The many faces of digital technologyBirth, life (and death?) of the profession of visual effects supervisor in France

Abstract

As digital tools have brought fundamental changes to many areas of filmmaking (e.g., color grading, editing or shooting), they have also created “new” job descriptions, often completely reconfiguring tasks traditionally assigned to other individuals, such as Post-Production Managers or Visual Effects Supervisors. This article focuses on the key role of the french Visual Effects Supervisor since the 1980s, in accordance with French models, at the crossroads of the digital technologies revolution. New digital tools led to the standardization of the profession of Visual Effects Supervisor at the turn of the 21st century, first in the United States and then in France. In France, the Visual Effects Supervisor, unlike his American counterpart, has struggled to establish a toehold in feature film productions. We will see how the practice of the profession, between the 1980s and 2010, was established in contexts of creation and complex technological innovations. From the 1980s to the 2010s, how did Visual Effects Supervisors experience the steady increase in new software and workstations? How did these tools contribute to a better understanding and increased visibility of visual effects professions? How precisely do technical developments, specifically due to the development of the digital workflow, from shooting to projection, force supervisors to constantly adapt and innovate ?