Flash Film Works
Encyclopedia
Flash Film Works is a computer graphics
company that provides visual effects for films, television shows and commercials. It is owned by director William Mesa and is located in Los Angeles, California
.
to direct the low budget science fiction film Galaxis. To create the effects work for the film, Mesa formed his own effects company, which he dubbed Flash Film Works.
As an independent visual effects company, they were hired by New Line Cinema
to work on Wes Craven's New Nightmare
. This work was well received and led to work on many other films.
John Dykstra
hired Flash Film Works for work on the Warner Brothers motion picture Batman and Robin, creating a digital matte painting of an ice-laden Gotham City, as well as performing some rig and wire removal work on the film.
For Tale of the Mummy
, Flash Film works created 3-D mummy wrappings which unraveled and reformed into the mummy. Flash Film works also worked on the Adam Sandler
comedy The Waterboy
during this time as well as the Renny Harlin
killer shark flick, Deep Blue Sea
.
For the science fiction film, Red Planet
, Flash Film works created various monitor display screens and interactive holographic monitors along with over 150 other shots for the film, including many wire removal shots to create the illusion of the actors floating in space.
In the year 2001, Flash Film works worked on the Eddie Murphy science fiction film The Adventures of Pluto Nash
, creating computer generated Moonscapes for the actors to walk through.
For the Arnold Schwarzenegger
action film Collateral Damage
, Flash Film works was responsible for over 200 visual effects shots including creating CG Helicopters and debris, multiple rig and wire removal shots and several other types of shots as well.
For the Andy Davis
directed film, Holes
, based on the book by Louis Sachar
, William Mesa was the visual effects supervisor as well as the Second Unit Director. For the film Flash Film works created and animated 3D lizards, designed and composited the "God's Thumb" mountain range and added desert and holes to many shots as well as considerable additional work.
Flash Film works big project for 2003 was the Ed Zwick directed film, The Last Samurai
, starring Tom Cruise
. Flash Film works performed around 200 effects shots on this film, including CG arrows, matte painting, compositing armies and face replacements.
Flash Film works created a CG Storm for several sequences in The Guardian
and creating backgrounds for Blood Diamond
. They later worked on Clash of the Titans
and The Pacific.
television commercials which featured Batman
driving the Onstar-equipped Batmobile
.
Flash Film Works won the Visual Effects Society
Award for "Best Supporting Visual Effects" for its work on the motion picture The Last Samurai
in 2004. In 2010
they won two VES Awards for The Pacific for "Outstanding Visual Effects in a Broadcast Mini-Series, Movie or Special" and for "Outstanding Compositing in a Broadcast Series or Commercial."
Flash Film Works in 2010 won a Primetime Emmy Award
for its Visual Effects work on the HBO mini-series, The Pacific.
Computer graphics
Computer graphics are graphics created using computers and, more generally, the representation and manipulation of image data by a computer with help from specialized software and hardware....
company that provides visual effects for films, television shows and commercials. It is owned by director William Mesa and is located in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
.
History
In 1993, Visual Effects Supervisor William Mesa left Introvision InternationalIntrovision International
Introvision International was a special effects company that worked on several big Hollywood films in the 80s and 90s, primarily using their Introvision front projection system. Tom Naud was the President of the company.-Visual effects filmography:...
to direct the low budget science fiction film Galaxis. To create the effects work for the film, Mesa formed his own effects company, which he dubbed Flash Film Works.
As an independent visual effects company, they were hired by New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema, often simply referred to as New Line, is an American film studio. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne as a film distributor, later becoming an independent film studio. It became a subsidiary of Time Warner in 1996 and was merged with larger sister studio Warner...
to work on Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Wes Craven's New Nightmare
Wes Craven's New Nightmare is a 1994 horror metafilm written and directed by Wes Craven. Although it is the seventh installment of the Nightmare on Elm Street series, it is not part of the series continuity, instead portraying Freddy Krueger as a fictional movie villain who invades the real world...
. This work was well received and led to work on many other films.
John Dykstra
John Dykstra
John Charles Dykstra, A.S.C. is an Academy Award-winning special effects supervisor and pioneer in the development of the use of computers in filmmaking.-Education and early career:...
hired Flash Film Works for work on the Warner Brothers motion picture Batman and Robin, creating a digital matte painting of an ice-laden Gotham City, as well as performing some rig and wire removal work on the film.
For Tale of the Mummy
Tale of the Mummy
Tale of the Mummy is a 1998 British-American horror film, directed by Russell Mulcahy, starring Jason Scott Lee, Jack Davenport, Louise Lombard and Christopher Lee.-Plot:...
