Jesse Gilbert

When production teams bring shows into the SF / Bay Area, one challenge always comes up: Finding reliable local video support. Flying a full crew isn’t always practical—especially for roles like E2, playback, or video systems. That’s where having the right local partner makes a big difference. Someone who understands the workflow, shows up prepared, and keeps things running smoothly under pressure. If you’re planning a show in Northern California and need local support, happy to connect. #CorporateEvents #LiveProduction #EventProduction #ProAV #SanFrancisco #VideoSystems

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Fellow VFX artists: How are we responding when a director asks "is there something we can do with AI here?" or "Can you just AI this?" I don't want to get left behind by ignoring AI, but there are also ethical implications to using AI, not to mention the insult of a director asking "can we just have a robot do this faster and cheaper and better than you?" -Do I reject using AI entirely, out of principle? -Do I charge a flat fee for any time I use AI? an additional $500 per shot? That way the director still gets results faster, but there's a cost to them and a benefit to the artist. I get that AI can be fast and good, but that should come at a premium. -Do I allow myself to use AI as a tool along the way, but refuse generative AI for any final images? How are we navigating this? #AI #VFX #CGI

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Ep.14 link in bio Alejandro Mendoza covers AR Glasses onboard the ISS and how this tech is making astronauts jobs safer and more efficient.

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Nearly 10 years ago, Stephan Franck gave me wonderful “artist life” advice that catalyzed my pursuit to be a visual storyteller working in the entertainment industry. He exemplifies what it means to hone creativity, craft, and calling in a way that transcends a “job” or a “paycheck.” If you haven’t yet, check out his creations “Palomino” as well as “Silver.”

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The "Fractional Executive" is becoming the secret weapon for scaling studios. Not every studio needs a full-time, high-cost C-suite member from day one, but every studio needs executive-level strategy. Hiring "fractional" leadership allows studios to access top-tier talent for critical growth phases without the overhead. It’s the ultimate surgical recruitment move for the modern, agile studio. #GamingIndustry #Startups #Leadership #FractionalExec #GameRecruiter

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A 90-second hero asset isn't built in the edit. It's built in the shot design. Bad coverage can't be fixed. Good coverage makes editing invisible.

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It has been 4 years now since we opened HAA, the first specialty school for animation in the US. 100% animation in person for 8 hours a day with training from experienced Hollywood animators and directors. Students learn with classical animation training and industry geared projects for film, games, and television. It has been a great joy to develop the kind of curriculum I wished I would have gotten from Cal Arts after working in the industry for 30 years. Most colleges leave their students without guidance on what they specifically need for a competitive portfolio today. Students do character designs and student films that are misguided and unpolished. We build projects that are industry relavent and train students 6 semesters deep in order for them to reach pro levels. We even help our students build their portfolio websites and teach them how to be a professional within a studio system. This is a school striving to lead education with cutting edge technology and experience. Learn feature storyboarding from experienced feature story artists. Learn TV production boards from primetime directors or TV board artists. Learn Previs from a top previs lead from Marvel and Universal. Learn game animation and cinematics from an experienced lead and game cinematic director. Learn Unreal Engine for filmmaking from feature and game directors. The animation industry is more challenging than ever and for serious students we offer one of the best solutions. Daily in person professional guidance with a structure that is second to none in practical real world training. In 2026 we launch our next intermediate level program for online students called Creative Edge and grow our 3rd year Mastercraft program with fantastic pro level projects. It's going to be an exciting year and we invite new students to check out our website and contact us if you are interested in learning more. https://lnkd.in/g8E8uFuU #animation

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Today the DGA sits down with the studios, with AI high on the agenda. WGA ratified. SAG-AFTRA has a tentative deal. But casting directors aren't at any of those AI settlement tables. That should worry anyone who cares about who gets discovered next. And yet, on 15 March, casting won its first Oscar, the Academy's first new competitive category since Best Animated Feature was introduced in 2001. This matters because AI can replicate the known, and predictive models can price the known, but casting is still where the unknown becomes visible. Something not many are connecting: the five inaugural nominees weren't rewarded for attaching stars. They were rewarded for discovery, chemistry, and instinct. → Cassandra Kulukundis, One Battle After Another (winner), after an open-ended search for Willa that considered everyone from trained actors to people found in schools or on the street, before landing on Chase Infiniti. → Nina Gold, Hamnet, non-siblings cast as the Shakespeare twins, chemistry over physical "twinning". → Jennifer Venditti, Marty Supreme, a mosaic of non-pros around Chalamet. → Gabriel Domingues, The Secret Agent, actors and non-actors with real Northeastern Brazilian accents. → Francine Maisler, Sinners, screen veterans and newcomers, chemistry doing the work. While the unions negotiate protections for the people the industry already knows, the Academy just honoured casting directors for finding the people it doesn't. The irony is this. Predictive content intelligence (Cinelytic, Largo, Vault AI) is an increasingly powerful input into packaging, financing and casting. Cinelytic's spring upgrade claims 88%+ accuracy across 80 territories. They share one blind spot: they cannot model the unknown. A model can tell you what swapping Brad Pitt for Leonardo DiCaprio does to projected ROI. It cannot price what a real Recife accent adds to The Secret Agent. It cannot weigh an instinct that chemistry will beat resemblance. The entry-level pipeline isn't dying. It's relocating: to Instagram, TikTok, open calls, rooms where the person reading didn't grow up imagining themselves on a call sheet. Casting at its best is forward-looking. Not who already has value. Who deserves to be discovered next. That's the conversation I want to have today: not whether the future is over, but who gets to be in it. Who gets seen? Who gets valued? Who gets protected? Who gets left out? And who gets to decide? #Casting #CastingDirectors #FilmIndustry #TalentDiscovery #AIinFilm

