CAREER STORIES
simulated ocean and then a big finale shot at the end that takes us from a topside stormy CG ocean with a 100ft wave, into a flooded interior cabin and back out into an underwater CG environment, which was around 3000 frames. Those shots gave us many sleepless nights! From a CG point of view, this meant layers of complex simulations and heavy assets being passed between departments. A condensed timescale between shot turnaround and final delivery added to the importance of coming up with a solid and consistent pipeline for this work.” When picking a favourite VFX shot from her career, Bennett explains there are too many to choose from. “A key highlight would be a shot I did in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets . It was one of my first big CG comp shots and it was for the spiders in the forest. Honestly, it’s hard to choose a favourite, but I was also proud of Netflix’s The Woman King and The Old Guard . Looking forward, we’ll soon be able to share one of our biggest projects to date with NBC Universal and Loud Minds’ Surviving Earth, which as a company we’re really proud of.”
Bennett co-founded Milk VFX in 2013 alongside people she had worked with at The Mill. “We knew The Mill wanted to move away from TV and film, and the founding members of Milk saw a hidden opportunity in this despite the industry challenges of the writers’ strike during that year. Milk VFX has been established for 11 years now; we’ve expanded into other regions such as Dublin, Bordeaux and Barcelona, which offer new cultural ideas and inspiration. It helps us have more creative freedom tapping into the incredible talent across UK and Europe.” In 2016, Bennett won an Academy Award for her work on Ex-Machina . “I had worked with Alex Garland previously on Dredd so when he came in to discuss Ex Machina, we were keen to be part of it,” explains Bennett. “He is a very talented and inspiring director. Plus, Andrew Whitehurst – who was the overall production supervisor – was of the same ilk, it was a great project to be part of.” One of the most challenging shots of Bennett’s career came in 2018. “We created 70 stormy ocean shots for Adrift ,” notes Bennett. “There was a huge 7000-frame opening shot with a fully
THERE WAS A HUGE 7000-frame OPENING SHOT WITH A fully- simulated OCEAN”
26
DEFINITIONMAGAZINE.COM
Powered by FlippingBook