LONDON - Visual Effects Supervisor Sue Rowe won the 2008 Panalux Craft Award at the annual Women in Film and Television (WFTV) Awards in London. The award is given to women who demonstrate excellence in the crafts involved in the production of film, television, and digital media, and was presented to Rowe by Sir Patrick Stewart.
Rowe has worked with Cinesite, one of Europe's largest full-service visual
effects facilities, since 1994. Currently involved in the Bruckheimer/Disney
production Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, she oversaw Cinesite's large
quota of work on the BAFTA and Oscar Award-winning The Golden Compass in
2007. Rowe was instrumental to the success of this production, working
closely with the visual effects teams on set and location, driving shots
from concept through to previsualization and on to final delivery.
Cinesite's varied work on The Golden Compass included the creation of
fifteen photorealistic CG daemon animal characters, ranging from a chameleon
to a panther, plus the spectacular environments of Lyras London and the
Arctic North.
The role of a visual effects supervisor is an important one, particularly
with rising production values and scale of post production. They are
involved throughout the entire production, from previsualization before
shooting begins, on-set supervision, through to supervising the digital
effects artists and liaising with the client to sign off shots. Despite a
rising number of women becoming involved in visual effects, they are still
under-represented in this craft, and Rowe remains one of the world's few
female visual effects supervisors.
In a visual effects career spanning 15 years, Rowe's credits have included
Death at a Funeral (2007), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), Stormbreaker
(2006), Charlie The Chocolate Factory (2005), The Hitchhikers Guide To The
Galaxy (2005), Alfie (2004), Ella Enchanted (2004), Troy (2004), Tombraider:
The Cradle of Life (2003), What A Girl Wants (2002), and Tombraider (2001).