What can we say about Victor Perez? Well, apart from being an award-winner Film Director, his roots come from the world of VFX. So naturally he was the first person we went to when Scion was on the table. He is considered a visual effects compositing master and NUKE™ guru. Victor has worked on a number of Hollywood blockbusters such as: The Dark Knight, Harry Potter, Rogue One and Pirates of the Caribbean to name but a few.
Starting his career as a photographer and digital artist. Today his films have earned him more than 27 awards worldwide. So naturally we wanted to ask him a few questions about his career and his thoughts on Scion from a VFX perspective.
1. What made you decide to work in Film and TV?
I guess, it was the combination of main factors: the first, I was born in the country side in the 80s, aside school I didn’t have friends to ply with when I was home, so I found other ways to spend time; the second –the way I found to spend time– my brother is a photographer, he’s 15 years older than me, and by the mid-80s he was experimenting with computers for graphics manipulation.
I was very lucky my brother taught me how to do stop-motion animation when I was just 6 years old. He always took me to the cinema to watch sci-fi film, including Star Wars and he was telling me how those visual effects were craft while we were watching the film. So, for me it was so natural to use his gear to “play”, and because he had to work with my father to pay for those bills, I cheekily use his gear while he was away.
My mother always said I love “lights and buttons”. For me crafting “visual effects” and telling stories was a game. When I moved to the city, I got my friends involved into creating very short stories and playing them in a TV in a room in my house as it was a cinema (we even sold the tickets and candy). I loved that. For me, to be honest, crafting stories is still I game, I feel my job is to play and have fun (and they even pay me for it!).
2. What was your first ever job in Media?
I started working in a graphic design studio –named Infocolor– back in Lucena, a town in the province of Cordoba, Spain (my hometown when I was a child). I was 16 and they pick me because I used to go there to print my early works (printing was a big deal at the time) and one day they asked me how I was producing those images, I told them about Photoshop that I was using since version 1.5 (way before layers were a thing!).
So, I spend a summer there in order to save some money to pay my Drama Arts studies (yes, I studied Performing arts, and I worked as an actor in Spain for a decade… check my IMDb, I worked with Antonio Banderas in his second film as director).
3. What is it you find satisfying about your job?
I love the mix of science, technology and art. Science allow me to analyse things with an empirical approach, to be able when something is “right” or “wrong”, technology keeps us constantly learning, because it changes so fast that something that works today maybe isn’t the right approach tomorrow, a continuous change (like life), new tech that inspires artists to explore new ways; and art, because we can use our imagination to create the impossible. The ability to combine those empowers you to CREATE anything… and the act of “creation” belongs to the gods.
4. Let’s talk Scion. What is it that you like about the project?
The scope. It’s big on every sense. I always loved the epic genre and classic mythology. As an artist this is dream because there are things that you will see there that you’ve never seen before.
Men, gods, and titans; stories that narrate what’s to be human today. I love the contemporary timeframe, it put into context the role of the Myth in our modern society. Goods stories talk about us, as human beings, regardless the genre, but the epic revels always a theme I loved: we are able to accomplish way more than we can even imagine.
5. How important will VFX be within the show? And how do you see them working alongside the practical effects?
This is clearly a VFX-driven project. Simply you cannot tell this story without VFX, there is so much going on at a ridiculously big scale that it couldn’t be told otherwise. As the head of the VFX for Scion, I want to maintain aesthetics that ensure the photorealism and believability and still playful. I love practical creature work mixed with VFX to achieve a result that will get the suspension disbelieve of the audience. At the end of the day I want the audience to forget about the technicalities, I’d love nobody noticing the VFX but the story. Practical effects will play a key role on this.
6. What is the one character your excited to see appear in the show?
I don’t want to spoil anything… but I’ll say I love the Titans. When you’ll see them, you’ll understand why.
7. Finally, if you were the son of a god from Scion, which would it be?
I would be the son of Thor, I like to classic style with the modern becoming a very pop-demigod! The relation with nature, the gather of the powers of phenomena that is familiar in our world. Or I could manipulate time… the crazy thing is like there is so much there that you can choose anything!