The Industry Interviews
Matt Jacques is 2 time Oscar winning compositor. This needs to have a little bit about Matt Jacques
Hi Matt we are going to start off by asking you to tell us about a visual shot that sticks with you?
My six year old self was absolutely blown away when taken to the cinema to see Star Wars - A new hope.
The opening scene where the camera pans down and the first spaceship flies past the camera and then the second spaceship which was in shot for what seemed an eternity is such a vivid memory. It was a very powerful exposure to VFX lending to the craft of filmmaking, Jaw dropping and will always stay with me.
Could you describe a typical day for you?
I'm a compositor. I will generally arrive early and check my schedule and see if there is any feedback in shotgrid from clients or internally. Hopefully I have a few finals. If I'm awaiting CG or elements I would generally have a chat with the artist who has been assigned that task, just to see what I can be doing or if I need to address a new shot or ask for more work. If I have comments on work, artistic or tech fixes.
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I would address the notes and render a version which would be submitted for morning dailies. I would also check in with the junior comp artists to see how they are progressing. I would be working on shots until I'm called into dailies for review.
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From time to time I would bid on shots, set-up template scripts or lookdev. Each show has its own needs. When the show is at the shot finishing stage, it's all hands to the pump.
What has been the most challenging project you've worked on?
I think anything that is photoreal with lots of invisible effects can be challenging. Thor 2 was challenging for numerous reasons.
The deadline was incredibly compressed. The client was tricky and difficult and would make wholesale changes to work that had already been signed off on the look. The deep compositing pipeline had its issues. So everything led to very late nights and weekends with the client not being very appreciative of the crew's hard efforts. Good to work with decisive people in my experience who have a clear vision.
What are the current standout trends within your area?
AI or machine learning. I've been doing a loads of testing. I tried ML runway and nukeX copy cat node. The results are stunning and I feel it's a game changer particularly in rotot/prep tasks. Tasks which took days, literally take hours. Making it viable to keep prep tasks in house, creating more jobs and work for the UK creative industry.