Soho VFX studio renames longform team Freefolk Film & Episodic, promoting Steve Murgatroyd and Meg Guidon to lead the new group.
Soho-based VFX studio, Freefolk, has announced a set of promotions, new hires, and new name for their longform group. Freefolk Film & Episodic, now known separately from Freefolk Commercials, is led by VFX Supervisor Steve Murgatroyd, formerly Freefolk’s Head of 2D, and VFX Executive Producer Meg Guidon.
Harin Hirani has been promoted to Head of 3D; the division has also hired Simon-Pierre Peuch, Senior Lead Nuke Artist, whose credits include Gravity, Interstellar, Cursed and The Third Day.
In the past 18 months, the studio has worked on Cursed (Netflix) for which they were nominated for a BAFTA Craft Award, and The Third Day (Sky / HBO); most recently, they delivered over 300 shots on Pennyworth, Season 2 for Warner Horizon.
Murgatroyd, commenting on why now is the right time to invest further in this side of the business, said, “We now have an impressive credit list, a strong team, and a fully upgraded technical set up, specifically designed for this type of work. We are in a position to scale up to 100+ artists, have the ability to deliver at 8k and are excited about the continued growth of Freefolk Film & Episodic.”
As well as the promotions and new hires, the studio has also made considerable investment in their infrastructure and are fully security compliant with best practice for VFX. CTO Paul Wright explains, “We have a bespoke VFX pipeline that is constantly developed to enable us to work more efficiently and creatively. When it became clear last year that we would have to work from home due to coronavirus, we built a secure and safe WFH solution for remote artists and staff, this means that only pixels and not data leave the facility.”
“We also realized the need for a color accurate real-time remote viewing solution that was incredibly secure for client content and yet easy for clients and producers to use,” he continued. “We chose to invest in a Sohonet ClearView to stream sessions or reviews to anyone anywhere, and we utilize ftrack shot and asset management software from project inception to final delivery. It is fully integrated with the pipeline. We have recently upgraded to a new Pixit Media Pixstor production server, which allows us to support more artists and more intense workflows.”
Source: Freefolk Film & Episodic
