391 - The Future of VFX - Lon Molnar of MARZ

The mission of Monsters Aliens Robots Zombies (MARZ) is to deliver feature-film quality visual effects on television timelines by harnessing GPU clusters, game engine technology, AI and senior industry talent. Leveraging these pillars allows us to consistently execute with both speed and quality for our premium television projects.

Lon Molnar is the Co-President of MARZ. With more than 20 years of experience, Lon has contributed a vast amount of visual effects to film and television as an Artist, VFX Supervisor, and former CEO of the award winning VFX company Intelligent Creatures. Inspired by the magic of TOY STORY, Lon attended the Vancouver Film School with the single goal of opening up his own VFX studio. As he built his resume, he became dissatisfied with working on VFX for tv, and set his sights on feature films. He became a VFX generalist, working in animation, lighting, compositing and modelling, while using a vast array of software. 

After serving as the CG Supervisor on the groundbreaking films CHICAGO and THE CELL, he fulfilled his earlier dream and opened up Intelligent Creatures in 2002. Working with talented creators like Mark Forster, Darren Aronofsky, Alejandro González Iñárritu, David Tattersall, Oliver Stone and others, Lon quickly built the Toronto-based VFX house into an award-winning studio.

Intelligent Creatures lent its creativity to dozens of projects such as MR AND MRS SMITH, THE WITCH, and BABEL. They built robust pipelines to tackle critically-acclaimed projects, such as the WATCHMEN's famous Rorschach mask of moving inkblots. Some of their later work, such as the award-winning series ORPHAN BLACK and the Emmy-nominated CURIOSITY: BATTLEFIELD CELL pushed the boundaries of visual effects on TV.

Fifteen years after the formation of Intelligent Creatures, Lon recognized that unlike when he had started in the industry, TV was no longer the "lesser" medium for VFX. When he spoke to Jonathan Bronfman, the two found themselves sharing symbiotic ideas. They saw a gap that others didn't. What if, they asked, we can build a company that focuses on serving only one market, and defines the standard of excellence in that market? That was the beginning of MARZ.

In this Podcast, Allan McKay interviews Co-President of MARZ Lon Molnar about the company’s history and leveraging its technology innovations; the invisible visual effects and the development of the de-aging technology; positive outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic in the field of VFX an so much more!

For more show notes, visit www.allanmckay.com/391.