Deluxe Entertainment’s global visual effects house Method Studios has expanded its artistic leadership and animation depth with key new hires based in Los Angeles and New York. New talent includes supervising art director and head of art department Olivier Pron, commercials VFX supervisor and creative director Jesse Bradstreet, commercials VFX supervisor James Rogers, animation supervisors Daryl Sawchuk and Tim Ranck, and VFX supervisor Gong Myung Lee.
Pron excels at transforming scripts into fully realized worlds, creatures and characters. He joins Method Los Angeles from the studio’s London office, where he led the teams crafting pre-production visuals for VFX-heavy films including “Iron Man 3,” “Cloud Atlas” and “Guardians of the Galaxy,” which earned him a 2015 Art Directors Guild Award for Excellence in Production Design. Prior to Method, he held senior level creative and design posts at MPC and BUF.
With an extensive background in commercial VFX, Bradstreet comes to Method from Sydney, where he worked with brands including Pepsi, Samsung and Vodafone. Among his work garnering accolades is “Imagination” for Honda Jazz which earned a Silver Clio in the Animation category. Bradstreet began his VFX career as an animator on “X-Men” and later as a VFX supervisor and director at Prodigy Films and Animal Logic.
Rogers has been a guiding force at Method in Sydney since 2010, serving as VFX supervisor for CG-heavy features such as “Gods of Egypt” and “The Wolverine” as well as overseeing VFX for last year’s Target “Holiday Odyssey” campaign for 72andSunny. At Method Los Angeles, Rogers will extend the studio’s capacity for top commercial VFX, enabling a higher volume of CG-intensive projects to run simultaneously. Rogers received an Emmy nomination for his work on the series “Moby Dick.”
Prior to joining Method, Sawchuk was head of animation for MPC, helping to establish and grow its Vancouver facility. His credits include the Academy Award-winning “Life of Pi” as well as “Edge of Tomorrow” and “Man of Steel,” and he served as animation director for an upcoming Paramount feature releasing in 2017. His CG animated feature credits include “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” “Everyone’s Hero,” and “The Wild.”
Character animator Ranck is one of the CG masterminds behind VFX blockbusters including “Iron Man 3,” “I, Robot” and “Real Steel.” A technical and artistic problem-solver, he has extensive experience in motion capture direction and developing animation pipelines. Prior to Method, Ranck worked on film, video game and commercial projects at Digital Domain, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Zoic Studios, Psyop, and Blur Studio.
Lee brings her intuitive eye for detail to Method New York. Lee was previously VFX supervisor/head of CG at Mr. X Gotham, and has held various supervising roles at The Mill and Charlex. Her recent credits include Ang Lee’s “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk,” “Zoolander 2” and “The Finest Hours,” and TV series “The Strain,” “Vikings,” “Narcos” and “Marco Polo.” Lee holds degrees in Political Science, Economics and Computer Science; she also has taught lighting and compositing as an adjunct professor at the School of Visual Arts.
“It’s nearly impossible to extoll the individual virtues these artists bring to the team,” said Ed Ulbrich, president of Deluxe Visual Effects. “Method has long enjoyed a reputation for excellence in effects, and with Olivier, Jesse, James, Daryl, Tim and Myung helping to anchor our talent base, we’re able to extend our expertise to better serve clients at every phase of production.”
With this expansion, Method underscores its commitment to raising the bar in VFX and animation across features, advertising, and all mediums. Method’s upcoming feature film VFX projects opening this fall include Terrence Malick’s “Voyage of Time,” Marvel’s “Doctor Strange” and Warner Bros’ “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.” The studio also completed the 2016 AICP Sponsor Reel, which has gone viral with more than 34 million YouTube views, GE’s “Raining Octopuses,” and the 2016 E3 trailer for Bethesda Softworks’ “Quake Champions.”
Eleanor Adds Director Candice Vernon To Its Roster For Spots and Branded Content
Director Candice Vernon has joined production house Eleanor for U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content. She has already wrapped several jobs at Eleanor, which waited to announce her until they had a body of work together.
Via Eleanor, Vernon made history as the first Black director on a Febreze commercial. The “Small Spaces” campaign marks a major departure from Febreze’s typical blue-and-white world. The home of the “Revolving Door” commercial is a beautiful array of bold sunset hues, African prints, and African art.
Vernon said, “I asked myself, what feels right to me? What feels new? I wanted to bring an essence of not just Black Americans but the full diaspora. I wanted to make a statement that we’re not a monolith.”
Following the success of the “Small Spaces” campaign, Febreze brought Vernon back for a comedy-infused trifecta exploring the hilarious situations that call for an air freshening hero.
Febreze Brand VP Angelica Matthews said, “About two years ago, we realized the consumers that were the most loyal to Febreze were the African American consumers. And the more we learned, the more we realized the richness that we were really missing. So we said we have to go beyond just Black casting, we need to get Black directors that truly understand the culture that truly understand how to bring authentic performances out on screen. We really looked around the industry and noticed there’s actually a shortage of African American directors who have experience doing commercials. When we all saw Candice’s reel, we could all tell the passion for the craft, passion for really trying to help us from where we are to where we’re trying to go.”
Vernon brings a unique lens to... Read More