, Flash Film works created 3-D mummy wrappings which unraveled and reformed into the mummy. Flash Film works also worked on the Adam Sandler
Adam Sandler
Adam Richard Sandler is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, musician, and film producer.After becoming a Saturday Night Live cast member, Sandler went on to star in several Hollywood feature films that grossed over $100 million at the box office...
comedy The Waterboy
The Waterboy
The Waterboy is a 1998 American comedy film directed by Frank Coraci. It stars Adam Sandler alongside Henry Winkler, Kathy Bates, Jerry Reed, and Fairuza Balk. Lynn Swann, Lawrence Taylor, Jimmy Johnson, Bill Cowher, Paul Wight, and Rob Schneider have cameos...
during this time as well as the Renny Harlin
Renny Harlin
Renny Harlin is a Finnish-American film director and producer. He is best known for Die Hard 2 , Cliffhanger , The Long Kiss Goodnight and Deep Blue Sea...
killer shark flick, Deep Blue Sea
Deep Blue Sea
Deep Blue Sea is a 1999 science fiction horror film that stars Thomas Jane, Saffron Burrows, LL Cool J, and Samuel L Jackson. The film was directed by Renny Harlin and was released in the United States on July 28, 1999.- Plot :...
.
For the science fiction film, Red Planet
Red Planet (film)
Red Planet is a 2000 Technicolor science fiction film directed by Antony Hoffman, starring Val Kilmer and Carrie-Anne Moss. It was released on November 10, 2000.-Plot:...
, Flash Film works created various monitor display screens and interactive holographic monitors along with over 150 other shots for the film, including many wire removal shots to create the illusion of the actors floating in space.
In the year 2001, Flash Film works worked on the Eddie Murphy science fiction film The Adventures of Pluto Nash
The Adventures of Pluto Nash
The Adventures of Pluto Nash is a 2002 science fiction comedy film directed by Ron Underwood and starring Eddie Murphy as the owner of a lunar nightclub investigating who was behind the arson that destroyed his club...
, creating computer generated Moonscapes for the actors to walk through.
For the Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American former professional bodybuilder, actor, businessman, investor, and politician. Schwarzenegger served as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011....
action film Collateral Damage
Collateral Damage (film)
Collateral Damage is a 2002 American action film that tells the story of a Los Angeles firefighter, Gordon Brewer , who looks to avenge his son's and wife's deaths at the hands of a guerrilla commando, by traveling to Colombia and facing his family's killers.-Plot:A bomb is detonated in the plaza...
, Flash Film works was responsible for over 200 visual effects shots including creating CG Helicopters and debris, multiple rig and wire removal shots and several other types of shots as well.
For the Andy Davis
Andrew Davis (film director)
Andrew Davis is an American film director, producer and cinematographer, noted for the action films Code of Silence, The Fugitive, Chain Reaction, Collateral Damage, Above the Law, The Guardian and Under Siege.-Biography:Born on the south side of Chicago, Illinois, Davis has directed several films...
directed film, Holes
Holes (film)
Holes is a 2003 film based on the novel of the same name by Louis Sachar, who also wrote the screenplay, with Shia LaBeouf as the lead role of Stanley Yelnats...
, based on the book by Louis Sachar
Louis Sachar
Louis Sachar is an American author of children's books who is best known for the Sideways Stories From Wayside School book series and the 1998 novel Holes, for which Sachar won a National Book Award and the Newbery Medal...
, William Mesa was the visual effects supervisor as well as the Second Unit Director. For the film Flash Film works created and animated 3D lizards, designed and composited the "God's Thumb" mountain range and added desert and holes to many shots as well as considerable additional work.
Flash Film works big project for 2003 was the Ed Zwick directed film, The Last Samurai
The Last Samurai
The Last Samurai is a 2003 American epic drama film directed and co-produced by Edward Zwick, who also co-wrote the screenplay based on a story by John Logan. The film was inspired by a project developed by writer and director Vincent Ward, who had previously filmed the movie in 1990, starring...
, starring Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV , better known as Tom Cruise, is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and he has won three Golden Globe Awards....
. Flash Film works performed around 200 effects shots on this film, including CG arrows, matte painting, compositing armies and face replacements.
Flash Film works created a CG Storm for several sequences in The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
and creating backgrounds for Blood Diamond
Blood Diamond (film)
Blood Diamond is a 2006 political thriller film co-produced and directed by Edward Zwick and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly and Djimon Hounsou...
. They later worked on Clash of the Titans
Clash of the Titans (2010 film)
Clash of the Titans is a 2010 fantasy and action remake of the 1981 film of the same name . The story is very loosely based on the Greek myth of Perseus. Directed by Louis Leterrier and starring Sam Worthington, the film was originally set for standard release on March 26, 2010...
and The Pacific.
