BFX Festival draws to a close

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The BFX Festival came to an end following five days of movie screenings, animation workshops and industry insights into some of the best movies of 2014.

The Festival, in its second year, celebrated the best in animation, computer games and visual effects from the last 12 months, with talks and workshops from industry professionals offering a ‘behind the scenes’ look at how films and games are made.

Graduates and students from Bournemouth’s universities joined industry professionals and members of the public for the Festival, designed, in part, to inspire future generations to enter the booming creative industries.

This year, industry experts took to the stage at the Bournemouth International Centre to talk about their work on movies such as The Lego Movie, Maleficent, Godzilla and Guardians of the Galaxy. Legendary computer games such as the new installment of Elite (Elite: Dangerous) were also featured – with delegates learning about what it takes to create the visual effects for games and movies and just how much of our films are digitally created.

Framestore’s Ben Lambert, a Bournemouth University graduate, spoke about his modelling work for the Oscar-winning movie Gravity, which won the visual effects Oscar at this year’s Academy Awards. Another BU graduate, Miles Green, who works for Australia-based visual effects house Animal Logic spoke about his work on The Lego Movie and how they tried to stick to the limitations of the Lego world while creating the movie.

The Festival is the idea of the International VFX Hub; a collaboration between the award-winning National Centre for Computer Animation (NCCA) at Bournemouth University and the Faculty of Media and Performance at the Arts University Bournemouth (AUB).

Weekend activities had a more family-friendly flavour, as children and parents descended on the Festival to create their own animations, during a free workshop. Children were invited to make a model out of clay before using a stop motion camera to bring their creations to life. The talks and workshops were complimented with evening screenings of popular movies, including Maleficent and Frozen.

A special art exhibition, featuring concept artwork from 1959 animated film Sleeping Beauty and Maleficent were also on display during the Festival, loaned from Walt Disney Animation Studios in California.

Sofronis Efstathiou, Senior Lecturer at Bournemouth University and the BFX Festival Director said, “It was great to see so many people learning more about visual effects and animation and their importance in cinema, TV and game making.”

Sofronis continued, “BFX Festival 2014 was a great opportunity to review some of the best visual effects and animations from the past year – I was in astonished by the quality of speakers and their presentations this year, and delegates seemed to enjoy the range of activities on offer – from screenings and workshops to talks from industry professionals on movies such as The Lego Movie and Gravity.”

Bournemouth University has a long history with the visual effects industry, with many graduates going on to work on award-winning movies and games. Over 80 BU graduates worked on the film Avatar, while around 60 BU graduates were involved in the visual effects for Gravity.

Plans are already underway for the BFX Festival in 2015, and alumni are encouraged to join in, as Efstathiou comments, “We’ll be back again next year and would love our alumni to join us so watch out for communications about BFX in 2015.”

For more information about the BFX Festival, or to keep up-to-date with the latest information about next year’s Festival, visit www.bfxfestival.com.

BFX Festival highlighted twice in the Bournemouth Echo

Bournemouth’s visual effects and animation festival, the BFX Festival, was held at Bournemouth University recently, giving students a behind the scenes look into the digital effects used in some of Hollywood’s biggest movies. The Festival’s success was highlighted during two articles in the Bournemouth Echo.

Peter Truckel, director of the VFX hub at Bournemouth University, told a gathering of industry experts and students how 50 per cent of graduates entering special effects and animation jobs in London’s Soho come from BU.

The Dean of the Media School, Stephen Jukes was hoping to “inspire and foster talent” by trying to bring higher education and the industry together. He said in the Echo, “We want to celebrate and promote Bournemouth and the conurbation and it’s growing role in the industry. A lot of the industry is beginning to setup here”.

The team Poseiden, made up of Bournemouth University students, won the best film prize at the event sponsored by Total Film magazine. In addition The Blonde Rangers team, a collaboration between Bournemouth University, Arts University Bournemouth, and Edinburgh University students, took four awards.

Willi Geiger, the digital supervisor for some of George Lucus’ most iconic movies, said to the Bournemouth Echo, “I’m blown away with what they have achieved”.

By Peter Blackhall
2nd year student at Bournemouth University, BA Public Relations

New student visual effects competition – now open for entry!

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BFX is a 6–week team competition for visual effects and animation students from around the country hosted by Bournemouth University and AUB in July and August 2013. Groups will be competing to win an internship at a leading UK film and visual effects studio and all works will be screened at the BFX festival taking place in Bournemouth in September 2013!

The competition aims to replicate a film studio working on a live project with participants working in groups of up to six to produce a highly polished short visual effects or animated sequence. Teams will get to select their own brief from a number of pieces of classic literature and will be mentored and monitored by industry practitioners throughout the competition. A panel of carefully selected industry judges will have the task of picking a winning team.

Sofronis Efstathiou, BFX Festival Director said; “BFX competition presents the opportunity for students to be mentored by the very best VFX animators, producers and artists in the UK. Working on a live brief in a collaborative manner within an intense competitive environment will add invaluable experience to all participants CV’s; and for a lucky few a coveted internship will help kick start their career.”

Supported by the Creative Skillset Film Skills Fund as part of A Bigger Future 2, BFX competition is free to enter and participants will receive accommodation and a stipend towards living expenses. Industry partners so far include The Mill, MPC, Double–Negative, Framestore, and Cinesite some of whom will be offering internships to the very best individuals.

BFX competition is now open for entry and applications must be received by 26 April. Applicants must be 18 years or older currently studying, or recently graduated, at a UK Higher Education Institution (university or Art College).

To find out more about how to apply to BFX visit the BFX website.

BFX Competition is part of a larger festival taking place in Bournemouth 25 to 29 September, which aims to celebrate British talent and creativity in animation and visual effects. The event, in its first year, is being organised by The International VFX Hub; a collaboration between the award–winning National Centre for Computer Animation at Bournemouth University (NCCA) and the Faculty of Media and Performance at the Arts University Bournemouth (AUB).