Bertie The Elephant - A short film by Chris Turner and Zak Boxall

A Film by Zak Boxall and Chris Turner



Bertie The Elephant is a short VFX student film set in London at night following a baby elephant on his journey to return a lost toy to it's owner.



Zak Boxall: Responsible for all 3D aspects (modeling, texturing, lookdev, groom, lighting, rendering)

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/zakboxall

Email: boxallzak@gmail.com



Chris Turner: Responsible for all 2D aspects (Compositing, roto/prep, matte painting, grading)

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/chrisbturner

Email: christopherbenturner@gmail.com



Shooting at night proved challenging but I'll think everyone who's visited London at night will agree that it is truly a beautiful place to be. Our aim was to capture London's beauty and place a baby elephant in the heart of London. I headed up the 3D end of the film, this included modeling, texturing, look development, lighting and rendering. Whilst Chris Turner took care of all things 2D. We brought the film from concept to delivery and made a conscious effort to keep the core team as small as possible. We collaborated with 6 animators to take care of a few shots each and a rigger to take care of the rigging.



This film stars Jennifer Lewis, and was a collaboration of many talented artists at the University of Hertfordshire.



We spent a few months on the pre-production process, planning out narrative ideas and narrowing down how we were going to tackle both the production and post-production. We looked to the work of various filmmakers and post houses, most notably The Mill and their SSE campaign which depicts an orangutan experiencing the city of London at night. We were intrigued by the look and colours of the city at night and the doors it opened in terms of a unique visual style. We opted to shoot in a few locations across London, with a crew of 5 in early December. We shot interior scenes in Brighton. The visual effects process spanned 5 months, and was a huge learning curve for all of us.



The film was released at University of Hertfordshire's Animation Exposé on May 25th 2016 and was awarded "Best VFX Short".



Music: Chris Ryde

chrisryde.com



VFX Freelancers:

Max Johnson - FX

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/maxjohnsonfx

Email: maxlewisjohnson@gmail.com



Daniel Ridley - Rigging

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/danriduk

Email: danriduk@gmail.com



James Saunders - Animation

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/james-saunders-5b89738b

Email: jamespwsaunders@gmail.com



James Richardson - Animation

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/james-richardson-553047aa

Email: jamesrichardsonanimation@gmail.com



Amelié Talarmain - Animation

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/amelietalarmain

Email: amelietalarmain@gmail.com



Federica Darsiè - Animation

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/federica-darsi%C3%A8-ab669a93/en

Email: federica.darsie@gmail.com



Josh Thornill - Animation

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/joshuathornhill

Email: snowed12@aol.com



Owen Fern - Animation

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/owenfern

Email: owenfern3d@gmail.com



Director of Photography: Alex Thorn



Special Thanks:

The Coffee Tree

Matthew Paulson

Anna Lewis

Liam Barlow

Bear Tobais Winter-Perreau

Martin Bowman

Phil Valentin

Mark Wallman

Frank Victoria

Lewis Guarniere

Andy Peason