VFX Beat

Richard Kerrigan was born in White Plains, New York and moved to Los Angeles when he was eleven. After his discharge from the U.S. Navy he acquired a degree in architecture. He began his career in the entertainment business as an assistant visual effects cameraman on The Empire Strikes Back. Deciding to stay in the San Francisco Bay area after Empire concluded, he worked in several capacities on various industrial and commercial projects. He spent almost two years on The Right Stuff and followed that up by relocating to Los Angeles to work on Ghostbusters. Following Ghostbusters in 1984 he worked for Digital Productions that then boasted the Cray super-computer as it’s primary render engine. During the past twenty-three-years he has worked primarily as visual effects supervisor and visual effects executive producer at various post houses. Crossing from features to television in the mid nineteen-nineties he has worked on such series as Power Rangers, Felicity and Ally McBeal, where he supervised the Dancing Baby episode. Overall his career spans over thirty years. He has been guest speaker at The California Institute of the Arts in Santa Monica, California and at Western North Carolina University. Richard has two daughters: Anna, living in Manhattan and pursuing a career as a playwright and film director & Lily who lives in Los Angeles and is in pursuit of a master’s degree in landscape architecture.

Cameron Talks Avatar at the Skywalker Ranch

Posted In | Blog Categories: Commentary | Site Categories: 3D

January 7th I was fortunate enough to (once again) see James Cameron’s Avatar on the big screen. The major difference between my first viewing and my second was seeing the film projected in the Stag Theater at the Skywalker Ranch in San Rafael, California in Dolby 3D Digital Cinema. There’s nothing like a state-of- the-art theater to really set the hook for the 3D experience. The film also proves that improving image quality is perhaps the easiest goal to accomplish in this day of technical marvels.

California Visual Effects Industry Gets Weaker Every Day

Posted In | Blog Categories: Commentary | Site Categories: Business, Visual Effects

Several years ago an article in the Los Angeles Times an unnamed producer was quoted as saying “If I don’t put a visual effects house out of business, I haven’t done my job.” Visual effects folks all over the business found themselves searching for the name of this offender and a rope. The honesty of the statement combined with the fact that we could not register our offense at this statement face-to-face with our assailant only oiled the injustice. Of course he was only saying publicly what producers have been saying amongst themselves for years. The visual effect group finds itself weaker every day. The lack of a union combined with the low cost of entry into the visual effects arena has conspired to pith our business locally....