John Haley: "Study but make sure you enjoy what you do"

Behind some of the most breathtaking scenes of ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ movie (Marc Webb, 2012) there are large groups of experts in visual effects. One of them is John Haley (@jnhaley on Twitter), who worked as a Computer Graphics Supervisor. He is currently working on a film entitled ‘Oz, The Great and Powerful’, directed by Sam Raimi, and when he finishes this project in February, he is going to start working on ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’. Taking advantage of the expert in visual effects visited UVic, the Obrellaunes team decided to interview him. [Traduïda al català]

Mr. Haley, could you please explain what does your job involves?

As a CG Supervisor I am responsible for managing the team of artists that works to create the digital visual effects for the sequences in a film. I also propose which techniques and paradigms to use in order to best achieve the most aesthetically pleasing and cost effective work.

To those who might think in tailing you, what good advice would you give them?

Study! Make sure you enjoy what you do. Visual effects movies are very creative and fun, but it takes a lot of hard work, long hours, and many people to make spectacular visual effects. If you want to become a supervisor, learn to listen to your coworkers. Try and learn something new on each project, and think about what the client wants.

According to your experience, what studies do these students need and which skills do they should achieve?

I would encourage anyone interested in effects to try and focus on traditional art, computer science, and mathematics. It is very easy to teach someone with these skills how to use a computer. It is difficult to teach someone that only knows how to use a computer program how to problem solve and create art.

What about their attitude? Does a CG specialist need some specific outstanding characteristics?

Focus. Artists need to take direction well, and have a good aesthetic sense. Artists need to realize that they are responsible for making their shots look good. If they are willing to go to extra lengths to make their work the best it can be, their superiors will recognize their abilities.

Focusing on ‘The Amazing Spiderman’, may you explain us what tasks were you and your team required to do?

I was responsible for supervising the effects for the sequences in the second half of the Amazing Spider-man. Three of the sequences comprised the climax of the film: The crane, the final battle, and the falling antenna sequences. The final swing sequence ended the film. My team worked on various effects including: Spider-man swinging through the streets of New York City, Spider-man freezing the Lizard using liquid nitrogen, and Spiderman fighting the Lizard atop of Oscorp involving the large explosion over New York City.

Most of the people think that your job is a postproduction work. However, in this 3D movie you have worked before and during the shooting as well. Why?

Despite the fact that most of the crew is brought on for the post-production portion of the film, there is a tremendous amount of work done during both preproduction and production. In preproduction I was involved in bidding and getting the film work awarded to Sony Picture Imageworks. We also conducted camera, costume, and visual effects tests. During the production shoot I was involved in the practical photography and character acquisitions to help gather the material to create digital versions of the main characters. I photographed and managed a crew of artists to gather reference photos and scans of 6th Avenue in New York City. We also to photographs for the cityscape tile world backgrounds used in the film from the 7 World Trade Center and the Exxon Building.

‘The Amazing Spiderman’ is a native 3D film instead of converting the footage to 3D in post. How did it affected the CG work?

Shooting The Amazing Spider-man in native stereo required us to develop a new working pipeline for our visual effects work. Sony Pictures Imageworks has worked on a number of movies in which 3D conversion was used to make the stereo version. Because we shot in native stereo, our new pipeline was very carefully crafted so that we could dial the depth of each shot independently to give the audience the best viewing experience. Our lighters, compositors, and stereographers spent more time working on each shot in stereo to better integrate the effects work.

Which have been the biggest challenge you have faced in the film and how have you overcome it?

The biggest challenge for my team in the film was definitely creating the virtual version of 6th Avenue in New York City. This took a team of 40 artists working for almost six months. At first the task seemed overwhelming, but then we started breaking down the work block by city block, matching very carefully to the reference images. We added layer upon layer of detail and texture to get the look and feel of the real street and environment. We were very pleased with the end result.

Do you think that the amount of CG effects in a movie should be limited or that there are no limits if the CG work is well done?

I think that visual effects in a film should help to support the story. It does not matter how good the effects are if there is not a good story. Poorly done visual effects always take away from the movie-going experience, whether or the not the story is a good one.

Finally, which have been your professional successes in this movie and which challenges will you have to face in future projects?

I am very proud of the work that was done on the Amazing Spider-man. I had a wonderful time working on the project. Even though much of the work was very difficult, it was very rewarding to have it come out so well. All of the artists working on the film were glad to have it be so well received.