New Member Profile: Pepi Oliver-Bell

The VFX Guild is pleased to welcome Pepi as a new member of the VFXG community.

Pepi has been awarded a one-year free VFXG membership in recognition of winning the VFX Award for her Capstone Project at Massey University’s National Academy of Screen Arts (NASA). This award recognises outstanding emerging talent and craft, and we’re proud to support Pepi as she takes her next steps in the screen industry.

Please join us in giving Pepi a huge welcome to the VFX Guild community. We’re looking forward to seeing where her work takes her next.

Below, Pepi shares more about her pathway into VFX, her award-winning project Bad Egg, and the roles she’s excited to pursue as she enters the industry.

1. Can you tell us a bit about your pathway into VFX and screen work: what drew you to this field in the first place, where did you study, what did you major in, and what was it like winning the VFX award?

My pathway into VFX and screen work started in my first year at Massey University three years ago now. I’m pretty sure VFX was compulsory in my first year. I had a lecturer who was always coked out — Coca-Cola, that is. He made it exciting and something I wanted to continue to get better at, despite how horrific I was initially.

I majored in film for my first two years and switched to a VFX major in my last year, as I thought it would provide me with more opportunities. It also made it possible for me to be able to make my own film for my final project, along with a VFX project on the side.

Winning the VFX award was genuinely a ‘what the heck’ sort of moment. Partly due to seeing other students’ work and thinking, damn, that is so beyond me. The other part still sees many, many flaws in my final product — but if no one else can see them, then I’ll take it. In retrospect, I am proud of what I put up, and I never would have thought I would end up here after my three years, but I’m certainly grateful.

2. Can you describe your role on Bad Egg and the specific VFX work you were responsible for, including any technical or creative challenges you solved?

For Bad Egg, I was a writer, director, colourist, and VFX artist — certainly a handful. I even recall a lecturer calling me ‘rather ambitious’ for attempting to do both directing and VFX.

Despite having more of a film production role in Bad Egg, I still wanted a way to merge my VFX project into it. There is no doubt that I was heavily inspired by the Severance intro, which is all weird, wacky, and trippy. Eggs, to me, bring that exact energy, so it was the perfect marriage of ideas, if you ask me.

With that in mind, I booted up Houdini to make a credit sequence for Bad Egg. I start all my VFX projects with a Photoshop mockup — photobashed images that help me understand where I can start, because starting is always the hardest part.

There are always technical challenges, and although it’s hard to pinpoint just one, just know there were hours spent staring at the screen. Like: why is the egg texture whack? How can I get it to look like a human? What is the best material for the albumen? Through trial and error, I eventually got to a point where I was happy.

3. You wrote and directed the film as well as contributing VFX. How do you manage collaboration and decision-making when working across creative and technical roles? What tools, workflows, or skills are you most confident using?

I’m thankful that making a film is such a collaborative process. VFX, on the other hand, for Bad Egg, was quite independent.

On set, I found that a lot more things are subject to change. Despite having structure, there are always times where something might go wrong and you have to adapt in the moment — or maybe something you thought would work actually doesn’t. A lot goes off gut feeling and embracing the moment.

I had an awesome relationship with my DOP and 1st AD. We worked with a percentage scale on how necessary a shot was — the 1st AD’s percentage would, more often than not, trump the director’s or DOP’s percentage — but that’s what made it work.

Being on set, being with the actors, and seeing the story play out in front of my very eyes helped shape the story I wanted to create in my VFX outro. Working closely with the editor also gave me a new perspective.

I’ve gained a lot more confidence in using Houdini, along with MoBu and Photoshop, and I also love using DaVinci and other Adobe Suite applications.

4. What kind of roles are you actively seeking as you enter the industry?

My heart will always lie with being behind a camera — whether it’s DOP or camera op, I absolutely love it. Since Bad Egg, I would still love to direct in the future, along with the many more scripts I plan to write.