Since joining Guerilla FX (GFX), a visual effects, production, post finishing, design and interactive house, Creative Director/VFX Supervisor John Bair and VFX Executive Producer Vivian Connolly, have concentrated their energies primarily on creating visual effects and main title sequences for feature films including New York, I Love You and The Messenger, and visual effects for Doubt.
For the soon to be released New York, I Love You, a collection of a dozen short films on the theme of encountering love within New York City’s five boroughs, Bair designed and hand animated elaborate main titles. A snapshot of life in the City in extreme fast motion, the sequence is basically a time lapse of the Union Square market and cityscapes, all of which he stylized and colored to create a mood, and then added a huge, hand written, hand animated piece of text that writes on screen the film’s title.
In addition, GFX’s Bair, Connolly and Compositor Scott Winston, executed a majority of the films visual effects shots, 40 in all, from the straight forward to a projected art show on the side of buildings. “ We treated that footage to make it look like an artist had interpreted the shots and then digitally composited them onto the sides of buildings, onto window sills, and other surfaces, creating an art show that was never there. It involved designing the look of that footage, placing it in the shots and making it all look seamless. It was really exciting effects-wise,” explained John Bair.
From the producers of Paris, Je T’aime, New York, I Love You stars an ensemble cast including Rachel Bilson, Orlando Bloom, Natalie Portman, Christina Ricci, Hayden Christensen, Andre Benjamin, Shia LaBeouf, Sonny Sandoval, Raphael Saadiq, Irrfan Khan and Kevin Bacon.
The Messenger, directed by Oren Moverman, premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and stars Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster as officers responsible for informing families of deaths of their loved ones in Iraq.