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For director Eugene Gauran, Graphika Manila 2014 was a homecoming. Hailing from Cebu City, Gauran represented The Mill at the design conference.
Founded in partnership with Ridley and Tony Scott, The Mill is a post-production facility that has done countless visual effects for feature films and commercials.
During his talk, Gauran shared how The Mill comes up with their projects. “Style frames are like storyboards on crack. The quickest way to a client’s heart is through your style frames,” he said, showing the audience a reel in order to take them through the steps needed to get to the final picture.
Gauran also discussed the importance of design. “Basically, it’s just showing the overall power of CG to tell stories, but again, everything starts with design and we should never overlook that process,” he told adobo.
He shared that prep work is an important part of the design process. Designers should look at references, and get inspired by different forms of media, he said. “I know I work a lot with CG and VFX but I don’t normally limit myself to seeing only those things. I’m always inspired by people like Jessica (Hische) and Sara (Blake) and what they do. At certain points I do draw some reference from that. It’s always about keeping inspired,” Gauran said.
He was also inspired by Dvein’s Magma piece, which the Barcelona-based directors showed during their talk at Graphika Manila. “There’s something about how they mix together media with live action and also with CG and just how they paired them up together. It’s always awe-inspiring because I’m in a field where its always rigid vex and making sure that everything is based on realism. But seeing how you can also tie that in with really clever design work is really cool to see,” he said.
At the end of his talk, Gauran shared his plans to put up a technical school in the country. “It’s important for me to try to give back,” he said.
Graphika Manila 2014 was held on February 1 at the SMX Convention Center in Manila.
