An Evening With... Crafty Apes!

Join us for a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Dead City, as Sr. VFX Supervisor Alex Dreiblatt and Sr. VFX Producer Sarah McCulley break down the work that brought a post-apocalyptic New York to life.

From the large-scale digital recreation of iconic locations — including a haunting reimagining of Radio City Music Hall — to complex environment builds, extensions, and invisible VFX, the team will walk through the creative challenges and post execution behind the work. They’ll explore Dead City in depth, along with highlights from other recent projects, through detailed shot breakdowns and a discussion on collaboration and visual storytelling within high-volume episodic and feature post workflows.

VES NY continues their new series, a dedicated forum for the region’s premier VFX vendors to showcase groundbreaking work and novel techniques. The goal is to share knowledge, inspire great work, and connect VES members, students and graduates with great companies.

This event is open to VES members and the SVA community. Please note that an RSVP does not guarantee a seat, we will overbook the event to account for no-shows and seats will be on a first come first served basis. Please arrive prior to 7pm.

Senior VFX Supervisor, Alex Dreiblatt

Alex is a VFX Supervisor from New Jersey with over a dozen years of VFX and filmmaking experience. After graduating from Northeastern University in Boston with a dual degree B.F.A. in Digital Art and Interactive Media, Alex moved to NYC where he worked as a compositor on commercials for clients such as PlayStation, Samsung, Cadillac, Under Armour, Bud Light, Air Jordan, McDonald’s, and Coca-Cola.

Alex later took on episodic projects and feature films, such as Mother!, Ocean’s Eight, In The Heights, and Warrior. Upon joining Crafty Apes in 2020, he’s served as a VFX Supervisor and On-set Supervisor for projects such as Hello Tomorrow!, The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, Música, Relay, Only Murders in the Building and The Walking Dead: Dead City.

Senior VFX Producer, Sara McCulley

Growing up outside of Boston, Sarah’s interest in film was sparked directing elaborate horror films in her basement with a cast of her friends and neighbors. Realizing all this fun could actually become a career, she attended Emerson College to cultivate her interest in film. After finding her feet as a PA, Sarah entered the world of VFX just as the NYC industry took off.

Sarah’s VFX producing credits include True Detective, Manhunt: Unabomber, Wu-Tang: An American Saga and Ray Donovan. Sarah is excited to be a part of the Crafty Apes team and continue their incredible work in film and television. In her precious spare time, you can find Sarah trying out new recipes, headed to the movies with friends, or running as far as she can.

Crafty Apes is a full-service visual effects company with studios in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Vancouver, Montreal, London, New Jersey, New York, and Sydney. Founded in 2011, Crafty has a talented roster of creative and production supervisors that offer a full suite of VFX services, including set supervision, VFX consultation, 2D and 3D compositing, digital cosmetics, machine learning solutions and CG imagery. Crafty Apes' work can be seen on such titles as IT: Welcome to Derry, Spider-Man: No Way Home; Captain America: Brave New World, The Wizard of Oz at The Sphere, The Housemaid and Stranger Things. For more information, visit www.craftyapes.com.

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