confetti student magazine SPR/SUM 2019 chris cook THE MAKING OF ROCKET CEL SPELLMAN RADIO 1 HOST INTERVIEW INDUSTRY WEEK 2019 THIS YEAR’S HIGHLIGHTS PART OF CONTENTS 04 Industry Week 2019 Gallery 06 Cel Spellman 08 The Making of Rocket 10 Creature Feature 13 Do It For Real Games - Bradley Hunter 14 Tim Exile 16 Production Manager Tips 18 Interview with Confetti CEO - Craig Chettle 20 Student Debuts on BBC Radio Derby 2019 has got off to a flying start as we celebrate As for what our amazing students – and 22 Student Success Stories Confetti’s 25th anniversary. In what’s set to be alumni - have been up to, you can see for the biggest year in Confetti’s history, there’s yourself in this issue as we chat to current 24 Producer Gareth Jones been a lot of exciting events already which we and former Confetti-goers. 26 Beth Rowley have collected for this issue of Wire. 28 Confetti Goals We hope you enjoy this issue of Wire Industry Week 2019 happened in March and magazine as much as we’ve enjoyed 30 Photographer Jack Pickerill we had some great guests. For any Guardians putting it together! 31 It’s Not Too Late to Apply of the Galaxy fans, we met the man who 32 Getting Ready for Uni created Rocket and Baby Groot, as well as Cel Spellman from Radio 1, the production manager 34 Student Accommodation for Bohemian Rhapsody and so many more. As 35 Student Finance weeks go, this one was pretty special. 36 Confetti Social Snapchat We’ve also enjoyed a diverse line-up of gigs 38 Confetti Community at Metronome, and will be looking at what’s to come over the rest of the year. Whether you’re into jazz, hip hop, spoken word or something Front page: Chris Cook, Cinefex - completely different, chances are we’ll have a Rocket Raccoon from Guardians of the Galaxy 2 gig for that! Top left: Industry Week Music Panel Top right: Student Christmas Party Bottom right: Frantics at Confetti Live (credit: Andrea Bottino) 4. INDUSTRY WEEK 2019 GALLERY INDUSTRY WEEK 2019 1 2 Industry Week 2019 was a resounding success, with big names from the world of music, media and games coming to Confetti to deliver some great talks. Diversity was the order of the week, with everything from live music performances to games art demos and acting workshops taking place across the Confetti campus. Our new venue Metronome was the location of choice for many of the talks, and as you can see from our photo gallery the set- up was incredible! Here’s what we enjoyed during the week: 1. Chris Cook delivered a fantastic talk about working in VFX for some huge films, and how he created characters like Rocket and Baby Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy 2 2. Our student crew interviewed guests Abigail Longstaffe and David Raper from Mandy.com 3. MLC Academy Jam Session showing students how to improvise like a pro 4. VFX supervisor James Mac spoke about VFX in commercials, feature films and music videos 5. Student band BRIA performing a fantastic set with BBC 3 4 Introducing on the Metronome stage 6. A Gamer Gamer event which rounded off Industry Week in hilarious fashion with a group of comedians getting their game on for the audience 5 6 6. INSERT TEXT IW19 FEATURE - CEL SPELLMAN 7. Confetti invited Cel Spellman to this year’s Industry Week, where the actor and presenter delivered a great talk to students. At 23, Cel Spellman has already Spellman described his time on CBBC as conquered both screen and radio; a “the best presenting school possible”, feat not wholly typical of someone his and said it sparked his love of presenting age but one that he felt compelled which propelled him to move into radio. to achieve from a young age. Starting Being offered his first slot on BBC out in showbiz at just seven with a voice- Radio 1’s Sunday afternoon show was acting role in Beauty and the Beast, somewhat surreal, he laughed. Spellman moved on to act in the popular BBC drama Waterloo Road before Now, he’s happily pursuing both acting making his Radio 1 debut in 2013 on the and presenting, with his role on ITV’s CEL Request Show. Since then, he’s secured Cold Feet - describing his co-star and on a Sunday afternoon show on the radio screen father James Nesbitt as a great station; a prime-time fixture in the world acting role model who “never has an off of radio broadcasting. day” and knows everybody’s name on the set. SPELLMAN So where did his ambition and confidence come from? During his His passion, drive and dedication - as BBC RADIO 1 HOST Industry Week