Meet Blaine Harrington IV | Photographer, Blogger, Aspiring VFX Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Blaine Harrington IV and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Blaine, can you tell us more about your background and the role it’s played in shaping who you are today?
I’m from Colorado, and I live in Sherman Oaks California now. I was inspired by a lot of things growing up. My dad’s a professional travel photographer, and I was always surrounded by his work, which made me want to take photos myself. He would take me with him on his trips to Alaska, the Canyon Lands and we were lucky enough to go on the top of Mount Rushmore. During Spring break of this year, we both went to Death Valley National Park, and Joshua Tree National Park.

I did a lot of artistic things, and was inspired by a lot of movies and TV shows. I explored so much as I got older, photography, editing, writing, motion graphics, visual effects compositing. I put my talents to good use, especially when I moved to LA to attend Exceptional Minds, which is a school that teaches animation and visual effects to people with Autism. After I graduated from Exceptional Minds, I was accepted at the Academy Gold Rising program for the summer. There, I learned so many different things about film, which were inside my area of interest. There is so much I love about film, and one of them is the way they are made. A lot of work goes into making movies, and it requires different types of talent to bring them to life. I graduated from Academy Gold this past August, but that doesn’t mean it’s over. They said I’ll always be a member of Academy Gold, and they are going to help me with my path in getting a job in the industry. They are also going to set me up with a mentor in November. Someone to guide me.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’ve learned so much about photography from my father, and his work has helped inspire me. I take photography seriously. I care about how things look in the shot. It’s not always easy getting the shot you want. You have to think and work fast. Whenever you see something that looks like a good shot you get it immediately. There are times I don’t get the shot I want, which is disappointing. I tell myself be prepared for what might come. I take pictures of various things: environments, people, objects, whatever looks photographic. It’s good to take pictures of different things, and show something new.

Writing is something I taught myself how to do. I started showing interest in doing it when I was 24. I wanted to write movie blogs, being a great lover of film. There are several reasons I love to write. It helps express my feelings, my passions, the things I observed from watching a movies, the stuff I find interesting, what the movie means to me, if I feel something personal, what makes the movie unique or special. Growing up, I felt no one understood that there is more to movies than entertainment. They are also pieces of art, or they are something personal. Movies can be a lot of things, and I’m helping explain what makes them great. People ask if me writing blogs is a hobby, which makes it sound like it’s not that important. It’s not a hobby, in if you put a lot of love and devotion into it.

Visual effects, that was challenging. It was something I never thought I would do, it was handed over to me. Exceptional Minds teaches few things such as animation, visual effects, and motion graphics. I chose visual effects because I’m more into doing live action. The school doesn’t teach you enhanced effects, they teach the students how to be compositors. The work we did was clean platte out unwanted objects in a shot, split comp, and rotoscoping. The way I describe it is we are the clean up crew. We did small effects, but even they can be challenging to understand how to do. It took me more than a year to get used to the Nuke software you use to do those type of effects. When I started using it, I could hardly understand how it worked. I had to go over it with the teachers several times in order to get it. Even though visual effects was outside my area of interest and I felt it was impossible for me to do, still I did find it fascinating, and everyone I know believed I could do it. Their support helped get me through it.

The work I enjoyed the most while attending Exceptional Minds is in the motion graphics and 3D department. A few students and I worked on this Info graph about movie makeup. One of the things I did with my portion of the project was give it somewhat of a photographic approach. I devoted a whole month to the project and more ideas were coming to me as I was working on it. I made it better than how I storyboarded it. I received a Best of Award for my work on that project.

3D was another skill I thought would be impossible to do. It wasn’t easy to do 3D in the Maya software, but I’m not alone. My teachers thought Maya was difficult too. Then I started working in Cinema4D and that was a lot easier. I don’t know why, but it just felt that way. The stuff I did in Cinema4D was challenging to put together, but it was something I really wanted to do because it was something I had visioned. When it comes to these type of projects, one of the things I’m trying to figure out is how I will want the camera to move in it. For example, one of the 3D projects I did was a vortex, and the camera was going backwards as it was going through it.

Another 3D software I learned was Unreal Engine. I was taught how to create 3D environments, and what’s cool about it is how life like they look. The first 3D environment I did was inspired by the house from “Ex Machina” and the Batcave from “Batman vs Superman.” I’ve always loved the type of architecture you see in those types of movies, and it inspired me to make one of my own. I also took pictures of houses in Sherman Oaks to help give me ideas of what to construct in my model. I even decorated the walls with my own photographs. It’s cool to see your own photos inside a 3D environment. It took more than two months to work on that 3D environment, and it’s another one of those projects I was very passionate about. It was hard to walk away from it. I plan to create more 3D environments in the future.

A lot of people are impressed with my work, and I impress myself as well. I look at the things I’ve done, and ask myself “how did this happen?!” The feeling I get from each one of these projects is creativity and I love it.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Well when I was living in Colorado, I would walk around the lake next to my neighborhood all the time. I also loved hiking at Deer Creek Canyon. There are several areas in Colorado that I am very familiar with.

I’m still getting to know places where I’m living now because California is huge. I love going to Venice Beach because people don’t just swim down there, you see street art, people riding their bikes or exercising.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My father, Blaine Harrington III, the professional travel photographer who has inspired me with his work and supported me for my gifts. Academy Gold Rising for welcomed me in their program so I could experience a lot of awesome things I am so passionate about. The men and women of the film industry who inspire people like me every day. The people who have inspired me as a writer are Quentin Tarantino, Christopher Nolan and Adam McKay. Finally, Exceptional Minds for helping restore my creative side again, and helping me learn new things such as motion graphics and visual effects.

Website: https://blaineharriv.wixsite.com/mysite

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blaineharringtoniv/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blaineharringtoniv/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbeIb2JKSxl_DQhgU4RdXVg

Other: https://creatively.life/BHIV https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cT2zP3unoqbUttrWYVBspLVKHpSgcG0v/view

Image Credits
Photos by Blaine Harrington IV