Dogfight

A lone Spitfire pilot who longs for his loved one is hounded by a determined Luftwaffe ace.

Film making, creating something from nothing, and learning as much as possible are what drive me to tell stories. At the turn of the new year, I started a journey to train in Unreal Engine. Film visualisation is something that has long interested me, it’s a perfect blend of making artistic decisions while working with a technical mindset.

To fully embrace this new ‘Real-time’ workflow, I decided to make a short film and utilise Unreal to bring it to life. When showing the film to colleagues, I described the visual style of the film and the process, I’ve settled on what I believe summed up my rational:

“Think Enhanced PreVis rather than Final Pixel”

Dogfight was designed to tell a story in the most filmic way I could with this new tool. I wasn’t concerned with creating fully realised movements, nuances or high-end keyframe animation. I wanted interesting compositions, a closeness to the sun and to ratchet up the tension.

Westerns have long captured my imagination, I feel that’s the genre that I subconsciously channel, it’s the reason for deciding on the picture aspect ratio, a touch of cinemascope never hurt.