This past week, FuseFX opened its doors on Lower Broadway, making a bet that the New York post scene is ready to take things to the next level.
Burbank-based FuseFX LA, which specializes in visual effects services for television, features and commercials, has already seeded FuseFX New York with work to keep it busy, including effects for NBC’s hit series The Blacklist as well as POWERS, a live-action show based on a comic book series. The latter show is for the new Sony PlayStation network, which debuts next month.
(Hopefully Sony will pull things together soon, as not only did Sony Pictures take a well-publicized attack, but the Sony PlayStation Store was inaccessible for a while this past Sunday due to an attack by a group calling itself ‘The Lizard Squad’. ed_”Is it just me, or are we starting to live in a time when the comics are bleeding into reality?”)
FuseFX’s LA shop handles shows including Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and American Horror Story. With the current growth in television production, FuseFX is following the opportunity by expanding further, with not only the New York shop but another full-service facility in Vancouver that opened at the same time. FuseFX, British Columbia currently handles Backstrom for Fox and The Returned for A&E.
FuseFX is (l to r) Jason Fotter Co-Founder/ CTO / VFX Supervisor; David Altenau Founder / CEO / VFX Supervisor; Tim Jacobsen Co-Founder/ Executive Producer; Greg Anderson Creative Director / Sr. VFX Supervisor and manager, New York offices. Photo credit: Dan Ochiva
At the open house for the New York shop, CTO and co-founder Jason Fotter allowed that while it wasn’t the main reason, New York’s 30-percent postproduction tax credit helped in making their minds up about heading East.
Both facilities, we’re told, include 2D and 3D visual effects, 3D animation, compositing, finishing, matte painting, cosmetic enhancement and pre-visualization. The company though wants to do things from start to finish, so in the works are dailies, mastering, and full DI.
FuseFX LA is an example of how the other sites will build out. Assimilate’s Scratch Lab helps them automate all the many processes going through, from dailies to color grading, VFX, finishing and mastering. CTO Fotter has said that he found no other viable options for what they wanted to do.
Holding down positions as Compositing Supervisors at the 584 Broadway shop are Ariel Altman (left) and Dave Reynolds. Photo: Dan Ochiva
The Foundry’s Nuke is another critical piece of software for production, used extensively at FuseFX New York and the other sites. Locally, networked Dell PCs tie into a large and growing EMC Isilon system.
Greg Anderson is on had to lead the New York operations as Senior Visual Effects Supervisor and Head of Production. Anderson’s background includes senior visual effects roles with 1stAveMachine, Ring of Fire and Sony Pictures Imageworks, and credits including Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Spider-Man 2 and The Day After Tomorrow.
