New film effects house opens in London

London’s motion picture visual effects community has a brand new player – Machine. The company, established by John Lockwood and Steve Street, two heads of department at Cinesite (Europe) Ltd, will focus primarily on delivering digital visual effects for motion pictures, as well as high-end TV spots and broadcast.
Based in the heart of London’s Soho, the hub of the UK’s motion picture postproduction scene, Machine has already delivered a range of digital visual effects shots for Warner Bros. ‘Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azkaban’, which releases worldwide in this summer.
Lockwood and Street are highly regarded in the visual effects industry having worked together on a raft of prestigious international films. Together they have supervised digital effects of the highest quality on epic sequences for ‘Band of Brothers’ (HBO) all three of the Harry Potter movies, ‘Lara Croft: Tomb Raider’ (Paramount) and ‘The World Is Not Enough’ (MGM), along with many other acclaimed film releases.
The new company provides full film-resolution effects in 2D and 3D, creative support from the earliest stages of storyboarding and idea development, and final digital effects supervision. Facilities include the latest versions of Shake, Inferno and Combustion compositing systems, Maya 3D animation, plus connection to Sohonet’s media network for daily updates and finals delivery, as well as access to 2k telecine.
“We’ve worked on some amazing jobs, with the best clients and have gained phenomenal experience,” said John Lockwood. “We had a great time at Cinesite, but felt is was time to commercialise our talents within a new business.”
Steve Street added: “Together we have a tremendous amount of specialist and complementary expertise that we want to use in our own way. Opening Machine gives us the freedom to do this, and will provide a high-quality resource for even the most complex visual effects.”
(GB)