Short Film: The Shipment

Set on an old cargo freighter spaceship, the script is about a well-meaning father trying his best in an inhospitable galaxy to raise his daughter.

We'd be shooting mostly on greenscreen, and to help decide which production design elements to build, and which to leave to VFX we started with previs in Maya.

Combining a desire to see the dialogue acted on its feet, have trained actors inhabit the roles and weigh in on blocking, we mocked up the ship on a motion capture stage and captured some key scenes. I was present to shoot witness camera and provide notes to the 3d team as to where to place which lenses.

We ended up doing a temp score and cutting everything together to get a sense of timing. It was an invaluable process to develop the project and ensure that for every shot we did on set we knew how the VFX components were to be composed.

The on set visual effects supervisor and myself worked closely to ensure the live action I was shooting would blend into the predominantly VFX worlds. In post I also worked with him to ensure light sources were visible in frame the way I had imagined so that the subject lighting felt believable.

Then finally in colour correction we were able to integrate everything, and do a final polish pass to make sure the materials handed in from a half dozen VFX houses across the world all felt cohesive.

The Shipment had its world premiere in New York at Tribeca International Film Festival in 2019. From there it went on to win dozens of awards and play all over the world.

I was most proud of it being included as part of the visuals for a concert in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing held by NASA at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.

"The Shipment" has 4.1 million views on YouTube.