City native hoping for Vikings’ raid at Emmys
Fans of the History Channel’s Vikings haven’t seen Windsor native Corey Mayne on screen, but some of his work has been unforgettable.
Mayne has been part of the historical drama’s visual effects team for the past two years and their work was honoured this month with an Emmy nomination for special effects.
“It’s the first time I’ve been part of show nominated (for an Emmy),” said Mayne, who now calls Toronto home.
“I’ve worked on Oscar-winning movies, but this is just as exciting perhaps even surpasses that because we were allowed to be more creative. “It’s arguably more gratifying.” The 2017 Emmy Awards will be held Sept. 17 in Los Angeles.
Since graduating from Sheridan College’s Media Arts program in 2007, the 32-year-old Mayne has compiled an impressive resume.
Among the nearly 100 projects he’s worked on besides Vikings are Game of Thrones, Reign, The Borgias, Brave, Wally, Up, the Toy Story series, Transformers, Penny Dreadful and Beowulf.
“It’s a very creative group,” Mayne said. “You learn to fit into the style they want, but there’s a little room for creativity.
“I had a scene where an arrow went through the back of a guy’s head and out of his mouth.
“They didn’t ask for it that way, but I got a lot of good feedback for it.”
Mayne and his fellow visual effects wizards, who create their visual magic using NUKE software, are also responsible for creating fleets of Viking ships out of a few, the barrage of arrows that fill the skies regularly and turning from one landscape into another.
They also make sure modern symbols don’t slip into the background of a scene.
“The work on what you don’t see is just as important,” Mayne said.
“We have to make sure we clean things up or else the telephone pole in the background destroys the whole mood you’re trying to create in a period piece.”
Like actors and directors, good visual effects artists do their own research.
Mayne quizzes a friend who works for Emergency Medical Services about how the human body reacts to certain impacts.
Researching reality it seems is still the key to making fantasy real.
“I have some ideas for some slicing and dicing,” Mayne joked about what he asked his friend about.
“I don’t know why I’m good at the gory stuff. The most creative we get to be is on the violence.
“Maybe this is my way of getting it out of my system.”
Mayne cites Vikings, Penny Dreadful and Beowulf as among his favourite efforts.
Though he’d like to attend the Emmys in September, Mayne’s schedule will ramp back up with the return to production of Vikings.
He’s also working on making his own short film this fall.
Mayne and Windsor native Barbara Szeman, who is serving as producer, have secured the rights to Stephen King’s short story Willa.
The story revolves around a train disaster with romantic undertones that make it a little unusual for a King story.
“We’re going to do a day of shooting in Windsor in October,” Mayne said.
“Having gotten more experience and seeing how things are put together here (Take Five Productions) will give me an advantage. I think directing a film now is an educated risk for me.”