About
My passions are around imagery and technology. I’ve spent 25 years behind a lens or a computer or a lens on a computer. I’m CEO of Cinemachine Imagery Ltd., which is a company focused on procedural cinematography, ‘smart’ camera systems and related camera technology for video games, movie pre-visualization and CG cinematography. We are working on cutting edge procedurally generated cinematic solutions for games and eSports, building on a foundation of camera technology going back 15 years.
I’ve designed the camera system in numerous game engines including Frostbite (used across all of EA) and Unity. My camera designs have shipped in dozens of titles across millions of units.
In addition to the camera tech, I also work as DP in feature films and documentaries.
Project List
eSports virtual cinematography systems
Currently working on some fully AI cinematography technology and eSports broadcaster tools.
Cinemachine for Unity
A fully procedural unified camera suite for games, cinematics and movie pre-visualization.
UNITE 2015
“Filming Giant Virtual Vehicles” A talk about the Cinemachine in Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak.
Blackbird Interactive
Edited a number of the release videos fro Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak. Announce trailer, Dev Diary, SOBAN.
Blackbird Interactive “Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak”
A giant scale multiplayer online game.
Project for Microsoft
1 week location shoot in Europe. Can’t discuss further due to NDA.
“Suburbia”
A comedy about two groups of kids from neighboring towns on their last day of school. Shot with anamorphic lenses.
Hayo
Travel, Culture & Curiosity.
“Dark Harvest”
A suspenseful thriller.
Louise Burns “Heaven”
A stunning video shot anamorphically with interesting color palettes.
“Take Me Home”
A beautiful 18 minute short with an unexpected twist at the end.
“The Real People of Vancouver”
A web series devoted to interviewing and investigating fascinating people in and around Vancouver.
“Me and a Moment”
For Titlecard Pictures. A dark and moody music video about transformation and change.
“XBUS”
Action thriller. DOP’d two pickup shoot days and coloring of the entire film.
“Doritos - Crash the Suberbowl”
Choreographed 4 helicopters at once, 1 race boat, 6 swimsuit models, helicopter to boat stunts, 14 shots in one day which went incredibly smoothly and ended on time. Our commercial got into the semi-finals out of tens of thousands of entries.
“Hell in a Handbag”
Action / horror / comedy film with combat stunts, zombies, helicopters, cranes, and some scenes with more than 8 cameras rolling. Starring Callum Keith Rennie, Martin Cummins, Amanda Tapping , Christine Wallace and Ian Tracey.
Secret Project
I’m under an NDA and can’t discuss the project but it was for large house in Vancouver working on a TV pitch to an incredibly large entertainment company.
“Down Here”
Won a Canadian Filmmaking Award. A story about loss and redemption set in Vancouver’s downtown east side. Shot on location in some of the toughest parts of town. I designed special low light camera setups and digital workflows to allow for shooting at night with minimal lighting.
“CWS”
Shot and graded this web series, which has not yet been released.
“D3”
Trailer to promote the office drama / comedy “D3”.
“The Shane Koyzen Story”
Shot for the Knowledge Network, this is a trailer for a documentary on the poet Shane Koyzen.
“Fractured Land”
Tells the story of a young Dene warrior from northeastern BC, taking on Big Oil and Gas to protect his land and people from the ravages of neocolonialism. Some scenes shot with an incredibly rare infrared FLIR camera.
“Conan”
Shot on an advanced dual RED epic 3D camera rig with green screen and numerous wired stunt combat scenes.
“The Snowed In Comedy Tour”
Followed 4 comedians over 3 weeks as they crossed BC on a comedy / snowboarding tour.
Electronic Arts “Need for Speed: The Run”
1 minute and 30 second TV commercial slots directed by Michael Bay.
“Let me Beat”
For the band Caniama.
Electronic Arts “Need for Speed: The Run”
$100M budget AAA videogame. Responsible for all cinematography, dynamic ingame cameras and motion capture cinematography.
Unannounced Title
AAA secret title. Responsible for all cinematics, procedural cameras and camera technology.
“Back to the Car”
For the band We all Want To. A unique music video shot in black and white, then projected and refilmed from an moving car driving around Brisbane, Australia.
Pandemic Studios Unannounced Title
Responsible for the technical art direction, cinematic direction and lighting.
Electronic Arts “SSX On Tour”
Helped design the lighting pipeline and lit a number of tracks in the game.
Electronic Arts “NBA Street 3”
AAA game title. Responsible for all the camera work in this 90+ rated videogame. Worked with Hype Williams on the presentation.
Photographic Projects
Not a complete list. Just some of the favourites.
I’ve worked as a DOP or photographer with: Michael Bay, Electronic Arts, Hype Williams, The Beastie Boys, Christina Hendricks, Alex De Rakoff, Nike, Addidas, the 2010 Olympics, to name some of my favourites.
The Beastie Boys
Shot the Bboys on the roof of the Capitol Records building.
The 2010 Olympics
Photographed Vancouver with a beautiful layer of snow on the mountains from a helicopter.
Electronic Arts: Christina Hendricks
Photographed Christina Hendricks from Mad Men for marketing and internal.
Other Clients
Adidas
Nike
The Govt of Canada
The Knowledge Network
Massive Attack
Elvis Costello
Sarah Mclachlan
…and many other bands.
Processes
Pre-Visualization
A recent process used by many prominent directors is the use of 3D visualization. I was a CG Supervisor at Electronic Arts for many years and can bring years of 3d CG experience to the project. We can work out camera angles, animation, lenses and realistically block entire scenes on the computer. The benefits are enormous both creatively and budget wise.
Pre-vis allows you to block out and experiment effortlessly with any of your scenes. It can illuminate exactly what needs to be shot for action scenes, or to help with lens and rig decisions in specific environments. Will a 18mm lens get the top of the roof and the floor in at the Yankee Stadium? What does a 35mm lens look like on X car with a hood mount? We can figure that out without getting either the camera or the vehicle, or the stadium.
Not only can you figure out camera / lens / editing decisions beforehand, but it can drastically help reduce set decoration since you know exactly what’s in frame.
Making pre-vis a part of the creative process can drastically improve the shot quality while also reducing if not eliminating surprises on the day.
DOP / Cinematography
Shooting a feature or short requires a lot of pre-planning. I work with the director and others to get an understanding of what the creative center of the project is. A lot of reference is gathered and we all look at a range of images so we can narrow down the look.
I do a complete script breakdown into scenes to determine the lighting requirements. Each major scene is represented by a reference image and I put them all in a line so we can see color and contrast wise, how the movie flows, how each scene moves to the next. It’s a way to look at the entire film’s colors to see how they fit together and can reinforce the story.
Here is a ‘Movie Barcode’ which illustrates a similar idea, but at an individual frame level. Each vertical row of pixels is taken from each frame of a movie. The resulting image lets you see how the colors of the movie change over time. Can you guess the movie?
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