I worked as a VFX artist on “Once Within A Time”, an anarchic comedy and art movie about climate and tech anxiety meant for a kid’s audience. I was part of a team of three VFX folks, and I worked on the project for three months. My segments included the Clarion Call, the first appearance of Tara and Apollo in Act I, the introduction to Act II and the “Nonsense Man” segment plus the cards and title typography. The whole film is meant to look like a hand-colored film from the silent era, and I used a technique that VFX Supervisor Grier Dills developed. I was able to use a lot of different skills in this project, from creating cel animation and watercolor-like effects, to working on the title typography so that it mimicked late-Victorian fairy tale titles. I really got to experiment and stretch, which was part of what made this project super fun to work on.

The film made its world premiere at SFiFF, the Santa Fe International Film Festival, where director Godfrey Reggio was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award, and was an Official Selection at MoMA Films.

VFX Supervisor: Grier Dill
Production Company: Optic Nerve
Executive Producers: Steven Soderbergh, Alexander Rodnyansky
Composer: Phillip Glass
Directors: Godfrey Reggio, Jon Kane