The
VIEW Conference has announced that two-times Academy Award-winning VFX supervisor Ian Hunter and the leadership team from Pro Machina will attend VIEW Conference 2025 in person to talk about their practical effects work on “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” the critically acclaimed superhero movie from Disney and Marvel Studios.
The Pro Machina team used traditional modelmaking skills to craft a 4m-long miniature of the “Excelsior” spacecraft that features prominently in the film. Ian Hunter will take to the VIEW Conference stage alongside Pro Machina co-founders Camille Balsamo-Gillis and Reid Collums to discuss the creation of this retro rocketship.
In a separate solo presentation, Hunter will regale the VIEW Conference 2025 audience with his experiences as a miniature effects specialist not only on “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” but also the recent sci-fi horror hit “Alien: Romulus” and Christopher Nolan’s mind-bending space epic “Interstellar,” for which Hunter won his first Academy Award.
This year’s VIEW Conference takes place from October 12-17, 2025, in the stunning baroque city of Turin, Italy. Tickets are now available on the official website:
viewconference.it/pages/registration
VIEW Conference 2025 also welcomes Daytime Emmy Award-winning Alex Woo, founder and CEO of the independent animation studio Kuku Studios, and director of the upcoming Netflix animated feature “In Your Dreams.” An experienced filmmaker whose credits include Pixar’s “Ratatouille,” “WALL•E” and “Finding Dory,” Woo won a Student Academy Award for his animated short film “Rex Steele: Nazi Smasher.” “In Your Dreams” follows the adventures of Stevie (Jolie Hoang-Rappaport) and her little brother Elliot (Elias Janssen) as they journey into the wildly absurd landscape of their own dreams to ask the Sandman to grant them the perfect family.
Also speaking at VIEW Conference 2025 is Tracy McCreary, Emmy Award-nominated managing director and partner of the independent London-based VFX studio BlueBolt. The studio’s recent projects include “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon” and five seasons of “The Last Kingdom,” of which the latter two earned BATFA Award nominations. Before taking the reins at BlueBolt, McCreary worked on blockbuster movies including “Iron Man 2” and “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.”
“In this age of digital VFX and AI, people remain fascinated by traditional practical effects techniques,” says Conference Director Dr. Maria Elena Gutierrez. “That is why I am thrilled that Ian Hunter and the Pro Machina team are attending VIEW Conference 2025 here in beautiful Turin. I am equally excited to welcome Alex Woo and Tracy McCreary, two extraordinary talents who are sure to wow our international audience with their spellbinding stories.”
About Ian Hunter
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 being 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 an 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 Alvarez' 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 film making, 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.
About Camille Balsamo-Gillis
As the eldest daughter of Oscar nominated creature effects artist Alec Gillis, it was inevitable Camille Balsamo-Gillis would follow in her father’s footsteps with a career in practical effects. As co-founder of practical FX production company Pro Machina, her team builds and shoots miniatures for blockbuster films like “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” and “Alien: Romulus,” but she hasn't stopped there: Pro Machina's mission is to create unique films that celebrate practical effects as a powerful filmmaking tool. To date, she has produced two features under the banner, with two more in development this year.
About Reid Collums
Co-founder of Pro Machina, Reid Collums is an actor and writer whose screen credits include “Harbinger Down” and “Wellwood,” which he produced and co-wrote with his wife Camille Balsamo-Gillis.
About Alex Woo
Alex is the Founder and CEO of Kuku Studios, an independent animation studio based in Berkeley, California. Prior to founding Kuku Studios, Alex was a Story Lead at Pixar Animation Studios, a director in development at Lucasfilm Animation, and a Student Academy Award-winning filmmaker. He is the Director of “In Your Dreams,” an original animated feature premiering on Netflix this year. He is also the Creator and Executive Producer of the Netflix original series Go! Go! Cory Carson, for which he was awarded an Emmy for Outstanding Directing. His credits include “Ratatouille,” “WALL•E,” “The Good Dinosaur,” “Finding Dory,” the Student Academy Award-winning short “Rex Steele: Nazi Smasher,” and the Sundance New Frontier selection VR short, “The Rose and I.” Alex holds a BFA in Film/TV Production from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.
About Tracy McCreary
Tracy McCreary is Managing Director and Partner of BlueBolt, an award-winning, independent visual effects studio based in London with credits including VES nominated work on Robert Egger’s “Nosferatu,” BAFTA nominated VFX work on Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon” and five seasons of “The Last Kingdom” (Carnival Films/ Netflix). Tracy is responsible for leading the studio’s growth, scope of work and its close-knit team.
Tracy was promoted to Managing Director at BlueBolt in 2021 following six years in Executive Producer and VFX Producer roles, overseeing film and TV productions from “Taboo” (Scott Free/BBC) to “Mission Impossible: Fallout” (Paramount). Tracy joined BlueBolt in 2015 following a successful US based career working on the production team of major Hollywood feature films including “Iron Man 2,” “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” and “Cowboys & Aliens.”
About VIEW Conference
An English language event, VIEW Conference 2025 takes place from October 12-17, 2025, in the beautiful baroque city of Turin, Italy. Enjoy this unrivaled opportunity to network with award-winning film directors, animators, artists and game designers as they deliver an incredible program of keynotes, panels, talks, workshops and masterclasses. Explore cutting-edge thinking in a wide range of creative and technology-based fields as a stellar line-up of stars from Hollywood and Silicon Valley. Celebrate the latest achievements in Animation, VFX and Games and share unforgettable visions of the future.
The conference’s vibrant and inclusive atmosphere is designed to enlighten and inspire, with an extensive live program of talks, presentations, workshops and masterclasses embracing cutting-edge thinking on such diverse topics as Storytelling, Virtual Production, Computer Graphics, Interactive & Immersive Media, VR/AR/Mixed Reality and the Metaverse, Artificial Intelligence, Real-Time Rendering and much, much more.