“˜Smurfs’ director calls Fil-Am visual effects producer a “˜magician’1 min read
Reading Time: < 1 minuteThe Smurfs are not the only magical beings in the live-action movie version of the popular comic and TV franchise, according to its director Raja Gosnell.
In our chat with Raja in Cancun, Mexico, he hailed Maricel Pagulayan, Filipino-American visual effects producer of the movie which stars Neil Patrick Harris, Hank Azaria, “Glee’s” Jayma Mays, Sofia Vergara and such talents as the voices of the lovable mythical blue beings ““ Katy Perry, George Lopez, Jonathan Winters, Anton Yelchin, Alan Cumming and Fred Armisen. Maricel was born and raised in the US except for two years when she lived and went to a high school in the Philippines.
“Maricel is a magician,” Raja said. “Maricel’s job is not only to manage all the data because we have data leaving the editing room to go and be animated, data coming back and forth. And this goes over three or four different vendors. That also requires tracking how much money is being spent per shot and why is the shot delayed.
So basically, she had to manage this massive budget and the immensely complicated portion of the movie when the film is winding down but certain shots aren’t done.”