interview, Spellman well as his hunger to keep learning from explained how he knew from a young others - shone through during his talk, age that he wished to pursue acting. and the buzz felt amongst students With the support of his family - and an really was palpable. Compelling and agreement with them that he would fresh, he set a true example to students continue his academic work alongside and encouraged them that they could acting - he moved to London and do anything with the right attitude and attended Sylvia Young Theatre School. hard work. During his talk, he spoke about His main bits of advice? “Take every experiences during and after school, opportunity you are given, always have and how he found it tricky to switch an answer and never give up - get ready from acting to presenting in his first for constant rejection and being ground presenter’s role on CBBC Friday down, as this is part and parcel of being Download show. in the arts. It’s probably the hardest part to deal with, but it’s all worth it in “I’d been told to ignore the camera for the end!” eight years, then all of a sudden I was being told to stare down its barrel and Is there anything Cel Spellman can’t do? talk directly to the lens.” For ego’s sake, we hope so. 8. INSERT TEXT IW19 FEATURE - CHRIS COOK 9. THE MAKING OF We“ delivered over 1,000 VFX shots and CG assets... - CHRIS COOK CHRIS COOK - LEAD MODELLER Rocket’s 'PowerStation' gun in animators to use. Other artists His signature wink is the opening title sequence was jumped in every now and then to anatomically impossible. designed in one hour. help give the build a little push, Our highly skilled face shape In the opening sequence we found and in all, probably around a artist spent a lot of time trying ourselves in a position where we year’s worth of man hours were to figure out how Rocket could needed to design a new gun for spent on just the model alone. wink with the corners of his lips Rocket without any concept art, And that's just the base model, pulling back. Turns out that there and quickly. We decided that it even more people were involved is no combination of muscles that would be fun to run what we call in rigging, texture, groom, look could achieve exactly what James a 'lunch crunch' competition. On development and everything else! wanted it to be while maintaining Friday morning we posed the the anatomy required to do all challenge to the whole modelling We made him twice. other movements required, so we department to design his gun, Despite the fact that Framestore faked it! no brief, just make it cool. Lunch made Rocket for the first Guardians crunch rules are you can only film, we actually completely On set Rocket was played by work on it over a one hour lunch, restarted when it came to making Director James Gunn’s brother who all designs must be submitted by the second film. This was to take shuffled around on his knees. 2pm. That Friday evening we sent advantage of improvements in Yes, you read that right. He had to 17 concepts to the clients and they muscle and flesh systems that be digitally removed in foreground fell in love with the one you see would help us achieve a more and reflections in every shot and today. The actual model build took realistic performance. replaced with our CG character. over three weeks to complete. He had 91 face shapes. Here are some random facts from It took three modellers to We broke his dialogue down in to the work we delivered on GOTG2. make the Rocket. individual movements of areas of • We delivered over 1,000 VFX On my team I had one person the face, called FACS shapes. Once shots and CG assets responsible for the main model, we had done this we determined • We received 104,737 client which included skin, anatomy and that with 91 different shapes notes eyes. A second was responsible combined in different ways we • There were 12,900 tasks for the costume and a third artist could make him say everything he • We made 100,000 submission just made face shapes for the needed to say. iterations 10. IW19 FEATURE - PAUL WARREN confetti.ac.uk 11. Actor Paul Warren What is one thing that took you by What’s your favourite project spoke to us about his surprise about working in film? that you’ve worked on to date? experiences as a sci-fi That I am being paid to play monsters in I’ve been very lucky to work on some and fantasy actor, how movies! Growing up, I was obsessed with very big and fun franchises (Harry he found his way into monster movies.