Can a Visual Effects studio survive only on film work? "Absolutely not!" Scott Ross is an important part of the history of Visual Effects. He was manager at ILM, Senior VP at Lucasfilm, Chairman & CEO of Digital Domain and one of the Founding Members of Visual Effects Society. He summarized his experiences and a part of the industry's history in his book “Upstart”. In our episode we trace a line from the cloistered halls of ILM and Lucasfilm through the founding of Digital Domain, across the rise of digital pipelines and into today’s inflection point of Agentic AI.
Scott’s path into film wasn't linear: Music studies, audio engineer, then Bay Area post with One Pass before Lucasfilm recruited him. When he arrived at ILM in the mid-1980s, the reality contradicted the Oscars on the shelf: ILM was losing money and morale was low. The corporate layer above him prized brakes and cost cutting over progress and accelerat...
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