Today we’d like to introduce you to Jesse Winter.
Hi Jesse, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My passion for Filmmaking, especially Visual Effects, started when I was around 8 years old. I watched Star Wars Episode 3 for the first time and was completely captivated by all of the Visual Effects. From the space battles, to General Grievous, and the final fight on Mustafar, I was just blown away and was so curious of how it was all created. When I was 10 years old, I began watching After Effects tutorials. That really kick started my passion, even though I was completely overwhelmed by all of the techniques and different areas of VFX that I needed to learn. But after taking it one step at a time, I felt significantly more confident.
My senior year of high school is when I decided to pursue Visual Effects and filmmaking as a career. After being accepted into SCAD (Savannah College of Art & Design), I kept studying and honing my craft as a Filmmaker. During my 4 years at SCAD, I worked on 106 short film projects. I kept striving to learn as much as possible in every aspect of Filmmaking possible. During my time, I also began learning XR (Extended Reality) and UE5 (Unreal Engine 5) for Virtual Production Filmmaking. This combined both my passions for Filmmaking and Visual Effects in an entirely new way. After graduating, I worked on a few features (including Scream 7), a few documentaries, and especially more short films.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Working in a creative field, nothing goes completely your way. Whether it be creative differences, budgetary restrictions, or time restrictions, there’s been several occasions where I wish I could have given more effort or time to a project. Some specific struggles I’ve faced throughout my journey have been: I ran into some budgetary issues on my senior thesis, preventing us from shooting on a third day. Creative differences are easily the most common, whether it be a different vision or a last minute change to the project scope. And finally another issue is always time, I was brought on a short animated project as the look development lead to figure out and design a painterly effect, unfortunately I was brought on the project too late to the deadline and we weren’t completely able to create the vision the director had in mind.
As I tell everyone though when it comes to Visual Effects, everything is problem solving. The path you take to solve that problem is the fun part of Visual Effects.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am primarily a Visual Effects Artist and Digital Film Colorist. However, I prefer to work in most things tech/post-production related in film, including: DIT (Digital Imaging Technician), Editor, XR (Extended Reality) Technician, Electrician, Programmer, etc.
As a Visual Effect Artist, I’m a generalist meaning I don’t specialize in one specific area of VFX. I originally started out as a compositor. But as I began working in other areas of VFX, I fell in love with every aspect of Visual Effects and wanted to work in all of them. I’m mostly known for Visual Effects, a majority of how I get work is through word of mouth (clients recommending me to other clients). During my time at SCAD, I’d like to think that I was the “go-to guy” for Visual Effects work or consultation.
I’m most proud of flexibility and ability to problem solve. I love taking on unique challenges that really make me think of how to I’m going to achieve the director’s vision and if it doesn’t work, I pivot to a different approach based on the previous attempt. Working in Visual Effects for 5 years and studying for 12 gives me the knowledge to approach any project confidently with several different approaches.
What sets me apart from other Filmmakers, is that I come as a jack of all trades when it comes to post-production.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
Growing up, I think I was a pretty odd kid. I was really nerdy and didn’t really fit. I was into video games, anime, and movies, before COVID a lot of my interest weren’t really as widely accepted. I’m very glad that the public eye has come around. I didn’t really understand the world around me and who I was/would grow up to be. I tried on so many different personalities, looks, and friend groups. During college is where I really found my place, I didn’t have to fit in whatever is popular, I can be whatever I want to be. It was a really transformative time for me, I get to be that nerdy kid but now I’m confident in my own skin.
Pricing:
- My current hourly rate is 37.5/HR
- Open to Flat Rates
- Open to discussing and compensating for student rates
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jessewintervfx.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jessegwinter/?hl=en
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessewintervfx/
Image Credits
Rhiannon Shakir (Photos 1, 4 &5), Jackson Newcomer (Photos 2&3)
