Conference
The State of VFX
VFX for Features
ON SITE
König-Karl-Halle
Tuesday, April 25, 10:00
Roald Dahl's MATILDA THE MUSICAL
Roald Dahl's Matilda The Musical is the story of an extraordinary little girl who, armed with a vivid imagination and a sharp mind, dares to take a stand and change her own destiny. Adapting a Roald Dahl classic and award-winning musical into a new movie, whilst retaining the grit, charm and magic of the originals, was the challenge presented to VFX supervisor Simon Stanley-Clamp. In addition, filming large groups of dancing children and circus crowds in the midst of lock-down required some very creative planning. VFX supervisor Simon Stanley-Clamp, joined by Cinesite's Gee Tatchell and Pixomondo's Fausto Tejeda, will talk about how the weird and wonderful pigtail-swinging, cake-scoffing, visual effects were created for Matilda.
Simon Stanley-Clamp, Visual Effects Supervisor, Cinesite
Over his 25 years in the entertainment industry, Simon has built a strong reputation as one of the leading British VFX supervisors. He has received main title credits as studio supervisor for Roald Dahl’s Matilda: The Musical, Robin Hood, Pride & Prejudice & Zombies, Miss Potter and Moon, as well as episodic series Fate: The Winx Saga. He also served as facility VFX supervisor for Avengers: Endgame, Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil War and several of the Harry Potter series of films. For Matilda, Simon collaborated closely with director Matthew Warchus and fellow department heads to guide the production through the visual effects process including prepping, shooting and overseeing 1100 shots and 8 VFX vendors for the movie. Nominated for a BAFTA for Outstanding British Film, the visual effects deliver both colourful fantasy and gritty realism in equal part.
Gee Tatchell, CG supervisor, Cinesite
Gee Tatchell is a talented CG supervisor at Cinesite’s Montreal studio; she played a key role in the production of extensive visual effects for the recent Working Title/Netflix production Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical.
Although she has worked across a broad spectrum of roles as a CG artist, Gee particularly enjoys the challenges of lighting and look development. She was an early advocate of Gaffer, which is now used extensively across Cinesite’s production pipeline.
In 2018, Gee almost single-handedly created a long-shot for The Commuter which required a complicated 12-camera stitch, and the following year led the CG team to deliver gritty Arctic based BBC drama The North Water. Other credits include Spider-man: No Way Home, Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Tetris and the second season of the episodic series, Foundation.
Fausto Tejeda, VFX Supervisor, Pixomondo
Fausto's VFX career started in 2008, working as a generalist on features, commercials, and games. His passion for VFX took him from Florida to Louisiana, Los Angeles, New York, and eventually Toronto, where he's been working at Pixomondo for almost 7 years. Starting as CG Supervisor and eventually working his way to VFX Supervisor, he's been the driving force behind Star Trek Discovery, for both traditional VFX and Virtual Production formats. Throughout the show’s five seasons, Fausto helped bring to the screen various creatures, ships, and environments, as well as served as set supervisor. Ultimately, his work on Season Two earned him an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Special Visual Effects.
In 2021, he helped guide Discovery towards a new filmmaking era, when it transitioned to shooting on PXO’s LED Volume stage, providing some innovative work in Virtual Production for Season 4, and Season 5 respectively.
While working at PXO, his work includes projects such as XXX:Return of Xander Cage, Power Rangers, The Ambush, Lost in Space, Matilda, and is currently working on post-production for Season 5 of Discovery.