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Proud to see how raw facial performance capture transforms into expressive digital characters APPLE ARTS STUDIOS Motion Capture Services. With 15+ years of experience, we continue delivering high-quality motion capture solutions for films, games, and virtual production. #MotionCapture #FacialCapture #VFX #Animation #VirtualProduction

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This past year has been an exciting journey screening and discussing “Cut to the Chase,” the short film I wrote, directed, and edited for Sony, utilizing their virtual production volume in Vancouver with the Akira vehicle processing system. At various panels during events such as SXSW, NAB, and SIGGRAPH, we presented exclusive behind-the-scenes videos that highlighted all aspects of this unique production. Here’s a quick look at our pre-production and visualization process. More to come! And be sure to check out the full short on Sony’s official YouTube channel! #film #filmmaking #virtualproduction #cinema #movies #moviemaking

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DWA remote workers across the US, feature production workers at Netflix Animation Studios and production workers on the show “Ted” have voted to unionize with the IATSE Local 839 and the IATSE Local 700. https://lnkd.in/e_MqxrNi

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Very excited about this news because it's a step in the right direction towards rebuilding California as a hub for animation production. But, I'm very disappointed at the choice of shows being supported. It's not that Adult Swim’s President Curtis(Adult Swim), a Rick and Morty spinoff, and 20th Television Animation’s Stewie, a Family Guy spinoff aren't great shows. It's that they're already funded and supported by a distributor. These aren't the projects that actually need help! This is just an acceleration of the K-shaped animation economy where fewer and fewer are getting all the work, while the middle and independent efforts careen to the bottom and to bankruptcy. I hope subsidies continues because Cali really needs it. But, I hope they choose a more diverse set of recipients going forward. #animation #cartoons #survivinganimation

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I've been thinking a lot about this idea that we need to resist tech's "takeover" of our industry. For me, when we frame tech (Al) as an invader, it positions Hollywood purely as a victim/defender, rather than as an agent of its own transformation, which in turn limits our agency. Hollywood could co-create integration terms. But, the reality is that Hollywood isn't yet fluent enough in Al to meaningfully participate in setting terms (on the whole). To claim authorship over Al's role in entertainment, we must first become fluent in it. For me, this continues to remain a literacy issue. You can't make sense of a thing you simply don't understand.

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DaVinci Resolve 20.1 is live, and it just made immersive workflows real. If you edit, grade, do VFX, or mix audio, this update is worth opening Resolve for. This application provides native Apple Immersive Video support, enabling users to edit, color, add visual effects, mix spatial audio, and deliver content for Apple Vision Pro seamlessly within a single application. Quick highlights you can actually use: - Apple Vision Pro monitoring + Immersive Viewer: Pan, tilt, and roll immersive clips on your monitor or stream directly to Vision Pro for real-time previews. - Spatial audio support in Fairlight: Apple Spatial Audio Format support and 3D panning tools enable true spatial mixes, ideal for immersive storytelling and live performance work. - Fusion & AI upgrades: Magic Mask improvements, a new 3D title, USD-friendly VFX tools, lens-space corrections, and immersive patcher utilities. - Better VFX pipeline for stereoscopic/immersive footage. Newsshooter offers enhanced editor usability and a free version. It includes MultiText character and paragraph styling, CSV import for column-aligned text, improved safe-area tools, clip compositions that respect timeline resolution, and higher-precision timeline support. Why this matters: You no longer need 3 or 4 apps to build immersive experiences. Resolve is stepping up as a single platform to create spatial video and spatial audio, from ingest to final delivery. That changes how teams plan immersive projects and lowers the barrier for creators. #DaVinciResolve #ImmersiveVideo #AppleVisionPro #SpatialAudio #PostProduction #editingworkflow #videoeditordxb #dxbvideoeditor #creativecontent #editingupdates #softwareupdate

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If your game lives or dies on connection…why would you remove the human from it? I spent a lot of time at GDC hearing teams talk about using AI for voices. And I get it, budgets are tough. Especially in indie. But when it comes to performance, voice isn’t just a delivery system for lines. It’s emotion. It’s nuance. It’s culture. It’s lived experience. It’s the thing that makes a player feel something. And that will never come from a dataset. It comes from a human being who has spent years training, working, and honing their craft. There are so many incredibly talented voice actors out there, at every level, who bring depth, connection, and truth to the work. And there are ways to work within different budgets that still respect both the project and the performers. Going fully AI should not be the path forward. All that time, energy, and care you’ve put into your game? This ONE choice risks losing the player connection that makes it truly resonate. #GameDev #IndieGameDev #GameAudio #VoiceActing #Storytelling #NarrativeDesign

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