CARY, NC — Epic Games will present a fireside chat with Academy Award-winning director Robert Zemeckis and his longtime VFX supervisor Kevin Baillie on November 10th. Epic Games’ industry manager for film & TV, David Morin, will interview Zemeckis and Baillie in a wide-ranging discussion about Zemeckis’ pioneering work in visual effects and virtual production, the duo’s collaboration and achievements over the past decade, and where they see virtual production taking the industry in the future.
Zemeckis has helmed dozens of blockbuster films, including Forrest Gump, Back to the Future, Cast Away, and most recently, a reimagining of The Witches. He has collaborated with Baillie — whose own credits include such box office hits as Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Superman Returns, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire — since 2009’s A Christmas Carol.
The presentation is part of Unreal Build: Virtual Production, a free online event that will include a number of panel discussion. Also planned is a panel of top executives, including Chris Del Conte (Amazon Studios), Lynwen Brennan (Disney/Lucasfilm), Girish Balakrishnan (Netflix), Shari Hanson (Paramount), and Christopher Cram (Universal Pictures), who will discuss how virtual production is changing the game in filmmaking at the studio level. They will address creative opportunities for artists, budgeting, staffing and how they see virtual production evolving.
There will also be Unreal customer presentations from renowned creature creator Aaron Sims, animation studio AMGI, VFX industry veteran Max Rocchetti, and The Mandalorian art director Andrew Jones. The artists will cover the various ways they are using Unreal Engine for virtual production workflows.
Additionally, there will be a sneak peek at new virtual production tools coming later this year in Unreal Engine 4.26, as well as a special presentation from Weta Digital