Conference The Power of Collaboration Managing Change
ON SITE Bertha-Benz-Saal Wednesday, May 07, 15:45

Watch Your Language!

Since the early days of VFX, our vocabulary has defined our role in the pecking order of the filmmaking process: we're vendors, we supervise, we work as artists, we comp CGI. What seems normal to us has an effect on the outside world and how the audience values our contribution to the stories we tell.

This talk looks at the history of our vocabulary and compares it to other industries. How are these industries perceived in the public compared to what we do? How are the companies in our industry marketing themselves? How do other industries define the language in conjuction to their tools or services?

Let's face it: We're horrible at marketing what we do and the way we talk about our work is a masterclass in self-devaluation.

Florian Gellinger

Florian Gellinger, Co-Founder and Executive Producer, RISE | Visual Effects Studios

Florian Gellinger is one of the four founding members of RISE, an award winning VFX and animation studio. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and was one of the driving forces in founding the German chapter of the Visual Effects Society. As VFX supervisor he was responsible for all RISE work on Captain America - Civil War, Doctor Strange and more recently director Lisa Joy's Reminiscence. As Executive Producer he oversees all shows in production at RISE like Fallout, Megalopolis, RedOne, Daredevil Born Again, The Last of Us, Hungergames and Fantastic Beasts 3.

RISE | Visual Effects Studios was founded in 2007 by Sven Pannicke, Robert Pinnow, Markus Degen and Florian Gellinger in Berlin. The plan was to focus with a small, hand-picked team on German TV and feature film effects – but that plan failed. Today, over 350 artists call the award-winning company their creative home in Stuttgart, London, Munich, Cologne and Berlin, making it one of the biggest VFX studios in Europe. RISE has become „partner in crime“ for directors like Tom Tykwer, Lisa Joy, Mike Flanagan, Matthew Vaughn, Guy Ritchie, Gore Verbinski, studios like Marvel (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Eternals, Miss Marvel, Loki, ...), Warner Bros. (Fantastic Beasts 3, Reminiscence, ...), HBO (The Last of Us, Westworld), Netflix (Midnight Mass, Stranger Things), Sony Pictures (Uncharted), Studio Canal (Gunpowder Milkshake), X-Filme (Babylon Berlin) and also produces more and more animated features (Richard the Stork, Dragon Rider). Its sister production company RISE PICTURES develops its own original content and co-produces films (Stowaway) and series for an international audience. RISE acts as collaborator for episodic series as well as television and feature film, from early concept to mastering, concept art and previs, every day on set, during effects production and animation, as an advisor for the Digital Intermediate process. Our supervisors are reliable, creative partners for directors, production designers and directors of photography alike – from the first to the final step of the way.