London, U.K. – Cinesite, a film visual effects house, opened pre-registration for its 2011 internship program, Inspire. Launched in fall 2009, Inspire has proven to be an effective platform for Cinesite to grow and nurture young talent. Both winners of the 2010 program, Chris Mulcaster and Alex Betancourt, have been offered positions at the company since completing their six-week placements and are now working on Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and John Carter of Mars, respectively. Animation finalist Elliott Staker has also joined the company and is working on another production.
For the 2011 program, Cinesite is broadening access to Inspire by accepting applications from students due to graduate in 2012, as well as 2011 graduates. Students who have already graduated may also apply. Applications will be accepted from January 10, 2011, but Cinesite is encouraging applicants to visit its Web site now, register for the information pack and start working on their show reels.
Cinesite is looking to receive applications from people with interests in the following specific areas: shader writing, pipeline programming, digital matte painting, animation, lighting, texturing, modeling, FX, and compositing.
The Inspire program was devised by Cinesite in response to a lack of formalized visual effects internship programs for students. The company was overwhelmed by applications for the 2010 program, receiving more than 250.
“This is a great opportunity for graduates and undergraduates,” says Antony Hunt, managing director of Cinesite. “The first year of Inspire proved to be a huge success for us as we were lucky enough to find three extremely talented candidates who are now part of the Cinesite team. I’d encourage people to register their interest now and start thinking about their showreels. We’re committed to growing this program year-on-year and I’m looking forward to seeing the breadth of talent that’s out there.”