Talks

Making It (Look) Big in Movies

Ready for Launch: Creating Fantastic Four's Miniature Ships with Cutting-Edge and Classic Techniques

Ian Hunter is a creative director, award-winning visual effects supervisor and co-founder of New Deal Studios (NDS). A renaissance man with multiple talents in many disciplines, Hunter has overseen production of many complex sequences of some of the biggest blockbusters of our time. A visionary in the field of motion picture visual effects, Hunter has worked on many feature films and commercial projects over a 30-plus-year career that has garnered him recognition in the entertainment industry.

Hunter has won 3 Visual Effects Society (VES) Awards for sequences in Inception, The Dark Knight, and New Balance Love/Hate Anthem. He also wrote and directed the cinematic virtual reality film Kaiju Fury, which went on to be featured in the Sundance Festival's New Frontiers Program.

Hunter supervised New Deal Studios' contribution to four of Christopher Nolan's films, including The Dark Knight, Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, and finally Interstellar. The work on the last film garnered Hunter nominations from the BAFTAs and Academy Awards for Outstanding Visual Effects. He would later go on to receive both awards.

Hunter worked on director Damien Chazelle's science-fact film First Man, which chronicles the life of astronaut Neil Armstrong in his quest to go to the Moon. Again, Hunter's work received recognition from the VFX and film community, with First Man earning Hunter a VES Award for Supporting Visual Effects, and his second Academy Award for Outstanding Visual Effects.

Hunter contributed to the visual effects of Apple's Foundation series, overseeing the creation and photography of physical miniature spacecraft, which gave the series a unique look to its visual effects by combining practical and digital elements together. Other recent work includes VFX for Quentin Tarantino's period drama Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, spacecraft for Fede Álvarez' recent Alien: Romulus, and work in the upcoming The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

Hunter's other directing work includes commercials for Subway, another virtual production short for Orbital Studios (A Midnight Jaunt), and the horror thriller Allure, which screened at Sydney's A Night of Horror International Film Festival. Looking toward the future, Hunter plans to parlay his experience in visual effects and film design into other areas of filmmaking, including writing and directing.

Hunter is a member of the Visual Effects Society and the Visual Effects Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.