SPECIAL EFFECTS
How Did They Do That? Visual effects gurus helping change the face of Georgia’s entertainment landscape By Mi cha e l J . Pa l l e r i no
Photo by Aiva Genys
We really love it here. There is a real buzz in the air. The workforce is genuine and the people who work on the films and TV shows here are really excited about being a part of it.
Chris LeDoux
C hris LeDoux is moving in 100 different directions. On this day, the visual effects expert is fighting with the cellphone reception near his suburban Atlanta home. Juggling a barrage of text messages, calls, and a magazine interview, it is hard to believe that one of Hollywood’s premiere digital wizards is getting humbled by, of all things, technology. Making the proper adjustments, something he is known to do, he jumps in his car and heads to the Crafty Apes southern-based headquarters. The Academy Award-nominated visual effects and production services company, lauded for its work in such critically acclaimed films as La La Land, 12 Years a Slave, Hidden Figures, and Captain America: Civil War ; among scores of others; also has offices in Los Angeles and New York. Founded in 2011 by Chris, his brother Tim, and Jason Sanford, the company’s executive producer, Crafty Apes is a boutique studio specializing in 2D compositing — which unlike CGI (computer-generated imagery) — incorporates images from multiple sources and combines them into a single scene. Since opening its Atlanta location, Crafty Apes has been able to step right into the mix of the state’s growing entertainment community and make a name for itself.
“We really love it here,” Chris says. “There is a real buzz in the air. The workforce is genuine and the people who work on the films and TV shows here are really excited about being a part of it. The same goes for the people in the community. You get that sense from them that, ‘Hey, we are making movies here.’” Chris and Jason opened the Atlanta office in 2014. Over the past five years, Crafty Apes South has grown to include 70-plus employees working from a 6,500-square-foot facility in west Atlanta. This team includes Chris’s two other brothers: Mark, senior VFX supervisor; and David, director of IT. Tim runs the Los Angeles operation. To make it a family affair, Chris’s wife, Genevieve, is an Emmy winning producer who works on projects with Disney, Warner Brothers, and Amazon. “I love the whole creative aspect of this,” Chris says. “It’s a lot of work, and we put in a ton of hours to do what we do. There are times when it can be very challenging, where it tests your problem-solving skills.” Chris recalls a conversation he had with director Steve McQueen about a climactic scene in the Academy Award-winning movie 12 Years a Slave . In the pivotal sequence, slave owner Edwin Epps, played by Michael Fassbender, forces fellow slaves to inflict punishment on one another for leaving the plantation to find soap. From the beginning, McQueen and his team wanted the scene to appear as if it were a single shot.
“Everyone told him it could not be done; it was impossible,” Chris says. “Someone on his team called us, this little company, and asked if we were interested. So, we threw up a Hail Mary and went for it.” While Chris cannot tell you how and what they did to fulfill McQueen’s vision, the scene; viewed as if it was indeed one, continuous shot is a critical part of the movie, which is based on an 1853 memoir by Solomon Northup, a free black man who was sold into slavery. “My brother Tim and I cracked the code. We hacked our way into making the impossible possible.” In the same timeframe, the Crafty Apes team also worked on La La Land and Hidden Figures, pulling off a trifecta of visual effect tapestry that helped raise the company to another level. “No day is ever the same,” Chris says. “This is a dream come true. And because I am hyper focused and always moving, I not only get to run the company every day, but I still get to work with all these amazing people. I still get to play with the software and scratch that itch.” And at a time when Georgia’s film community continues to grow, the Crafty Apes team remains one phone call away from turning one director’s impossible vision into Hollywood gold.
www.craftyapes.com
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