpha Street (controlled access only)
• Blair Street (controlled access only)
• Allen Street (controlled access only)
Free Grandstand Seating
Two free public grandstands will be in place on Cambridge Terrace and Kent Terrace, next to the Embassy Theatre entrance. Seating in the grandstands opens from 5pm.
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