When Mike McGee and four others founded Framestore in 1986, in an office in London’s Soho, it would have been impossible to imagine what the company would become. The founders staked a punt on an untried piece of technology, which they used to draw and paint on video, frame by frame. From these humble beginnings a global visual effects company has sprung, with today’s Framestore employing over 1,200 people across offices in London, New York, Los Angeles and Montreal.
While audiences may now have grown accustomed to the presence of special effects across film and TV, the industry still has the power to surprise and delight: in 2013, Framestore – and director Alfonso Cuarón – wowed cinemagoers with the movie Gravity, which featured pioneering visual effects. McGee’s personal credits as a director and VFX Supervisor include features such as Nanny McPhee and Your Highness and the award-winning TV miniseries Walking With Dinosaurs.
He also regularly creates advertising work for brands, recently filming in vomit-inducing zero gravity to create a spot for Robinsons squash.
BELOW: Mike McGee spoke at the Microsoft Lift London Studio Social May 2016, about the future of virtual reality, the skills involved in the creation of several of Framestore’s work and what tomorrow holds for tomorrow’s creatives and marketers.
