By Chesney Hearst, Senior Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Celebrating visual effects in films, television, and video games, VFX Rio, the first ever visual effects festival to be held in Rio de Janeiro, will open on Tuesday, December 1st with the main events of the festival taking place on Wednesday, December 2nd. Including lectures, workshops, presentations and a film premiere, all of the festival’s events will be held in the Centro Cultural Luiz Severiano Ribeiro – Cine Odeon, in Cinelândia.
During the first edition of the festival, well-known international and national professionals in the special effects industry will host, participate and/or present events.
Mike Sanders, Senior Visual Director at Activision will host the presentation, “Criando os novos Call of Duty: Black Ops III e GuitarHero Live” (Creating the new Call of Duty: Black Ops III and Guitar Hero Live) beginning at 3PM on December 2nd. An Academy Award nominee, Sanders, before joining Activision, worked on the development technology for approximately eighty short and feature-length films for visual effects and motion picture company Industrial Light and Magic.
Guest speaker Sheldon Stopsack, VFX Supervisor for The Moving Picture Company (MPC) will present the talk “Criando maravilhas visuais: A arte do VFX para filmes” (Creating visual wonders: The Art of VFX for movies) beginning at 6PM. Stopsack was responsible for the visual effects in Marvel’s hit film, “Guardians of the Galaxy,” including the creation of the popular character, Groot.
Taking a closer look at the development of Brazilian cinema and its use of special effects, Claudio Peralta, VFX Supervisor for Conspiração Filmes and credited for special effects work on films including “O Homem do Futuro” (The Man of the Future) and “Rio Eu Te Amo” (Rio I Love You), will host “Produzindo VFX no Brasil” (Producing VFX in Brazil) at 11AM, while Sandro di Segni, of O2 Filmes, will present the talk “VFX para grandes estúdios no Brasil e no exterior” (VFX for major studios in Brazil and abroad) at 5PM.
The festival will also focus on the business side of the audiovisual market. Pam Hogarth, Co-President of the Commission of Education of the Visual Effects Society, The Conduit (Eidos), will present the talk “Como construir uma carreira internacional em Efeitos Visuais” (How to build an international career in Visual Effects) at 2PM. Additionally during the talk, Hogarth will review the portfolios of five preselected young professionals.
Lucia Modesto, executive supervisor of VFX Production of TV Globo and former director and project technical manager for major companies including Dreamworks, will host a presentation at 10AM that examines the latest animation and VFX projects in development for TV Globo.
Also a part of the first edition, at 8PM on Saturday, the festival will present “Eletronic Theatre” of Siggraph, a survey by Mikky Rose (co-director Siggraph Computer Animation Festival 2015) of the best in recent world animation, computer graphics and VFX.
For additional events and for more information about the festival see the official VFX Rio website.
What: VFX Rio
When: Tuesday, December 1st and Wednesday, December 2nd.
Where: Centro Cultural Luiz Severiano Ribeiro – Cine Odeon, Praça Floriano, 7 – Centro
Entrance: R$159, 59 – R$89,59