The Mission has brought VFX supervisor Patrick Ferguson on board. For the past five years, he has been at Method Studios as head of 2D, working on major commercial projects for Samsung, Kia, Sonos, and Verizon to name a few. He earlier worked at such effects houses as Digital Domain, Sony Imageworks and Asylum.
Ferguson started out as a still photographer in New York in 1991. He won several national awards with his mixed media creations of Polaroid, watercolor, transfer separation, and computer enhancement. In 1995, he crossed over to the moving image, becoming a visual effects artist working in After Affects, Flint, and Flame.
Ferguson has collaborated on a range of high profile projects with some of the industry’s best directors, including Noam Murro, Nicolai Fuglsig, David Fincher and Sam Bayer. His experience also spans a number of top feature films such as Pirates of the Caribbean, Alice in Wonderland, and he was part of the Academy Award-winning team on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. He brings with him more than 20 years expertise in visual effects and has won a number of awards including several BDA, AICP Show and Clio awards.
Michael Pardee, founder/managing director of the Mission, said, “Patrick is an immense creative talent. We’ve wanted to work together again since our mutual days at Digital Domain.”
Ferguson rounds out a talented team at the Mission that includes animation director Piotr Karwas and fellow VFX supervisor/lead Flame artist Joey Brattesani.
Avid completes acquisition of Wolftech
Avid®, known for software solutions for professional media production, has completed the acquisition of Wolftech Broadcast Solutions, a leader in cloud-based multiplatform news planning, production and publishing solutions.
The acquisition enables Avid to combine its digital-first, end-to-end media solution with Wolftech’s expertise in story-centric workflow management. News organizations will be able to increase efficiency and accelerate story delivery through enhanced remote collaboration and multiplatform amplification.
Avid CEO Wellford Dillard stated, “Wolftech is unquestionably on the leading edge of where the industry is going, and this acquisition demonstrates Avid’s commitment to transform news, sports, and live production workflows. We are delighted to welcome Wolftech into the Avid family.”
Wolftech CEO Arne Berven added, “We were focused on finding a partner that could accelerate the adoption of our platform globally. We explored a number of possibilities, but when we talked to Avid, we knew it was the right match.”
The closing of the acquisition follows Avid’s announcement on October 7 that the company had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Wolftech.
With this acquisition, Avid deepens the integration between the two toolsets while continuing to embrace an open approach in partnering with a wide range of media production tools and newsroom systems. Existing Wolftech customers will benefit from Avid’s global scale for customer support and professional services.
Ian Axton, head of production operations for ITV News, said, “As a customer of both Avid and Wolftech we’re excited about the benefits this acquisition will bring to our users and our business. Wolftech has transformed... Read More