Hasta La Motion!

Los Angeles, CA – August 17, 2010 –Visual effects company Method announced that it has promoted Claus Hansen to head up its Creative Finishing division as creative director. Hansen, who has worked with Method since its 2009 merger with RIOT (where he’d been on staff since 1999), oversees all creative projects for the division in addition to contributing his own talents as a finishing/VFX artist. Recent projects from Hansen at Method include spots for Playstation with Deutsch, Nike “Puppets” and Jeep “Manifesto” with Wieden+Kennedy, and Scion “xB Splicer” for ATTIK.

“Method’s Creative Finishing division has continued to expand, growing into a robust team of highly skilled artists with a wide range of talents, and Claus’s leadership ensures that all finishing projects are subject to Method’s high standards for quality,” said Method’s Creative Finishing executive producer Robert Owens. “More than any other company, what we offer clients is bandwidth and talent. Our strength is in the team and its ability to work together.”

The Creative Finishing division has expanded to fill the third floor of Method’s recently remodeled Los Angeles facility, featuring comfortable rooms with stunning balcony views attended by Method’s client services team. The division is staffed with five Flame artists, including Hansen, and the team’s two Smoke artists have recently been joined by the newly hired Aaron Neitz. In addition, with Method’s CG and compositing teams available for more complex VFX just one floor away, finishing clients also have access to powerful effects for their commercial projects.

“We’re thrilled about the growth of the Creative Finishing division, and applaud the quality of projects that have come to Method under Claus’ leadership,” commented Patrick Davenport, Method’s VP of operations. “In addition, there are tremendous benefits to having a visual effects team on hand for CG work or other complex VFX needs outside of finishing. Method has the infrastructure and talent to tackle even the most involved VFX projects, which means that we can offer our finishing clients a wide range of services.”




Claus Hansen, Creative Director, Creative Finishing, Method Studios


Hansen got his start in visual effects through his work at Danish national television station DRTV, where he designed title opens for various shows and helped create the station’s identity. In 1997, he moved to the U.S. and joined Encore Hollywood, where he created titles and graphics for Comedy Central, CNBC and other broadcast accounts. He has also created visual effects for a number of television series including “The X-Files,” “Charmed” and “Ally McBeal.” A native of Denmark, Hansen graduated from the Danish design school Kunsthåndværkerskolen with a degree in illustration and graphic design.

“Method’s Creative Finishing division has truly become a force to be reckoned with. We have the power and the people, and since we can always ramp up to go full steam ahead, no job is too big or too small,” Hansen said. “The team has a great combination of very talented people, and we all work incredibly well together. With our very dedicated in-house producers, all our jobs go very smoothly. Because we can scale our resources and technology to the needs of any given project, we’re able to deliver projects on a very timely manner.”

About Method Studios
Based in Los Angeles, with locations in New York and London, Method Studios is a leading postproduction facility providing a full range of visual effects services including conceptual design, look development, 3D animation/CGI, matte painting, compositing and finishing. Method Studios also provides an array of services to stereoscopic film productions, including the creation of stereo 3D content. Method’s sister company, Company 3, maintains a full stereoscopic color-grading suite in the same building as Method’s Los Angeles facility, most recently used for Tim Burton’s "Alice in Wonderland."www.methodstudios.com

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The story charts Scott’s efforts to win the heart of the elusive girl of his dreams, Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). However, nothing is ever straight forward in love and Scott soon discovers that in order to win Ramona’s heart, he must defeat each of her 7 evil ex-boyfriends in combat.

When Wright approached Double Negative to help him realise the visual effects of the movie, Dneg’s VFX Supervisor, Frazer Churchill and his team, knew that the biggest challenges would be in keeping the spirit of the comic alive, making the graphics photographic and visualising the extremely stylised fight sequences, all of which were based in a hyper-real altered reality.

The visual effects employed in the film, covered a huge spectrum, including creating some of the film’s stylised exteriors and cg environments, comic book graphics, visualised music, and of course, the 7 fights, ranging from kung fu to skatebording style (and everything in between), each of which escalated in spectacular intensity throughout the film and featured goodies such as Demon Hipster Chicks, Snow Dragons and a Sound Yetti, yes, a Sound Yetti!

THE STORY
Meet charming and jobless Scott Pilgrim. A bass guitarist for garage band Sex Bob-omb, the 22-year-old has just met the girl of his dreams…literally. The only catch to winning Ramona Flowers? Her seven evil exes are coming to kill him. Genre-smashing filmmaker Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead) tells the amazing story of one romantic slacker’s quest to power up with love in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.

Scott Pilgrim has never had a problem getting a girlfriend. It’s getting rid of them that proves difficult. From the girl who kicked his heart’s ass—and now is back in town—to the teenage distraction he’s trying to shake when Ramona rollerblades into his world, love hasn’t been easy. He soon discovers, however, his new crush has the most unusual baggage of all: a nefarious league of exes controls her love life and will do whatever it takes to eliminate him as a suitor.

As Scott gets closer to Ramona, he must face an increasingly vicious rogues’ gallery from her past—from infamous skateboarders to vegan rock stars and fearsome identical twins. And if he hopes to win his true love, he must vanquish them all before it really is game over.

ABOUT DOUBLE NEGATIVE
Since its formation in 1998, Double Negative has firmly established itself as a leading player in visual effects production worldwide. Located in the heart of London’s Soho, the company is a pre-eminent visual effects studio with more than 70 feature films to its credit. Led by Managing Director Alex Hope and CEO Matt Holben, Double Negative is capable of handling projects from initial design through on-set supervision and production to post-production. All key post-production technologies are available in-house to allow for maximum flexibility,

CREDITS
Directed by: Edgar Wright
Produced by: Edgar Wright, Marc Platt, Eric Gitter and Nira Park
Screenplay Written by: Edgar Wright and Michael Bacall
Graphic novels written by: Bryan Lee O’Malley
Narrated by: Bill Hader
Music by: Nigel Godrich
Cinematography: Bill Pope
Editing by: Jonathan Amos and Paul Machliss
Studio: Big Talk Films
Distributed by: Universal Pictures

CAST
Michael Cera as Scott Pilgrim
Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona Victoria Flowers
Kieran Culkin as Wallace Wells
Ellen Wong as Knives Chau
Alison Pill as Kim Pine
Mark Webber as Stephen Stills
Johnny Simmons as Young Neil
Anna Kendrick as Stacey Pilgrim
Brie Larson as Natalie V. “Envy” Adams
Erik Knudsen as Luke “Crash” Wilson
Aubrey Plaza as Julie Powers
Tennessee Thomas as Lynette Guycott
Jean Yoon as Mrs. Chau

RELATED LINKS
www.scottpilgrimthemovie.com
www.dneg.com

SOURCES
doublenegative.com
scottpilgrimthemovie.com