NEW YORK CITY — Fancy VFX is a new visual effects studio targeting television, film and advertising projects. The boutique launches as a sister company to Goldcrest Post (goldcrestpostny.com), and is being led by veteran executive creative director/visual effects supervisor Randie Swanberg and senior Flame artist/visual effects supervisor Mario Caserta.
Photo (L-R): Randie Swanberg and Mario Caserta
The new studio offers complete solutions for the design, execution and delivery of high-caliber visual effects. Along with a physical base within Goldcrest Post’s facility in Manhattan, Fancy VFX supports a secure virtual pipeline, allowing it to quickly add talent and resources to meet specific project requirements.
Fancy VFX will team with Goldcrest Post to provide packaged visual effects and post production services for episodic television, independent films and similar projects. It will also pursue projects independently, particularly in the advertising realm.
“We were presented with an irresistible opportunity to team with some of the industry’s most talented and accomplished visual effects pros,” explains Goldcrest Post managing director Domenic Rom. “This partnership allows us to offer our clients a single-source solution for post production, encompassing editorial, sound, dailies, color, finishing, and now, visual effects. It’s a great value for our clients and we are thrilled to partner with Randie, Mario and their fantastic team.”
Along with Swanberg and Caserta, Fancy VFX’s lead staff includes CG supervisor Todd Peleg, head of production Alex Tracy, and executive producer/director of sales Graham Dunglinson. The studio occupies an entire floor at Goldcrest’s facility, which is equipped with VFX and CG workstations, storage systems and other gear set up in separate pipelines for advertising and entertainment projects. The studio is also leveraging the latest cloud and virtual machine technology to support remote production.
“One silver lining of the pandemic has been the development of robust and secure remote technologies,” Swanberg observes. “That has opened the door for companies that aren’t tied exclusively to a physical location. It provides us with greater flexibility and the ability to tap into top-level talent and artists with specialized expertise around New York and around the world. We can deliver the type of quality work expected from much larger studios at a very competitive cost.”
For its first project, Fancy VFX is providing design services to immersive entertainment company Illuminarium for an immersive experience focused on the art of Georgia O’Keeffe. The piece will be released in February.