thescratchpost.com

Latest work:

* 2012 (2009) – Roland Emmerich
* Speed Racer (2008) – Wachowski Brothers
* The Mist (2007) – Frank Darabont
* The Kite Runner (2007) – Marc Forster
* The Nativity Story (2006) – Catherine Hardwicke

Todd Sheridan Perry grew up with movies. His mom wouldn’t let him go see Jaws because he was 6 years old at the time. Perhaps a man-eating shark wasn’t the best film for such a small child. Maybe Mom was right. That was the turning point, however, and there was no turning back. Like pointing your skis down your first Black Diamond, the journey may be rough, but you have no choice but to continue in the very direction you’ve started. Then came Star Wars, Close Encounters, E.T. John Carpenter’s The Thing, anything by George Romero, The Road Warrior. Essentially, Todd grew up as a little deviant watching any and every movie that he could possibly get to. Not only that, but he had to know how it was done. What made this stuff tick? What the hell is a bluescreen? How do you make a mold out of dental alginate? How do you move your Greedo action figure frame by frame to make him look like he’s shooting Han Solo?

He was odd throughout school, and which filmmaker wasn’t? At least the good ones. Who listens to John Williams scores when Hall and Oates is available? But he knew what he wanted to do, and that was the passion in him, it’s what drove him. His thirst for knowledge about the industry he wanted to be part of was the prime contributor to the amount of drive he had.

Now look at him! He does what he set out to do. He does visual effects in films, he directs films (albeit small ones, or sequences of them), he writes. He is living to make the stories that so inspired him when he was a child. Some people have even recognized him for his ambition and dedication by awarding him an Emmy and nominating him for a Visual Effects Society Award. It would be enough of an award just to be part of the industry that shaped his life. Being recognized by that industry is the sprinkles on the chocolate cupcakes of the life that Todd has manage to create and be blessed with.

With his love of film, his passion for drawing and artwork, and a Macintosh that his dad brought home in 1984, Todd was well on his journey to understanding how computers would play an important role in creating art and creating art in film.

After focusing on his own throughout elementary and high school, he tailored is art degree in college at Pacific Lutheran University in Washington State to include animation and optical effects, taking internships from Charlie Canfield at Alpha Cine and Terry Tennyson at Tennyson Ani-works in Seattle. Todd also worked his way through college as a video assistant and editor at the campus television studio. There is learned camerawork, editing, sound design, and a plethora of other skills that would later help him in his filmmaking aspirations. Months before graduating, Todd was hired at a multimedia firm in the Pacific Northwest doing training videos and multimedia programs for the Weyerhaeuser company, which probably made the piece of paper you may be currently doodling on. He pushed the technology at the time, which was rudimentary at best. Sure, Pixar had done a number of shorts,  but ILM was leading the way with The Abyss and Jurassic Park (just as impressive now as it was 15 years ago). Todd saw where it was going, and he pushed his company to obtain 3D software to enhance the presentations that they were doing.

While on his tour of duty in Washington, Todd applied to many animation and design houses in the Los Angeles area, but the fish weren’t biting. He was in Seattle. They were in Los Angeles. It didn’t take a genius to point out to Todd that it was time to go fishing where the fishes were. With enough money to survive for the next 6 months, Todd packed his coupe and headed South. Hell, if he didn’t get a job in 3 months, he’d apply for graduate school at USC or UCLA

A few weeks after he arrives, Todd had three jobs. 1) Vortex Media Arts art directing video games. 2) Studio Productions working on logos for film and television shows. and 3) as a freelance 3D artist working on low-budget features for Kushner-Locke and Full Moon Productions — with a couple occasional gems thrown in, like the X-Files.

After a couple years, Vortex closed its doors, and Todd went out with a new demo reel consisting solely of the visual effects he had been doing as a freelancer. Sony Imageworks picked him up for a while, giving him 3D and compositing responsibilities of some internal projects as well as an En Vogue music video directed by Frances Lawerence, who would later direct Constantine and I Am Legend.

After seeing how a big studio worked, Todd and business partner, Jennifer Champagne, decided that it wasn’t really an effective business model – especially for television and smaller productions that couldn’t afford the enormous overhead that large FX studios demanded. They started Max Ink Cafe, and setup shop in Venice Beach, taking on anything and everything that came their way, not only to keep the place running, but to develop experience and a reel. During Max Ink’s run, they did television shows such as X-Files and The Profiler, video games cinematics for 3DO and EA, and films like Jeepers Creepers and Wristcutters. They ran the gamut for five years.

After a couple large projects failed to initiate, Todd decided to take his experience and talents to New Zealand to work on The Two Towers with Weta Digital. Primarily on the Gollum lighting team, he and a plethora of other talents animators, lighters and compositors, made Smeagol the most beautiful and endearing digital character every put to film. And dare I say, Gollum still holds that place. In between rendered, Todd, in his never-ending thirst for knowledge, had his fellow artists train him to use Massive, allowing him to get two or three armies of orcs into the film.

Upon returning to the States, Todd became a gun for hire, bouncing from production to production as a wandering rebel – never willing to settle in a place that might become stagnant or halt the learning process. He, with his trusty agent, Bob Coleman, wandered the dusty plains of Los Angeles, finding digital houses in need.

Todd landed at Uncharted Territory with Oscar winner and frightfully benevolent and intelligent supervisor Volker Engel, who made his name with Independence Day. Volker and biz partner Marc Weigert led a team of 35 to create over 600 shots in about 4 months for a SciFi Mini-Series called The Triangle. The project earned Emmy statues for 7 key members of the team including Todd.

After more bouncing around and not committing to any one place, Todd settled down for a year in Santa Maria at Cafe FX to contribute to The Kite Runner as lighting supervisor (supervisor because he was really the ONLY lighter on the show outside of his apprentice), and as lighting supervisor for The Mist with a small team of 6 fantastic lighters. Together they lit over a hundred shots, pushing assets through a pipeline in its infancy. Ultimately The Kite Runner garnered Todd and Cafe FX a Visual Effects Society nomination for Best Supporting Visual Effects in a Motion Picture.

Upon his return to Los Angeles, Todd was one of the CG Supervisors on Speed Racer, contributed to the 2008 NFL design package for ESPN, and is now blowing up the world for Roland Emmerich in 2012: Farwell Atlantis.

In his spare time, Todd does anything and everything he can related to filmmaking and storytelling. He’s written screenplays, edited feature documentaries and narrative shorts. If it’s about telling stories, Todd will participate. And it all stems from Mom taking him to the movies.

Todd’s thoughts on production:

The film industry, visual effects included, is a glamorous industry when viewed from the outside looking in. No one can understand that long hours that are put into the art that we do – the toll on our health, the weight on our personal relationships. Its hard work. But, at least in my experience and opinion, when you see the final product – when you see how it affects the people who see it, all of the previous hardship and torture seems to melt away. We work in an field that rewards us for doing what we love to do. And that…is a blessing.

I would not wish our lifestyle on anyone. But for those who love film, animation, and art – those who thrive on it. Those who would do it whether or not someone was paying you. I think the sacrifice is worth it. If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t still be doing it after 15 years.

Todd’s Links:

• Portfolio
• Max Ink Cafe
• Digital Artists Agency
• Todd’s IMDB