Film Effects Veteran to Build Digital Mattes & Concepts Division; Company Heavily Recruiting Animators, Technical Directors and Effects Specialists to Fill Open Positions in Hollywood, Vancouver and Winnipeg

Frantic Films VFX, a division of Prime
Focus Group, announced the hire of Kenneth Nakada, one of the film
industry’s leading matte painters and film effects designers. Nakada joins
Frantic Films VFX on a wave of rapid expansion to spearhead the company’s
new digital mattes & concepts division.

Nakada joins Frantic Films VFX following a two-and-a-half year stint with
Momentum/LookFX where he served as visual effects supervisor and designer,
and oversaw the company’s digital environment team. He is currently painting
environments for “City of Ember” and has recently designed on Frank Miller’s
“The Spirit.” He has also just completed paintings for CIS Hollywood on
“The Express,” “Leatherheads,” and “Starship Dave.” While at Momentum/Look
FX he supervised “Get Smart,” “Las Vegas,” designed for “Fantastic Four:
Rise of the Silver Surfer,” and supervised the matte paintings on “Pushing
Daisies.”

Prior to LookFX, Nakada spent five years at RIOT, first as a senior matte
painter, later as a VFX supervisor, and eventually becoming the company’s
Director of Visual Effects. His stand out projects at RIOT include
“Terminator 3,” “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,” “Sky Captain and
the World of Tomorrow,” “The Scorpion King” and many other film, television,
commercial and music video projects. Additionally, Nakada has freelanced
creating matte paintings for studios such as Industrial Light & Magic, Stan
Winston Digital, ESC Entertainment, Cinesite and Captive Audience on
projects including “Apocalypto,” “Van Helsing,” “Peter Pan,” “The Passion of
the Christ,” and “The Matrix Revolutions.” He got his start in matte
painting and visual effects at Illusion Arts in Van Nuys, CA where he spent
six years cutting his teeth on films such as “Star Trek: First Contact,”
“Mask of Zorro,” “Stuart Little,” and “X-Men.”

“His well-rounded background and skill set encompassing VFX shot design,
on-set supervision, art direction and effects supervision, matte painting
and photography make Nakada incredibly unique. He is the ideal candidate to
take charge of this new division.” Said Chris Bond, co-founder, Frantic
Films VFX. “He is an incredibly talented and accomplished artist, and his
list of credits include some of the best films and television projects in
the last decade-I am very excited to add him to our arsenal of talent!”

“I was approached by several different companies, but Frantic Films VFX
proved to be the perfect place for me to launch a new digital mattes &
concepts division. The vision that I have for this highly specialized matte
painting/virtual environment department is totally in line with the
philosophies, priorities and work methodologies already employed at Frantic
VFX,” explained Nakada. “When you specialize in building virtual
environments, you need complimentary teams to help bring those environments
to life. Frantic Films VFX has highly talented CG water, character and
animation teams in place to provide a very synergistic fit.”

As part of a company-wide expansion and the effort to build a digital mattes
& concepts division, Frantic Films VFX is actively seeking to hire talented
animators, lighting and rendering artists, particle specialists and
technical directors for their Hollywood, Vancouver and Winnipeg offices.
Interested parties may submit reels and resumes electronically via
www.franticfilms.com/vfx/