Studio brings on VFX supervisors Dottie Starling, Damien Hurgon, Ellen Poon and FA Head of Production Nathan Santell to service growing slate of VFX and feature animation projects.
Cinesite Montreal has announced the hiring of three new visual effects supervisors; Dottie Starling, Damien Hurgon, Ellen Poon and a new Feature Animation Head of Production, Nathan Santell. The hires come on the heels of a year of steady growth for the Montreal VFX division, which includes work on Respect (MGM), The North Water (AMC), and Tribes of Europa (Netflix), as well as feature animation work on Space Jam: A New Legacy (Warner Bros) & Blazing Samurai (Aniventure & GFM Animation).
Graham Peddie, Cinesite Montreal COO, noted “While Cinesite has a strong track-record of promoting artists and staff from within, it's often beneficial to bring in people from elsewhere. We know Nathan, Dottie, Ellen and Damien will each bring with them new experiences, techniques and inspiration to help Cinesite Montreal expand its creative palette and meet the growing demand for new high quality entertainment content.”
Starling is an experienced visual effects supervisor with more than 60 production credits across her 24-year career, including prime-time episodic series like Ozark and Academy Award-winning feature films like 12 Years a Slave.
Hurgon’s experience ranges from delivering 250 VFX shots of Jake Gyllenhaal as a double above-the-knee amputee for Stronger to supervising a creative team of over 40 on Pet Sematary. He joins Cinesite with over 12 years experience having worked for Mikros and Mr. X in Paris and Montreal, respectively.
Poon is a world-renowned expert in visual effects and animation, with a career spanning more than 30 years. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Executive Committee, and has worked on films such as Jurassic Park, Frozen, Zootopia, Moana, Raya and the Last Dragon, as well as one of the highest grossing movies in China, Monster Hunt.
Santell is an inspiring leader with a strong track record and clear vision. As Head of Production for the Feature Animation division, Nathan will lead the teams in creating efficiencies and continuous improvements to the production pipeline and workflows. His past credits include Mad Max: Fury Road, Gravity, Iron Man 3 and The Avengers.
Launched in 2014 with a handful of artists and technicians, Cinesite’s Montreal office now boasts capacity for over 700 employees. The studio is currently recruiting across a range of departments and at various levels of seniority.
The company is headquartered in London with an additional studio in Vancouver, alongside group VFX brands Image Engine and TRIXTER. VFX projects currently in production across the Cinesite group include The Witcher S2 (Netflix), Matilda (Netflix), Venom: Let There Be Carnage (Sony) and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (Marvel Studios), to name a few. Feature animation projects include The Addams Family 2 (MGM), Blazing Samurai (GFM Animation & Aniventure) and Hitpig (Aniventure).
Source: Cinesite
