Montreal VFX studio tabs former Hatch FX team to extend its reach into Hollywood
Rodeo FX, which has contributed visual effects to over 70 films and recently won an Emmy Award for its work on Game of Thrones, has opened an office in Venice, Calif. The Montreal facility has signed on the former Hatch FX team–matte painter Deak Ferrand executive producer Cheryl Bainum–to lead the Rodeo FX Los Angeles team. The new office offers Hollywood studios and creatives direct access to all Rodeo FX services.
“As Rodeo FX grows, it is important for our clients that we have a presence in L.A.,” said Sébastien Moreau, president of Rodeo FX. “Studios, directors, and producers can develop ideas for their projects from pre-production through delivery of final shots in collaboration with the team at our Venice Beach location.”
Ferrand and Bainum have known Moreau for over 20 years, starting in Montreal where they worked together before opening their own studios. For the past couple of years, Rodeo FX has been bringing the pair on board for larger projects. The new partnership takes this relationship to the next level.
“L.A. is still the starting point for much of the early development and creative process,” according to Bainum. “Rodeo FX now has a physical presence here and can be a part of the early pre-production phase. We will provide conceptual art, work with writers, directors, and creative executives, and follow these same projects through to final delivery. Being involved and collaborating from the onset of any project helps control costs while specifying and maintaining the creative vision.”
“Bainum will focus on business development at the Venice office,” said Jordan Soles, VP Development and Technologies. “She will serve as client liaison, as well as continuing to act as an executive producer.”
Ferrand comes on board as art director and brings significant expertise in concept art, matte painting and miniatures to the team of matte painting artists at Rodeo FX. Past credits include The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Lucy, The Book of Eli, Wanted, Twilight Eclipse, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Hellboy I and II, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, the Academy Award-winning What Dreams May Come, and Golden Globe- and Academy Award-nominated The Assassination of Jesse James.
“The boutique feel of the Venice office is a great place to start the creative brainstorming process with the client,” explained Ferrand. “Using our visual reference library and pen in hand, the ideas can begin to take shape. Having the client physically in the same space during this process is very exciting and provides for a more hands on and collaborative experience.”
In addition to creating his own work as a matte painter, Ferrand will oversee the team in L.A., as well as mentoring the artists at the Rodeo FX studios in Montreal and Quebec City.
“We’re really proud of the work our matte painting department has been doing and with Deak on board it’s just going to get better,” said Moreau. “He brings a wealth of experience and expertise using traditional and digital techniques and he will mentor our own emerging talent within the company.”
In addition to this new office in Venice and the main studio in Montreal, Rodeo FX opened a studio in Quebec City last April and will soon have 30 artists employed there, and has a growing advertising department that complements its work in film and TV.
Local school staple “Lost on a Mountain in Maine” from 1939 hits the big screen nationwide
Most Maine schoolchildren know about the boy lost for more than a week in 1939 after climbing the state's tallest mountain. Now the rest of the U.S. is getting in on the story.
Opening in 650 movie theaters on Friday, "Lost on a Mountain in Maine" tells the harrowing tale of 12-year-old Donn Fendler, who spent nine days on Mount Katahdin and the surrounding wilderness before being rescued. The gripping story of survival commanded the nation's attention in the days before World War II and the boy's grit earned an award from the president.
For decades, Fendler and Joseph B. Egan's book, published the same year as the rescue, has been required reading in many Maine classrooms, like third-grade teacher Kimberly Nielsen's.
"I love that the overarching theme is that Donn never gave up. He just never quits. He goes and goes," said Nielsen, a teacher at Crooked River Elementary School in Casco, who also read the book multiple times with her own kids.
Separated from his hiking group in bad weather atop Mount Katahdin, Fendler used techniques learned as a Boy Scout to survive. He made his way through the woods to the east branch of the Penobscot River, where he was found more than 30 miles (48 kilometers) from where he started. Bruised and cut, starved and without pants or shoes, he survived nine days by eating berries and lost 15 pounds (7 kilograms).
The boy's peril sparked a massive search and was the focus of newspaper headlines and nightly radio broadcasts. Hundreds of volunteers streamed into the region to help.
The movie builds on the children's book, as told by Fendler to Egan, by drawing upon additional interviews and archival footage to reinforce the importance of family, faith and community during difficult times,... Read More