Awards
Flash Film Works won a number of Advertising Industry awards for its work on the series of OnstarOnStar
OnStar Corporation is a subsidiary of General Motors that provides subscription-based communications, in-vehicle security, hands free calling, turn-by-turn navigation, and remote diagnostics systems throughout the United States, Canada and China. A similar service is known as ChevyStar in Latin...
television commercials which featured Batman
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
driving the Onstar-equipped Batmobile
Batmobile
The Batmobile is the automobile of DC Comics superhero Batman. The car has evolved along with the character from comic books to television and films. Kept in the Batcave, which it accesses through a hidden entrance, the Batmobile is a gadget-laden vehicle used by Batman in his crime-fighting...
.
Flash Film Works won the Visual Effects Society
Visual Effects Society
The Visual Effects Society is the entertainment industry's only organization representing the full breadth of visual effects practitioners including artists, animators, technologists, model makers, educators, studio leaders, supervisors, PR/marketing specialists and producers in all areas of...
Award for "Best Supporting Visual Effects" for its work on the motion picture The Last Samurai
The Last Samurai
The Last Samurai is a 2003 American epic drama film directed and co-produced by Edward Zwick, who also co-wrote the screenplay based on a story by John Logan. The film was inspired by a project developed by writer and director Vincent Ward, who had previously filmed the movie in 1990, starring...
in 2004. In 2010
Visual Effects Society Awards 2010
The 9th Visual Effects Society Awards, held in Los Angeles on February 1, 2011, honored the best visual effects in film and television of 2010. The show was hosted by Patton Oswalt and broadcast, in an edited version, on the ReelzChannel on February 19, 2011....
they won two VES Awards for The Pacific for "Outstanding Visual Effects in a Broadcast Mini-Series, Movie or Special" and for "Outstanding Compositing in a Broadcast Series or Commercial."
Flash Film Works in 2010 won a Primetime Emmy Award
62nd Primetime Emmy Awards
The 62nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, took place on August 29, 2010, at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California beginning at 5:00 p.m. PDT...
for its Visual Effects work on the HBO mini-series, The Pacific.
Selected visual effects filmography
- Wes Craven's New NightmareWes Craven's New NightmareWes Craven's New Nightmare is a 1994 horror metafilm written and directed by Wes Craven. Although it is the seventh installment of the Nightmare on Elm Street series, it is not part of the series continuity, instead portraying Freddy Krueger as a fictional movie villain who invades the real world...
(1994) - Cutthroat IslandCutthroat IslandCutthroat Island is a 1995 action adventure film directed by Renny Harlin. The film stars Geena Davis, Matthew Modine, and Frank Langella. The film received mixed reviews from critics and was a major box office bomb: listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the biggest box office flop of...
(1995) - Batman & Robin (1997)
- Tale of the MummyTale of the MummyTale of the Mummy is a 1998 British-American horror film, directed by Russell Mulcahy, starring Jason Scott Lee, Jack Davenport, Louise Lombard and Christopher Lee.-Plot:...
(1998) - Very Bad ThingsVery Bad ThingsVery Bad Things is a 1998 black comedy directed by Peter Berg, based on the book by Gene Brewer. It stars Jon Favreau, Cameron Diaz, Christian Slater, Jeremy Piven, Daniel Stern, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Leland Orser.-Plot:...
(1998) - The WaterboyThe WaterboyThe Waterboy is a 1998 American comedy film directed by Frank Coraci. It stars Adam Sandler alongside Henry Winkler, Kathy Bates, Jerry Reed, and Fairuza Balk. Lynn Swann, Lawrence Taylor, Jimmy Johnson, Bill Cowher, Paul Wight, and Rob Schneider have cameos...
(1998) - Deep Blue SeaDeep Blue SeaDeep Blue Sea is a 1999 science fiction horror film that stars Thomas Jane, Saffron Burrows, LL Cool J, and Samuel L Jackson. The film was directed by Renny Harlin and was released in the United States on July 28, 1999.- Plot :...
(1999) - Red PlanetRed Planet (film)Red Planet is a 2000 Technicolor science fiction film directed by Antony Hoffman, starring Val Kilmer and Carrie-Anne Moss. It was released on November 10, 2000.-Plot:...
(2000) - Collateral DamageCollateral Damage (film)Collateral Damage is a 2002 American action film that tells the story of a Los Angeles firefighter, Gordon Brewer , who looks to avenge his son's and wife's deaths at the hands of a guerrilla commando, by traveling to Colombia and facing his family's killers.-Plot:A bomb is detonated in the plaza...
