

So it is natural for clients to ask visual effects supervisors to create newer and better ways to tell visual stories using current work as a starting point. Great Expectations: What Clients are Asking forĬlients see the same work the rest of us in television shows, commercials and movies. The visual effects supervisors interviewed include (in alphabetical order): John Gaeta ( The Matrix trilogy), Darin Hollings ( Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow), Chas Jarrett ( Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Troy), Tim McGovern ( A Sound of Thunder), Erik Nash ( I, Robot), Jeff Okun ( Elizabethtown and The Last Samurai), Rocco Passionino ( Spider-Man 2 and The Day After Tomorrow), Loni Peristere ( Serenity and Firefly) and Scott Stokdyk ( Spider-Man 2). This article will examine how this key production role has changed over the past five to 10 years and may change further over a comparable span. Most have worked for several companies and in many capacities during their careers. Some supervise other supervisors others are one-person bands. Some have come up from the stage floor as camera operators, others learned their craft at a computer screen before stepping on to the shooting stage. Some work for facilities as in-house supervisors, others are freelance or independent supervisors working on behalf of the production. Some are currently on hiatus, some are deep in production. and abroad and those who work or have worked on commercials, episodic television and effects-driven blockbusters. The roster of professionals interviewed for this article includes people who work in the U.S. There are as many ways to be a supervisor as there are to make a shot work. One of the possible ramifications of this expanded brief may be a renewed drive to establish industry-wide standards for a new screen credit and rate schedule. And these sequences can be upwards of 1,000 shots or more, even in primarily live-action projects.Īs a result, some suggest that visual effects supervisors are becoming as important to the typical production as the director, writer and editor.

Supervisors regularly make on-the-fly decisions, which impact the bottom lines of the production and the organization responsible for delivering the work.Īt the same time, supervisors and their teams design, create and deliver partially and completely virtual sequences in record time and at the lowest cost possible. Today, clients expect visual effects supervisors to deliver flawless plates along with a tremendous variety of ancillary services such as production and shot planning, general technical problem solving and providing creative input at all phases of production. Once upon a time, visual effects supervisors were in charge of shooting the elements or plates required to make a shot. The roots of this transformation lie primarily in the increasing reliance by productions on digital technology and the constant drive by directors and creatives to deliver increasingly elaborate visual stories to audiences. All rights reserved.Ī transformation is occurring in the entertainment industry that could have as much impact on production roles as that which occurred in the early days of film when filmmakers stepped from behind the camera to direct the action and the cinematographer stayed behind the camera to capture the performance.

He resides in Montana, Los Angeles, or wherever he’s currently filming in the world.With visual effects films swinging to new heights, the supervisors job is becoming more crucial. Jones added a new medium for his ideas with the release of his first novel in The Great Rift Trilogy, The Becoming. These shorts were featured in the subsequent documentary, This Is It.įormally trained in Fine Arts with an emphasis in painting, writing, music, and animation, Bruce began his career as an Art Director for the motion picture industry after graduating from the University of California, Santa Barbara. A dynamic storyteller, Bruce was tasked with re-imagining Michael Jackson’s iconic Thriller, Earth Song, and Smooth Criminal short films which he wrote and directed for Jackson’s planned comeback tour.
Visual effects supervisor series#
Gary Gray’s The Italian Job, Katheryn Bigelow’s K-19 The Widowmaker, as well as three Star Trek series ( The Next Generation, Deep Space 9, and Voyager), to name a few. As an Artist, Director, and Visual Effects Supervisor, Bruce Jones has helped shape some of Hollywood’s most memorable films including Bradley Cooper’s A Star is Born, Andy Mushietti’s It, James Wan’s Aquaman, Ruben Fleischer’s Gangster Squad, Kevin Lima’s Enchanted, Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell, F.
