John Carter Wraps and Premiere

John Carter is complete and finally out. As the film is what brought me to London, it will always mean something to me. I'm proud of the effects in it. I think we did a good job.








We had a cool wrap party in the main hall of the London Natural History Museum. It is a beautiful venue for an event like this.











Andrew Stanton came over to attend and thank the artists, which was very nice of him.





He was wandering around the floor and was very gracious about getting his photo taken with the crazy artists like me who worked on his film.













It was nice to see so many of the people I worked with over the course of the 2.5 year long project and reconnect with them.







We also had a very nice VES screening of the final film at BAFTA (British Affiliation of Film and Television Artists).





We were able to get Andrew to again come to introduce the film, and we had the three Visual Effects Supervisors on a panel afterwards to speak about the work in the film. Helen and I spent about a month organizing the event.



It is nice to have John Carter behind me now, and I look forward to new and exciting projects.

Last Day of Skiing and the trip back

The sun was out spectacularly again on our last day. We skied from Courchevel over to Meribel, the next resort over. Over the three days that we were in the 3 Valleys, we were only able to ski two of the resorts.








It was a great day of skiing, but we knew we couldn't travel too far from our hotel, as we would need to stop at 1 to check out and head to the bus stop to start on the trip home.







We did manage to get in one last cup of Hot Chocolate from perhaps the most spectacular location I could imagine. It is called the Panorama Chalet.










It was certainly one of the most expensive cups of Hot Chocolate I've ever had - the whipped cream alone cost 2 Euro. But it was well worth it to enjoy the amazing view.






It felt wonderful to sit in the warm sun on top of the world and look out over the snow covered valleys below.











All too soon unfortunately, it was time to start back to the hotel to catch the bus to catch the train back to Grenoble.

If I learned anything about packaged trips is to be sure the travel company's itinerary actually works. Sadly, this one didn't quite work. The package included one more night in Courchevel, but if we had stayed, there would be no way to get from the resort back to Grenoble in time to catch our flight the following morning at 9:40am. This meant that we had to get back to Grenoble and buy an additional night in a Hotel there. We've complained to Alti-Ski about it, but they couldn't put us on a later flight. They were willing to arrange a car to pick us up at the resort and drive us to the airport for an additional cost of 400 GBP. Lesson learned. . .

The train ride back to Grenoble was easy, and we made it in time to have dinner there. We found a lovely restaurant called Le Petite Idee. It was a French restaurant just a couple blocks from our hotel, which was just a couple blocks from the train station and across the river from the Bastille (fort) in Grenoble. I'd love to come back and see the Bastille some day.






I had their prix fix dinner which included homemade Foix Gras and Tournedos de Beouf and Potatoes Dauphinois. The entire meal was delicious and kind of made up for having to leave the resort a night early.



The following morning, we got up early, ate a quick breakfast at the hotel, and made our way to the bus station to catch the early shuttle to the airport to catch our flight back to London. It was a dark and rainy morning, but we looked forward to seeing the puppies and relaxing after another crazy day of travel.

Courchevel Village

Courchevel is a cute little hillside town that is dominated by the Ski Business.








It is a classy town with lots of high brow shops and resorts. Certainly, this is what Mammoth, CA would like to become.






After a day of skiing, we liked to walk around town and look at things.









As one would expect, we were able to get a fabulous Nutella and Grand Meriner crepe fresh off the griddle. Afterall, it is in France. . .




A lot of the resorts are fanciful in nature in regards to their architecture, yet harkening to their alpine roots.








It would be fun to stay in one of these on our next visit.

Skiing in Courchevel

It was snowing on our first full day in Courchevel. The mountain was capped with thick clouds and visibility was low. The resort was still beautiful.









We had a great breakfast at the hotel complete with eggs, ham, grilled tomatoes, sauted mushrooms, and croissants. Feeling powered up for a full day of skiing.









It was wonderful to see my "monster" skis again after not having used them in 2 years.









It is amazing how big this place is. Courchevel alone is probably the size of Mammoth, and then add on 2 additional valleys that easily just as large. Tony was always amazed to see still more lifts on faraway slopes. One could stay here for a week and not ski everything.






BMW is the official sponsor of Courchevel, though we saw cars on display from Farrari and Porsche. It was fun to see adds for expensive cars and expensive fashion on the slopes.






There was even a BMW encased in a glass box at the top of one of the lifts. It looked ready to be in some James Bond movie.





At times, the clouds were so thick, and the light so flat, that it was hard to see where we were going. I occasionally get a bit nausious when this happens, so it is a clear time to stop and take a break.





We have a tradition of breaking for a mid-morning cup of Hot Chocolate. And the French do very good Hot Chocolate with loads of Whipped Cream on top.



There was lots of fun art along the runs or "pistes" as the French call them. One was a giant White Ape, which looked like King Kong.





Another was a Giant French Bulldog, that reminded me a bit of our dog, Pepper.




Dotted around the ski resorts in amongst the ski pistes are a series of Helipads and small airports. Evidently the 3 Valleys, of which Courcevel is one, is very popular with the European Jet Setting crowd. We did get to see one small plane take off while we were there.




When the weather cleared, the views of the mountains were spectacular. It is certainly one of the most beautiful ski resorts I've ever been to.







Yes, the Europeans do ski resorts right. And it is the Alps afterall. . .

2012 Ski Trip to Courchevel

Tony and I hadn't gone skiing for 2 years, so when we decided to go this year, I asked two of my coworkers, Stuart and Steven, where they would recommend. They were both in agreement - Courchevel, France.

We booked our flight and hotel package through Flexi-ski, with whom I have some issues but we'll talk more about that later. We decided on a Half-Board Hotel in Courchevel. This meant that we would have our breakfasts and dinners provided at the hotel, but would be free to get lunch wherever we would like on the slopes.




We woke at 3:30 in the morning to be ready for our ride to Gatwick Airport, which is about 1.5 hours away. In order to simplify our journey to the airport, we hired a car as opposed to riding the bus to the train station to get the train to the airport. It was definitely worthwhile given that we had all of our ski equipment, and that there are so few buses and trains this early in the morning.




We arrived at the airport at 5:30 in the morning for our 7:30 flight to Grenoble. It may sound strange, but we've almost gotten used to this sort of crazy travel day schedule. Upon our arrival in Grenoble, we had to take an hour bus ride into town to the train station to catch our 2 hour train ride from Grenoble to Moutiers. From Moutiers, we would catch another bus for the final 1 hour bus ride up to the resort in Courchevel. It was an exhausting 12 hours of travel.




We had lunch in Grenoble at the Quick hamburger stand where they had Star Wars themed burgers. There was also a poster hanging for John Carter with my apes pictured on it. It is always fun to see posters for films that I've worked on, on display in foreign languages.



The train ride from Grenoble to Moutiers was pretty as we passed through vineyards with castles perched above. It would be fun to come back here and do some wine tasting.






By the time we arrived in Moutiers after having very little sleep the night before, we were both beginning to feel tired and frosty.



And by the time we reached Courchevel, we were exhausted. We had to walk about 3 blocks uphill from the bus station, and it felt like a long way.

Our hotel, St. Louis, was comfortable, but not as fabulous as we had hoped. But they served great food, and the bed was soft. I think we ate, and then fell immediately asleep.








The nice bottle of French wine we had with dinner didn't hurt either. . .