(2002) - Death to SmoochyDeath to SmoochyDeath to Smoochy is a 2002 American dark comedy film directed by and starring Danny DeVito and starring Robin Williams, Edward Norton, Catherine Keener, and Jon Stewart.-Plot:...
(2002) - The Adventures of Pluto NashThe Adventures of Pluto NashThe Adventures of Pluto Nash is a 2002 science fiction comedy film directed by Ron Underwood and starring Eddie Murphy as the owner of a lunar nightclub investigating who was behind the arson that destroyed his club...
(2002) - Birds of PreyBirds of Prey (TV series)Birds of Prey is a television drama series produced in 2002. The series was developed by Laeta Kalogridis for The WB and is loosely based on the Birds of Prey DC Comics series...
(pilot) (2002) - HolesHoles (film)Holes is a 2003 film based on the novel of the same name by Louis Sachar, who also wrote the screenplay, with Shia LaBeouf as the lead role of Stanley Yelnats...
(2003) - The Last SamuraiThe Last SamuraiThe Last Samurai is a 2003 American epic drama film directed and co-produced by Edward Zwick, who also co-wrote the screenplay based on a story by John Logan. The film was inspired by a project developed by writer and director Vincent Ward, who had previously filmed the movie in 1990, starring...
(2003) - The Perfect ScoreThe Perfect ScoreThe Perfect Score is a teen heist film released in 2004 and directed by Brian Robbins. It stars Erika Christensen, Chris Evans, Bryan Greenberg, Scarlett Johansson, Darius Miles, and Leonardo Nam....
(2004) - White ChicksWhite ChicksWhite Chicks is a 2004 American film directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans and written and produced by Keenen Wayans, Shawn Wayans and Marlon Wayans. The film was produced by Columbia Pictures and Revolution Studios...
(2004) - Ghost WhispererGhost WhispererGhost Whisperer is an American television supernatural drama, which ran on CBS from September 23, 2005 to May 21, 2010.The series follows the life of Melinda Gordon , who has the ability to see and communicate with ghosts...
(pilot) (2005) - Dark WaterDark Water (2005 film)Dark Water is a 2005 American horror-thriller film directed by Walter Salles, starring Jennifer Connelly and Tim Roth. The film is a remake of the 2002 Japanese film of the same name, and also stars John C. Reilly, Pete Postlethwaite, Perla Haney-Jardine and Ariel Gade...
(2005) - ElizabethtownElizabethtown (film)Elizabethtown is a 2005 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Cameron Crowe starring Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst. Alec Baldwin has a small role as a CEO of an athletic shoe company and Susan Sarandon appears as a grieving widow...
(2005) - The GuardianThe Guardian (2006 film)The Guardian is a 2006 action-adventure drama film starring Kevin Costner, Ashton Kutcher, and Melissa Sagemiller. The film was released on September 29, 2006, and was directed by Andrew Davis, director of The Fugitive...
(2006) - Blood DiamondBlood Diamond (film)Blood Diamond is a 2006 political thriller film co-produced and directed by Edward Zwick and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly and Djimon Hounsou...
(2006) - DefianceDefiance (2008 film)Defiance is a 2008 World War II era film written, produced, and directed by Edward Zwick, set during the occupation of Belarus by Nazi Germany. The film is an account of the Bielski partisans, a group led by three Jewish brothers who saved and recruited Jews in Poland during the Second World War...
(2008) - The Day the Earth Stood StillThe Day the Earth Stood Still (2008 film)The Day the Earth Stood Still is a 2008 science fiction film, a remake of the 1951 film of the same name. The screenplay is based on the 1940 classic science fiction short story "Farewell to the Master" by Harry Bates, and the 1951 screenplay adaptation by Edmund H...
(2008) - All About SteveAll About Steve (film)All About Steve is a 2009 American comedy film, directed by Phil Traill, which stars Sandra Bullock, Thomas Haden Church and Bradley Cooper. It is distributed by 20th Century Fox...
(2009) - The PacificThe Pacific (miniseries)The Pacific is a 2010 television series produced by HBO, Seven Network Australia, Sky Movies, Playtone and DreamWorks that premiered in the United States on March 14, 2010....
(2010) - Clash of the TitansClash of the Titans (2010 film)Clash of the Titans is a 2010 fantasy and action remake of the 1981 film of the same name . The story is very loosely based on the Greek myth of Perseus. Directed by Louis Leterrier and starring Sam Worthington, the film was originally set for standard release on March 26, 2010...
(2010) - Dragon Age: RedemptionDragon Age: RedemptionDragon Age: Redemption is a six-part webseries based on the BioWare video game series of the same name. It is created by and stars Felicia Day, creator and star of the webseries The Guild. Day is playing Tallis, an Elven assassin...
(2011) - Dolphin Tale (2011)