How many people have sat in darkened movie theatres watching credits roll, wishing their name was on the screen? Probably too many to count.
St. Albert’s Dee Orriss, a lighting associate for Sony Pictures Imageworks, no longer needs to wish. Red One, a Christmas action-adventure starring Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans and Lucy Liu, is being released on Friday, Nov. 15, and their name is on the credits.
“I’m excited to see my name on the credits. I guess I’ve always dreamt about it but never expected it. It’s so surreal to have my name on the credits with actual superstars. I have a hard time believing I’m sharing the screen with Dwayne Johnson, maybe the world’s best paid actor,” said Orriss.
Released by Amazon MGM Studios, Red One’s plot is based on a Santa kidnapping. Johnson plays Callum Drift, commander of Santa’s protective security team and Evans is Jack, a mercenary white hat hacker who inadvertently provides a black ops team with the North Pole’s location.
In this fantasy action-packed, globe-trotting mission to save Christmas, Orriss, a lighting associate based in Vancouver, worked with Sony’s 15-person lighting team to mesh computer-generated graphics with live action filmed in Atlanta.
In one filmed sequence, Orriss was required to design computer-generated (CG) plants. Johnson and Evans were talking in front of blue screen. Several plants were brought in to provide ambience.
“But the plants died on set. Nobody had the job to water them,” Orriss said with a laugh.
Another challenge with Atlanta scenes was the light had a slight yellow cast, whereas northern light tends to be lighter in colour.
“Every shot had a different light, and the challenge was to make everything work.”
Part of the action takes place in Hawai’i, where evil Snowmen storm the island.
“My biggest challenge was making the snowmen glitter depending on how the light is on them. I figured it out and basically tried to make them look nice. The thing is you only have so many pixels. But the beautiful thing about working in this studio, is there are so many smart people who over time know how to make things look right.”
Orriss’ passion for visual perfection is in their DNA. Their mother is Dixie Orriss, owner of Pygmalion School of Art, a semestered art school that runs programs for youth and adults.
“I grew up surrounded by arts, but I always preferred animation. If I was watching a live kid’s TV show, I’d change the channel and hope to find something with animation. I really developed an interest in animation.”
By Grade 5, they were drawing stick men and weaving their way through traps. However, Orriss’ art teacher was critical of their leanings.
“I grew up with anxiety. The pressure of feeling the drawing wasn’t good enough got to me. When you’re that age, it’s difficult to recognize the process – that you have to practice to get better.”
Shying away from art, they replaced free time with books of fantasy and video games. Although they attempted soccer and badminton, it was more of an obligation.
“I enjoyed anything that would trigger the imagination. I liked stuff that was evocative of imagery and video games required lots of imagination.”
Diagnosed with ADHD after their 2012 graduation from Paul Kane High School, Orriss is the first to admit they were not a very good student.
“I had trouble focusing. The structure of school was not how I wanted to spend my time.”
After high school, they attempted a number of things including working at Jack’s Burger Shack as a dishwasher and fryer. But it wasn’t until cartoonist Gerry Rasmussen, an instructor at Pygmalion, invited them to attend a one-week cartooning series at Red Deer Polytechnic that life fell into place.
During the one-week program, Peter Fiala, head of Applied Arts in Animation and Visual Effects dropped by to promote the four-year program.
“It was the type of thing that the more I thought about it, the more it felt right. I played video games. I knew computers. I solved technical issues, and I loved animation. I was ready to embrace the process of artistic creation and I believed in myself.”
Each year was progressively more difficult with students studying a wide range of courses, including storyboarding, layout, design, colour scripts, modelling, sculpting, rigging, animation, lighting, rendering and visual effects.
In the fourth and final year, Orriss created a digital lighting portfolio and applied to Sony’s internship program.
“I was honestly confident I wasn’t going to get the job. It was so competitive. There’s only so many companies in Canada that offer an internship.”
Orriss’ next Sony project is K-Pop: Demon Hunters, a musical adventure that follows a K-Pop group who sing and identify as bad-ass demon hunters. However, due to a non-disclosure agreement, they are unable to reveal more information.