Episode 359 - Peter Baustaedter - VFX/Virtual Art Director, Amazon Studios

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Peter Baustaedter’s Hollywood career is an adventure worthy of a movie. After cracking the demoscene in Austria, he took a chance and wrote to Digital Domain — only for them to offer him a job. From here, he worked on a string of movies with groundbreaking VFX:</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Apollo 13</span></em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">,</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Dante’s Peak</span></em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">,</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">The Fifth Element</span></em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">,</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">,</span> <em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sin City</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">,</span> <em><span style="font-weight: 400;">King Kong</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">, and</span> <em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Avatar</span></em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In this extraordinary episode, Peter explains the minor role Arnold Schwarzenegger played in his career, discusses the dangerous world of practical effects in the mid-90s, and reveals why the power kept tripping at Square Pictures’ Hawaiian production facility. Peter also talks about stepping up to become a visual effects art director and shares tidbits on using Unreal Engine to produce a major upcoming TV series from Amazon Studios.</span></p>