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editor's note W By RANDI ALTMAN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF raltman@postmagazine.com The evolving world of VFX studios ith 30 years industry experience under her belt,VFX producer Jenny Fulle has seen a lot of changes in the industry. A few years ago, she looked at the world of visual effects and began to see a changing land- scape.That is when she decided to leave her long- time job as executive VP of production/executive producer at Sony Pictures Imageworks, to star t her own company,The Creative-Cartel, based in Culver City,CA.That was about three years ago. Her company most recently oversaw the visual effects and 3D conversion teams who completed the film Priest, and she is currently overseeing the VFX and animation teams working on Seth Mc- Farland's film Ted and the upcoming film Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.They are also in pre-pro- duction on M Night Shyamalan's 1000 A.E. The Creative-Cartel (www.the-cartel.com), with its 10 employees, creates and oversees differ- ent visual effects and animation teams based on the film's needs."We are a hub and visual effects department you essentially sub contract," explains Fulle."We manage assets, flowing pipelines and work very closely with the filmmakers.We are able to push large amounts of data — whether here or across the world." And that world is new, she says."Anybody can make VFX look great if you have $100 million, but POST SCRIPT Point, counter point L ast month, in this space, I reported on edi- tor Chris Duke, who is one of the first Final By MARC LOFTUS SENIOR EDITOR mloftus@postmagazine.com Cut Pro X users to come out and say great things about the new editing software.Well, that apparently was just too much for some of our readers to handle. How dare I! What are they paying me?! Absolutely outrageous!!! One of them was Allen Williams, who oper- ates E.motion Productions in Las Vegas, which specializes in local and regional commercials, music videos and even independent film trailers. Williams was one of the first to voice his oppo- sition and strong opinions regarding FCP X. "When I see someone say something nice about Apple, I get angry!" says Williams. He's got good reason.An editor for 30 years,Williams has worked with Avid NLEs,Autodesk's Flame and Smoke, and for the past nine years Final Cut Pro. He had great things to say about the previous Final Cut releases and how it blows away other manufacturers' attempts at NLE sys- tems because of its intuitiveness and much more affordable price.When he had a chance to preview FCP X earlier this year, he was excited. "I was jumping up and down with joy," he 2 Post • September 2011 the challenge is to do it well when you only have $15 million.This has reignited my passion to find people and new ways of doing this stuff." Fulle likes working with US-based companies, but sometimes the right people for the job are based all over the world. As we discuss in our "VFX Business" feature on page 24 of this issue, many domestically-based studios have opened outposts in Vancouver and around the world. In- dependent studios overseas are also playing a role in creating visual effects for Hollywood films. "The hardware and software is so much more available and cheaper, and training is available from anywhere in the world — there are online schools and so many ways to learn the craft," explains Fulle. "It is difficult to just stay here [in the US only] and remain competitive." Fulle says that in this ultra competitive environ- ment where prices are being driven down, a stu- dio can't just offer what she calls "meat and pota- toes effects."They need to have a specialty to stand out, she says."I love to work here. If there is a place that specializes, I'll take advantage, but we also need to marry the companies that are best suited to do the job." In regard to change, Fulle says,"We have to embrace it and adapt in order to be successful in the way we work." EDIT ORIAL RANDI ALTMAN Editor-in-Chief (516) 797-0884 raltman@postmagazine.com MARC LOFTUS Senior Editor (516) 376-1087 mloftus@postmagazine.com KEN MCGORRY Consulting Editor mcgorry@optonline.net CHRISTINE BUNISH Film& Video RON DICESARE Audio BOB PANK European Correspondent bob.pank@virgin.net DAN RESTUCCIO West Coast Bureau dansweb451@aol.com BARRY GOCH West Coast Blogger/Reporter IAIN BLAIR Film MICHAEL VIGGIANO Art Director mviggiano@postmagazine.com AD VER TISING MARI KOHN National Sales Manager (818) 291-1153 cell: (818) 472-1491 mkohn@postmagazine.com GARY RHODES Eastern & Intl Sales Manager (631)274-9530 cell (516)410-8638 grhodes@copcomm.com CHRIS SALCIDO Account Manager (818) 291-1144 csalcido@copprints.com CUSTOMER SERVICE 620 West Elk Ave, Glendale, CA 91204 csr@postmagazine.com (800) 280 6446 says of the initial presentation."I was so happy. This demo looked good. I thought,'This is great. They are changing the face of editing.'" He later got a hands-on demo."I almost fell over!" he recalls."This is the dumbest, most useless and horrible editing system I have ever used! They only showed what seemed to be the good things.They didn't let you know that there wasn't a source window.They didn't tell you [what] was missing.They didn't say that there were no tracks! I was on the timeline in the demo, and I actually lost where I was?! I've never gotten lost, ever!" So, he's switching to Adobe Premiere Pro. He's already cut a few of his personal projects on it, as well as his first client-attended session. It's not Final Cut, he notes, but "it's getting there." He feels that Apple has abandoned the pro community and that companies like Adobe deserve support."If every pro walked away from Apple, it wouldn't matter. If every professional walked away from Adobe, they would go out of business. So, don't we want to support the peo- ple that support us? 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