Andy Fowler’s career has combined his creative eye with his incredible production skills. Beginning in London’s burgeoning VFX scene with titles such as Lost in Space, 300, and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Andy picked up an Emmy for his work on The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. Then he moved to LA to work on Tron: Legacy, Noah, and The Revenant, before moving to Netflix and becoming Vice President of Production Innovation, overseeing an astounding 10,000 shots per year.
In this podcast, Andy reflects on his career and how it’s evolved alongside the technology that makes VFX shots happen. He talks about live-action at Disney, making convincing digital humans for Scorsese’s The Irishman, and how virtual production emerged from the pandemic. Andy also gives his thoughts on AI and how it’s going to affect production.
Links:
Interview with Andy Fowler on Netflix's virtual production >
0:03:44 Beginnings in commercials and music videos
0:07:51 "Lost in Space" and joining Terry Gilliam's Peerless
0:12:57 "Narnia" and being a producer
0:15:44 Can producers be creative?
0:19:51 Live action at Disney
0:24:44 Making "The Irishman" for Netflix
0:30:40 Getting through the pandemic
0:35:25 How virtual production saved Hollywood
0:41:23 Essential knowledge for in-camera VFX
0:45:44 The pitfalls of virtual production
0:50:51 The impact of the AI revolution
0:57:22 The importance of ethics in AI
1:01:13 What Andy's doing next