Simon Devine
Director/Producer
Specialist skills – post production, animation & production management.
From the humble origins of assistant editor, Simon applied his keen eye, sharp ear and tenacity to become one of the most highly respected ‘post guru’s’ in London. This, together with his kind, cheerful nature, led him to being an integral part of the Commercials Unlimited team.
Simon is a highly valued, experienced producer with a comprehensive understanding of the ever evolving digital camera workflows and, with post-heavy commercials taking more and more precedence, he more often than not takes responsibility for the post production. He’s also a director in his own right, with his specialised areas being animation, CGI and SFX. There’s simply no other producer/director more painstaking or committed to the pursuit of excellence.
As well as admiring his attention to detail and trusting his judgment implicitly, everyone enjoys the time spent in Simon’s company, even after several weeks spent in the dark of an edit suite.
Simon is married and is a staunch supporter of Manchester City, as well as being a regular at Lords.
Credit Suisse - 'X-ray campaign' (one of 6 x 15")
Directors: Hugh Turvey & Simon Devine
1 day mute 35mm bluescreen shoot plus 'X-ray' and CGI
Hugh Turvey pioneered a technique in coloured X-ray photography and Simon Devine implemented the transition to live action. Each of the six scripts required live action 'X-ray' images with the subjects covering a fish swimming, bees buzzing, clocks ticking, an arm yo-yoing, letters landing and toast toasting.
Although there’s no problem X-raying inanimate objects, this was not possible with the bees, fish or human arm. Also, producing the animation as X-rays was out of the question due to the high degree of accuracy required, neither was it a practical solution.
The approach for ‘Fish’ was ingenious; we researched the bone structure of a sardine and found a larger, freshwater fish that was similar and shot live action footage of the fish swimming against bluescreen.
Various key stage reference X-rays were taken of another fish (a herring) then the live action was used as the basis for conventional rotoscoping, providing the template the animation for finishing in CGI. The sound- design added greatly to the overall effect. ‘Post Box’ was produced entirely as key frame X-rays and CGI. -
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