Returning podcast guest Lou Pecora was inspired by the Haunted Mansion ride, Star Wars, Sinbad and his love of taking things apart to pursue a career in VFX. His first work was creating morphs for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and he’s gone on to work on big-budget movies and TV shows at Digital Domain and now Zoic.
In this epic discussion, Lou breaks down some of the challenges that he’s faced recently, from transforming a straitjacket into a man for Legion to a nightmare-inducing shot for Lucy in the Sky and COVID-19 shutting down production on Fargo. He also talks about how his career is progressing, how he’s stayed upbeat and kept himself busy during the lockdown, and he delves into the pros and cons of real-time production methods.Links:
Fargo VFX breakdown on Twitter >
Chapters:
4:40 Meet “Blue” Lou
14:55 What it’s like to be a VFX supervisor
20:27 Working with Paul Debevec
26:03 “I, Robot” with Chris
36:02 Episodic work versus films versus commercials
45:45 Creating content under lockdown
01:01:46 The shrinking VFX industry
01:11:04 Interacting with other departments
01:16:48 Learning Unreal and real-time production
01:34:50 “Lucy in the Sky’s” most challenging shot
01:47:19 “Zardoz” and “Deliverance”