I’m sitting down in BBN’s editing bay. Typing away, getting work done. When from nowhere a voice whispers into my ear, “Hey Corey!”
I jump in my seat and nearly crack my hand on the desk. Holding my red appendage, I look behind me to uncover the culprit. Well, I look behind and then up. Tilting my head all the way to the ceiling, I’m looking at a six foot, four inch junior wearing a “VFX or DIE” T-Shirt who’s smiling at me through long, brown hair that parts left just enough to cover one of his hazel eyes.
Chris Van Lieshout.
Before I joined BBN, Chris Van Lieshout was just a name to me. I saw it every other Thursday, right before the BBN started: “Intro by Chris Van Lieshout.”
“Wow,” I thought to myself, “This guy must really be something.” His work seemed so professional. So well done. So well executed. “I bet he’s insanely serious, organized, and put together in order to get his stuff to look so good. He had to be born for this.” I continued.
Fast forward a couple months.
I had just made it into BBN and was on my way to the first meet up during the school year. I walk nervously through the blue door to room 306.
A class crowded full of people. I feel awkward and alone. I look around to see if I can find someone I know, but I don’t.
Mr. Felix and this really tall student are talking in front of a drone. They’re discussing about how to keep a camera steady while it flies. “Maybe use warp stabilizer?” I suggest hesitantly. The tall student looks down at me and says, “Maybe.”
I look up at him and hope for a friend. But he just awkwardly stares back down at me before going back to examining the drone. After a moment’s silence, I walk away confused.
Its now past the summer; into my senior year.
I’ve survived a couple of weeks in BBN and I feel comfortable in the class. I talk to some people, I’ve made friends. The work I do is good, but I felt like doing a little more, especially visual effects.
So I tell Chris Van Lieshout if he ever needs help with VFX, he could always tell me. “Oh, ok”, was his reply. That’s it? It was a strange response to someone offering their labor, but I didn’t pay much attention to it.
My first VFX job was making the sports intro for our Sports Producer, Dustin Tran. My computer was set up next to Chris Van Lieshout’s but he never spoke a word to me. We worked in silence. Whenever I’d ask for his creative opinion, I’d get responses like, “Its fine” or “Looks good.” Even when the product is finished I get a vague, “Looks fine” response.
An odd boss, but at least he gives me creative freedom….
Another week into BBN and I’m with a group of friends. I’m pitching my idea for the Shia Leboeuf package as Chris Van Lieshout is walking by. He joins the group to hear the pitch. “JUST DO IT”, I scream with enthusiasm and everyone laughs, including Chris. It was the first time I had seen him express any emotion at all.
After everyone dispersed, I talked to him a little more. He said he liked memes too and thought it was a good idea. “Do you want to be in my group to make it?” I ask. He stops and ponders a little, before saying, “Sure, why not.”
We’re now filming for Shia Leboeuf. Talk doesn’t stray much from the work. But we do have moments where we crack jokes. He’s talking a bit more. Saying more about this shot. Or how this should be like this. I feel happy he’s opening up at least his creative opinion.
Past a couple days and we’re editing the video. It turns out I’ve made many mistakes. Chris Van Lieshout is all over me for them. He calls them out bluntly and without restraint. I feel my poor performance has cost me a potential friendship. But the next day, Chris Van Lieshout cracks a small joke the first time he sees me. I’m confused.
Homecoming Assembly is right around the corner. I ask Chris Van Lieshout if he needs help. Instead of answering me, he pulls up a google doc that has a three page list of everything he needs to get done in a week. “I take that as a yes, then?” I ask. He sighs, and says, “Yeah, you can help.”
Together we would spend the next 3 days in the BBN room setting up gear for the assembly. It would be just us since everyone would leave after 6th period. And I expected the same treatment as before. Silence, Vagueness, and Ambiguity.
But as soon as the last person left the room, Chris Van Lieshout started talking. And he wouldn’t stop.
He joked about his favorite TV Show, Rick and Morty. He talked about how he did his Visual Effects and showed me the gigantic archive he had built up over his long tenure in BBN. He demonstrated how we’d set up the assembly, in such great detail; down to the smallest wire and the largest camera.
I was shocked. I couldn’t believe what (or understand most of the technical terms) he was saying. Or that he was saying anything at all. I sat there, nodding at everything, but hearing nothing. I thought I knew his type. Quiet. Reserved. Distant. But I was wrong.
In my seat, watching him jumping up and gesticulating with his arms how the wireless camera set up would be, I saw how wrong I was. There was a fire behind those bangs and a brain that held an incredible knowledge built up from years of experience. But not a prodigy like I thought. He was not some god given savant that was born for VFX and set production, I learned as he kept talking.
He was just a kid that wanted to learn. Self taught and self learned, a child’s curiosity in a long, lanky body. Everything he knew, he knew by just trying it whether he understood what he was doing or had no clue. Not knowing something was never an obstacle to him. He told me about how he worked at his father’s workshop and showed all the little tinkering projects he had done.
Behind the mask he threw over himself lie an insatiable curiosity and a genuine desire to learn more.
We sat and worked. We stood and joked. We laughed and smiled. The next few days were a blast for me. I entered that room with a co-worker, but left with a friend.
The next day in 5th period, he was where he always was. Sitting in the back on his computer. Silent. Almost lost in the loud cacophony of the room.
I sat down next to him and began to work. He extended out his fist towards me. I bumped it without even looking. And I smiled.
Here’s to a great year, Chris.
