Our Legacy is Our Future is a 6-part YouTube series filled with insightful interviews & conversations with leading studio talent and industry experts, past and present. This feature spotlights Adam Valdez, VFX Supervisor, who journeys us through his time at MPC.
“I joined MPC almost 20 years ago because it was this cool, relatively small boutique of visual effects house in London. It was starting to show shots on some pretty ambitious work, and I had no idea it would grow into this huge thing that it has become.”
“I started as an animation supervisor. There was a couple hundred people. The first project I did VFX suping on was Alien versus Predator. At that time, 20 years ago, it was a place full of ambitious people who were getting a chance to unleash their passion on the really cool new stuff that Hollywood was was giving to London for the first time.”
“It was a company that’s always been punching above its weight, always kind of pushing itself to do bigger and better things. If I think back, Harry Potter, was the series that helped grow London into what it is. One of our big ones was Prince Caspian for Disney. I think that was one of our first shows nearing a thousand shots.”
“Jungle Book was the show which made me think, how am I going to do this one? How do you make an entire world and shoot a kid on a blue screen, put him into that world, and interact with animals that aren’t there? We had a plan, but you have to jump into it and assume you’ll get there.”
“That’s the kind of thing that’s exciting and scary in a good way. It ends up being a milestone for you personally because you really have to try something new. Making movies is like a magic trick. You’re trying to get someone to go with the moment that you’re making. A huge amount of people pour a lot of hard work and devotion into something for you to consume like a good meal, you sort of take it in and have this really rich experience.”
“What I like when I look at the reel of work that comes out of MPC is that there’s always this balance of huge popcorn movies that are awesome in their way, and often we’re partnered with a filmmaker who has a passion project and we’re doing something really crafted and small. I always love seeing that range because they inform each other, by staying dynamic and wide ranging like that, it kind of just makes you better.”
Watch the Our Legacy is Our Future Series on YouTube and discover more about our People & Culture Inside Technicolor.
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