ZaneFX: visual fx for indies… and Hollywood

ZaneFX has made its name almost entirely on word-of-mouth referrals. Because so many of the effects we’ve done over the years are climactic (spoiler) third-act moments, it is often difficult to get permission to show them for self promotion. Also, because many of them involve “invisible effects,” unless there is a detailed behind-the-scenes breakdown, it’s hard to know exactly what you’re seeing. (Or not seeing.)

To put it succinctly: we blow things up, shoot things up, and make things up. We make muzzle flashes look cool and make coiling smoke look pretty. We shatter things, smash things, destroy things. We also build things. Make things fly. We paint out booms, poles, reflections, C-stands, harnesses, wires… We make people get hit by cars, trucks, buses… We make people fall off buildings. Get stabbed by knives. Hatchets. Axes. Cleavers. We spray a lot of blood. And occasionally make vampires turn to dust. We create something from nothing. Locations. Bridges. Castle walls. We make tattoos come alive and veins coil with dark magic. We make fairy wings fly and pixie dust sparkle. We make nuclear mushroom clouds wreck digital havoc… with no mess or radiation to clean up later.

We rotoscope. We tweak and twiddle. We composite. We make the magic happen.

ZaneFX was recently credited in the Paramount Pictures release of Jeff, Who Lives at Home, directed by Jay and Mark Duplass. Although only seven seconds long, the hero shot we were involved in was a critical third-act moment of the film, extending a bridge to the horizon where there was no bridge.

We did recent FX work on Katie Aselton’s Sundance favorite Black Rock. We also did indie effects on SXSW favorites Baghead (by Jay and Mark Duplass) and The Overbrook Brothers (John Bryant), as well as Emily Hagins’ My Sucky Teen Romance. We’ve also done FX for Michael Eisner’s media company Vuguru, including effects work on The Millionaire Tour, Prom Queen, the upcoming Crawlspace, and Kyle Rankin’s post-apocalyptic Nuclear Family.

We’ve done uncredited design work and visual effects supervision/consulting on too many projects to list, often at the script stage.

We like a challenge. If you’ve got one, give us a shout. Whether you’re indie, Hollywood, or somewhere in between.