#013 — Olaf Blomerus

Hello Olaf, exciting to have you here on the Artist Spotlight! Could you please introduce yourself to the Blauw Films audience? 

Of course. My name is Olaf Blomerus. I’m a visual effects artist and filmmaker based out of Calgary, AB, Canada. I was born in South Africa and moved when I was 11. So, South Afri-Canadian? 

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That’s really cool! When I look at your work, both as a director and visual effects artist, I see an incredibly refined sense of taste. How would you personally describe your style? 

I think that’s incredibly difficult for me to self evaluate. I’ve always wrestled with what someone’s “style” is… I suppose I gravitate towards a few things anytime I create: shadows, details and texture. Wherever my style falls within those, I guess, is it.  

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Yes I can definitely feel how shadows shape and guide the atmosphere in your work. And when it comes to detail and texture, I always appreciate the incredible photorealism you strive for in your work. 

I’m sure it’s a combination of many subtleties. But what are some of the key tips you could give on getting such believable results? 

Being observational. And reference reference reference. The real world gives us so many freebies when we’re photographing it but you can learn so much by just looking up close and taking notes for your 3D work. Scratches, dust, color imperfections, manufacturing marks, stickers, labels etc etc. When you’re creating something from scratch in the visual effects world you really have to keep adding the smallest of details that on their own amount to what may feel like nothing, but when you layer and layer and layer… suddenly… all those 1-5% changes add up. And that starts in modelling, bleeds into texturing, lighting and especially in compositing. At all those stages you can add primary details then secondary then tertiary. I find a lot of artists at first focus too much on primary, barely touch secondary and then completely negate any tertiary elements. It all adds up. Trust me.

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That’s wonderful advice. And I’m definitely going to apply that to my own work. 

When working in photorealistic 3D you can run into the “issue” that people don’t realise it’s a render. The work is seen as a photograph — but you also shoot and share photography! Is this all part of “the illusion”? 

Haha, I’m never trying to intentionally stump or fool. But it does feel great when someone's perception of a piece that took you hours upon hours is that you snapped it on your iphone while walking past it somewhere in the real world. At the same time though you want to grab them by the shoulders and bring them closer and go “No, no, no… I created this on my computer, it’s not real!”. Does that make it more or less worth someone’s attention? I’m not sure. 

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You’re working on a personal project, Amor Machina, which from the glimpses I’ve seen looks like a wonderful film with a truly touching story. Can you share more about the project? 

Thank you! All I’ll share at the moment is that it’s taking far longer than I want it to… but I’m very excited about it. I joke that I want to always “Be working on my best work yet!” and I truly feel like this will be the best thing I’ve made yet. 

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Ah that’s amazing! I’m sure that with patience and persistence you’ll craft your best work yet. 

Which leads me to another project! A few years ago you did a project with Ryan Booth called American Machines. Inspired by the black and white street photography of Robert Frank in the book The Americans. 

First of all, American Machines is such a cool project! 

Thanks!! It’s truly one of my favourite things I’ve done. 

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But I’d love to know, how did that project influence Amor Machina?
And from both a technical and artistic side, what did you take with you to this new project? 

Honestly it didn’t influence Amor Machina at all. Amor Machina was born out of a feature film I’ve written called Hello World. While the story is very different, on an emotional and technical level they have a lot of the same themes. So it’s a story on its own that will showcase how we can make Hello World. American Machines was born out of my love for robotics, the future and Robert Frank. 

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Oh interesting! I’m excited for all the developments on Hello World. 

For Amor Machina, how important is it for the renders to seamlessly match the footage?  

Very. Watching it you should never think that machine is not actually there. The point is that it exists in reality. 

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And we cannot forget about working with actors! How was your approach on guiding them through the performance? As one of the two characters will be replaced with a robot.  

It was really important to all of us that while the machine in Amor Machina is entirely created in post, that onset there was a real person. Even more important was that this person wasn’t just a stand-in and that they were the character. It was important that they brought to life this machine and that nuances and thoughtfulness that an actor brings to any role was brought here too. Christian (Sloan) and Elle (Young) were instrumental to crafting this story and I really can’t wait to share what they did. 

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Absolutely. I’m very excited to see this project. How has your process of iteration been up till now? 
How much do you tend to conceptualize an idea and “re-work” it until you know it’s right? 

Far too much. I could release a book of all the failed designs for the machine. I tend to over think and laser focus on perfection to an absolute fault. But in my defense, the design was just never right for the story we wanted to tell. I’ll get into far more detail one day but to answer the question: the process has been painful and I re-work a lot…

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How critical are you with your ideas?

