Another Halloween come and gone, and this year we had an unexpected little treat knock on our door and demand candy. Portland Compositor & Motion Graphics Animator (Composimator?) Adam Sager and his daughter Maggie popped out this incredibly cute little tribute to everyone’s favorite recent scene from the show Grimm, where Monroe explains to Hank how the creature transformation (“woge”) works using a “visual aide.”
Check the original scene from the show here:
When working on the shots, I was told the first Monroe morph (the one where Hank can’t “see” him yet) was the longest morph in the show’s brief history. Well, ya know… as in, instead of a handful of frames it was 45 or 50. But that’s an eternity in morph-time! It was Bent Image Lab VFX Supervisor Fred Ruff’s idea to do this one a little differently and really stretch it. Let it linger as long as we could possibly get away with (a little “creative interpretation”) and to bring the morph on front to back… wrapping it up with a quick couple of frames that pop that wild creature hair on quickly at the tail end. It’s so different by design, you have to pop that on quick like a band aid rip! All to coincide with the rippling sound effect.
Speaking of sound effects, Adam said that the audio work was the hardest part about the “retelling,” as he had to digitally slice out Monroe’s dialogue and swap for Maggie’s. To sell it he had to leave the bed of music that was in the original scene, and anyone who’s done any audio surgery knows this is no easy task!
Careful Maggie, you don’t want to stick like that!
Aside from the fact that Maggie is cute as a bugs ear, let’s talk real talent for a second. (insert tongue firmly into cheek…) Just like when daddy works on the real show, the Maggie morph was executed flawlessly. Her facial style clearly draws from such classics as Jim Carey in The Mask and Maculay Culkin in Home Alone; I’m already talking to Andy Serkis and the team from King Kong & Gollum about her limitless potential. I wonder if she has actor Silas Weir Mitchell (Monroe) scratching his head, wondering why he never thought of that? It’s not like Grimm is a Timbers soccer match, buddy… there are no rules here; let’s get some hands up in this piece, Sager style! Maggie clearly has a bright future in creature acting, if she doesn’t decide to keep after these more dramatic buddy flick/cop show roles that no doubt will flood her way. They’re probably already trying to pair her up with Will Ferrell’s daughter (warning, language!):
And you know Jaden Smith wants in on this action. Maybe he’ll karate kick his way through this door as Huggy Bear? The ladies could use some muscle!
In all seriousness, the “retelling” was shot last Sunday at friend Rory’s house, with some helpful gear borrowed from Fashionbuddha. A fun little romp for the Sagers that’ll be a cute little snapshot to look back on years later.
Clear some space on that mantle, Maggie, because in honor of this stellar performance, you take home VFX/PDX’s highest honor that we can bestow on the little actors playing along with Mommy or Daddy’s crazy ideas. The Oscar.
We could do this right and fire up a ceremony complete with Kyle McLaughlin singing the City of Portland Anthem from the Olympics episode of Portlandia, but this post is getting too long already… (me? long winded? nahhhhhh)
Constantly reminded of how sometimes work and life overlap in funny ways. A friend of mine, years ago now, shot a little short with his 2 year old as Superman leaping tall buildings (or were they cardboard boxes…) in a single bound. Who needs tights when you have Superman PJ’s? Doing what we do, he had frickin’ laser beam vision in there, the whole 9 yards. Now fast forward 2 or 3 years down the line, we’re both working on the real Man of Steel. Ha, I’ll track his “tribute” down, it’s prolly up on the Youtube – and I’m sure little Layne loved the scene where he’s spewing lasers from his eyes and cheered when he first saw it. His imagination came to life! And I mean, it’s a given that the little ones love seeing themselves on TV, and that it’s guaranteed laughs… but c’mon, flexing a little “Mommy/Daddy works on TV shows & movies!” muscle does a lot to help make up for the long hours and stress.
That vivid imagination might have a bright future in VFX by the way. How many of us got roped into this stuff watching Christopher Reeves dart into a phone booth? Han Solo pull out that blaster?
Not to mention the obvious: that once they are computer literate, you can funnel that boundless energy and put your kids to work as roto artists! Bwa ha ha… isn’t that why farmers used to have like 10 kids? Instant VFX army! Just kidding, but c’mon, have fun with it… filming your kids is cool. You know what – I’m pretty sure if our parents had digital cameras and Youtube, they’d have done it too!
Catch the Halloween episode of Grimm on Hulu now. Again, Bent Image Lab and Monroe come up big with some well timed comic relief and the “trick or treat” scene is the winner in this one. That scene was shot in St. Johns up by Pier Park, don’t ya know? The neighborhood was buzzing as they used my friend’s house for some of the exteriors and to store gear as they continued shooting up the street. Grimm does it’s part to keep Portland weird, and I think I speak for everyone when I say I’m looking forward to future Grimmful Halloweens. Own it, guys!
So, Adam, now that I’ve linked your cute little vid… let’s talk gummy worms? Hook me up! Ha ha… 🙂
Happy Hallowoge all!
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