Artist-owned-and-operated visual effects company Brickyard VFX has hired compositing and visual effects talent Jimi Simmons. A multiple Emmy Award nominee, Simmons brings to the Brickyard VFX team extensive visual effects experience, including work for Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Philip Kaufman, Spaz Williams, Mark Dippé and other notable film, music video and commercial directors. A resource for both Brickyard VFX Atlantic and Brickyard VFX Pacific projects, he will be based in Boston.
Simmons formerly worked at an array of leading San Francisco creative studios, including Western Images, where he served as vp and director of visual effects. During this time, he built enviable relationships with Bay Area production entities and accrued credits in both features (MEN IN BLACK, SPAWN, RISING SUN, STAR WARS: EPISODE I THE PHANTOM MENACE) and commercials (spots promoting Coca-Cola, Captain Crunch, Budweiser, Miller Genuine Draft, Pillsbury and other brands). While with Western Images, he also garnered two Emmy Award nominations for the TV series THE YOUNG INDIANA JONES CHRONICLES.
Simmons entered the business in 1982, when a job search landed him at San Franciscos One Pass Film & Video. From there, Simmons helped to build King Street Studios, a state-of-the-art sound and film stage. After several years in production with a focus on special effects, he moved into post- production, bringing his passion and experience to visual effects. For the last few years prior to joining Brickyard VFX, he has enjoyed a successful freelance career.
The great thing about freelancing is that you get to see how a company operates from the inside without being an employee, said Simmons, who is both an artist and self-professed gear head. It didnt take long to figure out that Brickyard VFX was the place Id been looking for. It doesnt get much better in terms of the environment, team, clients, work and just the companys overall direction and vibe.
We did everything we could to rattle Jimi while he was freelancing for us, and he just rolled with the punches, added Brickyard VFX co-founder Dave Waller.
Simmons was recently part of Brickyard VFXs effort on SPORTS HEAVEN, an effects-laden Super Bowl XL campaign completed for Mobile ESPN.
Located in Boston, Massachusetts, and Santa Monica, California, Brickyard VFX (www.brickyardvfx.com) is an independent visual effects boutique specializing in top quality visual effects from 3D characters through to compositing. Brickyards problem-solving expertise on set and in the studio has been applied to model, animate, light, texture, track, rotoscope, color correct and render seamless digital effects for VISA, Volkswagen, Target, Budweiser and many other accounts.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
