Homepage of Jon Rennie
Dylan Teague

Added a new banner by Dylan Teague, artist for a number of 2000AD strips. 

 
Hairiness

In a week's time, I'll be preparing to welcome my first employees to the new offices of Red Wire to start working on the Ha Ha Hairies. Some of the facilities are in, hardware and software have been ordered and all the 52 first draft scripts have been delivered. Elsewhere, the sets are starting to be built and the costumes made. I've been involved in the project, in its various incarnations, for over three years and it's great to see it finally coming together. It's going to be a full time production until February next year, by which time I might have aged a few extra years.

I've also nearly finished my post production VFX work on Elfie Hopkins, delivering the final shots to The Mews via FTP for grading. It doesn't seem that long ago that I was shivering on a sub-zero March night in West Wales. From what I've seen, it's going to be a fantastic, individual film with a distinctive British flavour. I'm looking forward to the first crew screening where I see it together in all its glory. The production was a great experience for me, having never been on a feature film set before. Most of my work up to now has been on local TV productions so getting the chance to be on location for four weeks was something I couldn't pass up. I'm just glad it happened before Hairies started otherwise I would have had to stay away.

Actually, my next big production will be a short film for the It's My Shout scheme. My film is called King of the Castle and has been written by William Smith, also a Newport Uni graduate, albeit a decade later than me. It'll be filmed on location in Coity and The Coal Exchange for three days next month before being edited at BBC Wales in Llandaff. The premiere will be in November at the Grand Pavilion in Porthcawl. I'm rather glad I'm not organising everything on this film! I wouldn't have had the time anyway so I really appreciate the support the scheme gives me. I've pretty much finished casting and Huw Walters will be my DoP again. Actually, James Bolam will be in one of the other films on the scheme so I'm hoping to take a day to go to that set and say hello. I can't believe it's been a year since I was finishing Blank Canvas and The Cursed Mirror. I really need to make that feature film!

The comics section of this website now has loads more banners to look at. I need to take some time to fill in the descriptions for the sketches from the recent Bristol Convention. We recently had our first meeting for the second Cardiff International Comics and Animation Expo (yes, animation now as well) and there are some big plans for the event in February. We'll be in the Mercure Hotel again, but for two days, and I'll be hosting a number of the panels. There was so much support and good will for our first event that I know it'll be a huge success next year.

I'm on Twitter now (@jon_rennie) so I'm going to try and use that to post more immediate updates. Also, www.redwirevfx.com has been established.

 
Elfie Wrap and Mr. Winstone

hr_Elfie_Hopkins_1

Elfie Hopkins has now wrapped and I'm back in Cardiff finishing off work on a promo trailer for a potential feature film called Embedded, directed by Reign of Death helmer Matt Savage. We shot the promo on Merthyr Mawr sands in mid-Febrary and will screen it at the Sci-Fi Film Festival in two weeks' time. There's quite a bit of creature work in there courtesy of Linus Hoffman and Jordan Davies (also Reign of Death - bit of a reunion actually) and I'm doing matte paintings and grading to make South Wales look like Afghanistan. Things are going really well and the response so far has been excellent.

My four weeks in New Quay (Ceredigion) filming Elfie were fantastic and I really enjoyed my time there. The days were long (12-15 hours minimum) but very rewarding and the final film will be excellent. I was on set to supervise the VFX and also be DIT, moving the RED footage from CF cards to multiple hard drives. It was all really pleasant shoot to be on with so many superb and professional people. While I was there I had the chance to interview the extraordinarily generous Ray Winstone about his work on Beowulf, Indiana Jones and Rango (plus a bit of Hugo Cabret!) I've also done one with Rupert Evans about this work on Hellboy so I'll post that as soon as I have time.

 

Dim lights Embed Embed this video on your site

 

196604_10150128713149564_546289563_6346916_2868110_nWhile I was away, I decided it would be a good idea to climb Snowdon on my day off. I have to admit that out of the three of us who did the climb, I was by far the worst and always trailed behind. Nevertheless, it was a fantastic trip and the perseverance paid off with some amazing images of Snowdon, walking through the cloud to stand on top of the world. Very 'Misty Mountains'.

Lastly, Blank Canvas will have its first festival screening this month at the London Independent Film Festival on April 23rd. Really looking forward to seeing it on the big screening again and hopefully a few of the cast and crew will be able to make it down as well. Hopefully this is the first of many festival screenings for my short films!
 
Birmingham

Hurrah! All my Birmingham banners are now listed and commented. A big thanks to all the artists for taking the time to produce some really great images and for making my first proper convention such a great experience. Everyone was really friendly and chatty and I hope to catch up with many of them again at the Bristol convention next year. The complete list of artists is:

Brian Talbot
D'Israeli
David Hitchcock
Chris Phillips
Rufus Dayglo
Lorenzo Etherington
Mike Mignola
Duncan Fegredo
Emma Vieceli
Sean Phillips
Charlie Adlard
Phil Winslade
Leigh Gallagher
Lew Stringer
Staz Johnson
Mark Buckingham

 
First Steps

First entries: Mike Collins and Pia Guerra. Pia visited Mike's studio as part of her round-Britain Doctor Who tour. Sometimes it really helps being in Cardiff! Pia kindly christened my sketch book with a Yorick sketch and Mike followed closely after with a tableau of his most recent (and forthcoming!) work. 

 
« StartPrev12345678NextEnd »

Page 1 of 8