Expansion of Services and Additions to Creative and Production Teams Bolster VFX Offering

Hollywood, Calif. – July 8, 2010 – Encore Hollywood has expanded its Visual Effects offering with the additions of Stephan Fleet as creative director, Emmy Award-winner Mitch Gates as CG supervisor and the promotion of Tom Kendall to the key role of executive producer. “We now offer on-set visual effects supervision, complete plate production and an extensive library of models and effects,” says Bill Romeo, Sr. VP of Ascent Media’s ETV (Entertainment Television) division. “Combined with key personnel additions, these moves represent our development as a business and an expansion of the VFX services we can provide.”
Stephan Fleet, creative director, has extensive experience in all facets of visual effects creation, including on-set supervision, previz and 2D artistry. Prior to joining Encore in his current capacity, Fleet freelanced for the company, overseeing a high volume of work for shows such as HBO’s Big Love and ABC’s Castle. Fleet was previously vice president of operations at boutique visual effects facility Master Key, and the director of digital media for ABC Studios’ Ghost Whisperer.
“Encore has a lot of horsepower behind it,” Fleet observes. “We have great technology and wonderfully creative people with an established track record of top-quality work. I feel very comfortable going to prospective clients and saying, ‘this is Encore Visual Effects, and we will do a great job on your show!'”
Mitch Gates, CG supervisor, returns to Encore Visual Effects after several years working at other companies. Most recently, Gates supervised CG work and helped to develop new 3D post pipelines for Prime Focus on such major releases as Avatar and Clash of the Titans.” This was a great time to come back to Encore,” he says. “The company has new people and new ideas and I look forward to helping push Encore to the forefront of the visual effects field.”
Gates is excited to work at Encore because of the wide variety of the work that comes through the shop. “I love working on the spectacular, in-your-face effects but it’s not the only thing I got into this field for. I enjoy all types of visual effects work. Encore works on so many different kinds of projects in the episodic and feature world, you get a chance to shift gears quickly, which is something I always like to do.”
Tom Kendall moves up from within the company to the new role of executive producer, overseeing the entire VFX operation for Encore. Kendall interfaces between clients and the company’s team of artists, producers and technicians to deliver the massive numbers of visual effects shots for shows such as Fox’s House and ABC’s Castle that move through the facility every week. “I look forward to growing the business, adding more artists and more shows,” he says. “We have such an impressive roster of talented 2D and 3D artists, and the ability to expand capacity as needed whenever we require a special kind of modeling or texture work.”
Romeo concludes, “With this formidable new team and wide-ranging service offering, Encore is ready to advance to a new level and become major industry player in the world of visual effects.”