Who makes this stuff anyway?

Hey you. Yeah, you with the face. Ever wonder who exactly is behind the visual effects from your favorite movies or commercials? Well if you haven't, that's unfortunate. If you have, however, then the search is over.

MPC (Moving Picture Company) has been one of the global leaders in visual effects for over 25 years, and it doesn't seem that they'll be out of the game anytime soon. With facilities in London, Vancouver, Montréal, Los Angeles, New York, Amsterdam, Bangalore, and Mexico City, MPC is a powerful group that's stationed around the world. In addition to being one of the world's leaders in visual effects, MPC also specializes in concept design, shoot supervision, software development, color grading, and many other aspects of a production.

Man of Steel, World War Z, Life of Pi, and Prometheus are some of MPC's more recent successes that you probably know. I mean, really, how would you not? These are just a few of the company's unbelievable projects where they have gone above and beyond the norm. Take a look. I bet you won't be able to only watch part of the reel.

The company has made some spectacular accomplishments in the world of visual effects. MPC is currently working on countless projects including Godzilla and Game of Thrones (a personal favorite). Aside from films, the company has taken part in the creation of numerous advertising campaigns such as Coca-Cola and Lexus.

I'm not sure if it's the music or the visual effects that have got me amped, but either way, that's some amazing work right there. I guess it just takes a montage and some exciting music to make you realize how much great work is put into certain projects. That's not to say the effects aren't good enough to be noticed on their own, but it's just that a person wouldn't typically stop and think about them.

I don't mean for this to be a post where I shamelessly advertise for some company. No, they didn't ask me to do this. It would have hopefully been written much better if they did. I just think the proper people should be given credit where credit is deserved. Also, apparently MPC is working on this:

And that just looks dope.

Inception Inspired

Over the week, I saw a commercial involving a car that appeared to be inspired by the movie Inception. At first, I was only half paying attention, because I wasn't watching TV for the commercials, but my eyes drifted to the screen because of the amount of movement that was happening. Once I was focused on the TV, I felt seasick and wished the commercial would end- but I couldn't look away because I had to see how much worse it got. Of course, now that I have a minute to sit down and write about said commercial, I can't remember what the commercial was for (a car, auto insurance, etc;).

In my quest to find this offensive commercial I found that Lexus has created three different commercials for their vehicles that also seem to be inspired by Inception. The differences I felt between the Lexus commercials and the mystery commercial is that Lexus used creative graphic effects but didn't suffocate the audience with sensory overload. The cuts used are not too fast and give the viewer time to process what is happening. Lexus also didn't overuse Z axis manipulation. Although in these commercials the Z axis is changing and the shot appears to flip onto it's side, I still know where I am at all times. Lexus isn't the only one using Inception for ideas. I also found an LG commercial for a vacuum that seems to be inspired by Inception. I feel that since the film came out in theatres, more and more media professionals are trying to incorporate full scale graphic effects.