Oscar & BAFTA win for Paul Franklin
2 March 2011
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BU guest lecturer Paul Franklin wins Oscar and BAFTA for ‘Inception’. |
Paul Franklin, frequent visitor to the Media School at Bournemouth University (BU), has won an Oscar and a BAFTA for his stunning visual effects in ‘Inception’.
The film sees Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) invade people’s dreams to influence events in the waking world. In his most complicated job he enters different realms of the dream-world, each with more mind-blowing scenarios than the last.
Paul’s company Double Negative developed the remarkable visual effects. Particularly memorable scenes include the streets of Paris lifting up and folding over upon themselves and the implausible landscape of Dom and his wife’s self-created dream world.
Paul was the Undergraduate External Examiner at BU for 4-5 years, constantly feeding into curriculum development to ensure courses stay in line with industry practice. He gives frequent visiting practitioner lectures, including one in November 2010 and another in December on Cinematography.
A graduate from the NCCA was also on the podium to collect the Oscar with Paul Franklin. Andy Lockley was also the Visual Effects Supervisor for Inception.
Numerous BU animation graduates work for Paul at Double Negative in London. Ana Gnomes, who graduated from BU’s Masters in Digital Effects in 2009, has worked for the company on projects such as ‘Inception’, teen comedy ‘Scott Pilgrim vs the World’ and Simon Pegg and Nick Frost’s latest offering ‘Paul’.
Ana said: “I have to say that working on Inception was really exciting and rewarding. We had an amazing team of about 300 artists all working on the same floor, which meant we all knew each other and we felt like a big family. We recently won a VES award, a BAFTA and an Oscar and I couldn't be more proud!”
She continued: “Also, we had the ‘Paul’ cast and crew screening just a few weeks ago and it's always really rewarding and overwhelming to see your work on screen.”
Ana concluded: “I have to say that BU provided me with a much higher chance of getting a job in this industry. I ended the course with a broad knowledge of visual effects. You are taught to create something new, from concept to final delivery and you go through every single stage from shooting to compositing. This really makes you understand the process as a whole. The fact that BU use Nuke and Houdini, both highly used in the industry all over the world, also provides you with the technical skills employers look for.”