Overly. And to a fault. I’m trying to get better. “Perfection is the enemy of the good” right?... and something I’m trying to be more okay with is that every story has been told… but the point isn’t what story you tell, it’s how you tell it. 

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That is true. We have this saying at Blauw Films “Everything has been done before, but not how we do it”. It mainly serves as a reminder to trust the process and not get too stuck on perfection. 

If we take a moment to talk about working in the industry, what would you say are some key moments that progressed your career to where you are now?

Well this could be a very long answer. I’ve been lucky enough to work with so many great studios and creatives but I’d say a major highlight would be working on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3. I had just finished the final round of notes and tweaks for the scene with my creative director and right as I handed it off they commented “We’ll put this in front of James tomorrow” and felt a true sense of excitement. This was still months before release so I only assumed my shots would be re-done by then and knowing Gunn’s eye for VFX is high it was inevitable to me that someone else would touch it again. Fast forward months later I was watching it in the theatre and it was exactly as I had finished it. Felt pretty great. 

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But honestly there are so many it’s hard to narrow down. And each job, contract and collaboration is filled with great moments. A humbling story was when I was working on Life Beyond Earth with the team at Revenant (a project I’m still immensely proud of) and we were talking with astronaut and MIT professor Dr. Jeffrey A. Hoffman. We were reviewing the animatics and rough renders and general project when Dr. Hoffman informed me that I had the landing module approaching the moon backwards… as a space nut I was both instantly humbled and very much geeking out. Anyways… lots of key moments.

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Haha that’s amazing! How has your experience been with the industry?

Generally great. I’ve been lucky to collaborate with so many great studios and production companies. Definitely downsides and low points, freelance life can be scary at times when the phone isn’t ringing or emails aren’t coming… but I’ve had far more great experiences than bad. 

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Are you particular about the people you like to work with? Is selective collaboration important to your process? 

When I can be, yes. But you don’t always get to choose who you’re collaborating with. And sometimes you do and you find out later that maybe you don’t work well together. I’ve had times where I’ve been pleasantly surprised and times where I’ve been unfortunately disappointed. But I’m a firm believer that sometimes you’re just not compatible and that’s absolutely fine. Not that either is doing anything wrong… you’re just different in how you approach problems and creativity. I think more people need to be okay with that rather than taking things personally. And at times you may actually learn more about yourself. 

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That’s a very good point. And good to hear that you’ve found a way to accept the differences and not take things personally. I feel like in collaboration we’re always threading this line of synergy and friction.

On a more personal note, as an artist and a father, how do you optimize your work-life balance? I feel like most artists struggle to find more time, even to spend with loved ones or to do what they dream of doing. 

It’s tough. I love what I do but I can find both work or family life exhausting equally. Both I try to balance and manage. I let there be overlap when there can be. If I were to be 100% focused on either for too long I go a bit crazy. 

So for example, I love photography and filming. So when I’m with the family I tend to still do that, but not for work reasons, for personal reasons… but letting them blend over and around each other keeps both sides fresh and my creative brain pumping. Everyone’s perfect balance is different, I just find it very difficult to turn one or the other off entirely. 

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What kind of advice would you give to someone thinking of a career in directing or visual effects? There is always a new generation taking their first steps into this adventure.

That’s a tough one to answer with today's climate of AI and the creative world in general. I guess at its core I’d advise to DO more sooner than later. Go out and make something, anything. Don’t worry about it being good or bad or great or even finished. Just DO more. You learn way more than by reading about how to do it. Fail as much as possible when there’s nothing on the line, so that when things are on the line,  you’ve gotten that out of the way. 

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Alright mate, thanks so much for taking the time to share all of this. As always, we like to end every Artist Spotlight with a personal recommendation from the artist. Any good films, books, habits, or anything else you’d like to recommend to the reader?

Thanks for having me! I recently finished 99u’s Manage Your Day-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus, and Sharpen Your Creative Mind. It’s an inspiring read. Some great new ideas and some reinforcement of current ones. Highly recommended to get you jump started on getting your creative life. (I’m also reading their two follow ups). I think Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday is just generally a great life read and truly opened my world up when I embraced it more. I recommend it to everyone. 

The 1957 12 Angry Men film is something I think any filmmaker should watch. A beautiful example of story telling being simple but complex at the same time. Beautiful film. And as far as habits… honestly, everyone does it differently… EVERYONE. There’s no perfect, find what works for you AND your life and then mold it into your perfect.

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