Expert’s words: Fabio Cerrito
Head of VFX department at Frame by Frame
After graduating at the Architecture
University of Rome, Fabio Cerrito started his career as exhibit designer and
quickly became a 3D generalist. After 8 years at Double Negative in London as
Senior FX TD, he returned to Italy and now is Head of VFX at Frame by Frame,
one of Italy’s leading VFX and branding agency servicing global media &
entertainment.
VFX, ads, post-prod, sound, design… You
cover a very wide area of expertise at Frame by Frame. Is that the key of
success?
Absolutely yes! As it happens in every
type of industry, differentiating the areas of expertise is the recipe of
success and VFX/post production market is no exception.
Over the years, thanks to the vision of
the founders (Davide Luchetti and Lorenzo Foschi) and the people who believed
in this “project”, we managed to be involved in every process and, by investing
in resources and infrastructure, to build the expertise that distinguishes us
in the Italian as well as in the international market, excelling in each field
of the industry.
By covering a vast area of action, we
have become a 100+ professionist company with a “boutique” mentality, able to
cover an entire production since the beginning till the very end of the process
in the best possible way.
Italy, like most
European countries, has been strongly hit by Covid. What changes do you think
this disease will bring to the media and entertainment industry?
Among many other fields, the media and entertainment
industry is one of the most hit but this tragedy and the consequences are not
only for the immediate present but they will involve the future productions and
the way they will approach their work.
Fortunately every cloud has a silver lining. To overcome
some inevitable restrictions imposed during the shooting for health and security
reasons, creative agencies and production houses will clearly have to rely
even more on post production and VFX. The main purpose of VFX has always been
to help the director to create what cannot be shot/created in the real
world. Needless to say that these days the level of quality and the things that
computer graphic can provide are endless, and if in the recent past, CG has
been used to create for example incredible explosions, fantastic creature or
imaginary worlds, these days it will and it must be used also to create what,
just few weeks ago would have been shot on set.
You have over 15 years of experience in the VFX industry. What advice would you give to a rookie starting his career today?
Even though today there are hundreds VFX companies
scattered around the world, the VFX industry is in constant growth. thanks to
the steady demand from the blockbuster movie productions and to the original
contents that Netflix, Amazon, HBO, etc has introduced,
The needs to have VFX companies able to deliver amazing
visual effects is increasing daily.
Since this industry is based on technology, the real plus,
especially for an emerging society would be to invest on the new areas of
intervention, such as the digital make up and digital de-aging which are slowly
but surely becoming a subcategory of the VFX world. Furthermore, backing to the
previous question about the COVID, I would suggest to those who are in the
process to start a new business in the industry, to specialise in those CG
elements able to help directors in this historical moment: crowds or
digidoubles will become necessary and surely become a growing field in the
industry.
