CG Garage

Gothic horror is having a moment, and Justin Denton got there before the wave. His feature The Curse of the Sin Eater is now streaming on Prime, built for under a million dollars with 19 shooting days, a single private benefactor, Chicago theater actors, an English manor that half-burned down and got rebuilt by hand, and a composer found on Spotify who bowed his guitar like a cello because he didn't own one. Justin is a VFX veteran who has worked on $200 million productions, directed VR experiences for Legendary, and now has a completed independent feature with a Samuel Goldwyn distribution deal to show for a process that looks nothing like what Hollywood taught him and everything like what filmmaking actually requires. Chris and Daniel dig into the full journey with Justin: how the sin eater mythology stuck with him through COVID, why he pitched it as a drama dressed in horror clothing, what it costs to make a real film in a union town, how distribution actually gets done in the backroom deals before AFM (American Film Market) even opens, and why not having a recognizable name in your cast is the one decision that follows a first-time director all the way to the release screen. The conversation ranges from the Philippou Brothers grinding out horror on YouTube in rural Australia to Demi Moore chasing a script nobody thought she would want, to why the studios are wrong about Gen Z and the movies. This is a real-world map of what it takes to make a feature right now. Links and References: Justin Denton on IMDB > Justin Denton on LinkedIn > Justin Denton on Instagram > The Curse of the Sin Eater Trailer > The Curse of the Sin Eater on Amazon Prime > Film discussed: Talk to Me (dirs. Danny and Michael Philippou) The Substance (dir. Coralie Fargeat) My Old Ass (dir. Megan Park) Weapons (dir. Zach Cregger) Obsession (dir. Cory Barker) The Bride (dir. Maggie Gyllenhaal) Widows Bay (Apple TV+) Honey Don't (dir. Ethan Coen) This episode is sponsored by: Center Grid Virtual Studio Kitbash 3D (Use promocode "CGGarage" for 10% off)

A movie from 2006 looks like it could have come out last year. The cars are the same. The computers are the same. The fashion, the cinematography, the music -- all of it effectively unchanged. Chris and Daniel use The Devil Wears Prada as a lens to ask a question that goes well beyond film: has Western pop culture simply... stopped moving? The conversation covers the film's craft -- Meryl Streep's uncommonly restrained performance, why the movie works better than it has any right to, and why Daniel reads Miranda Priestly not as a villain but as a Whiplash-style manifestation of what the main character actually wants. But the real thesis is bigger: the iPhone, social media, the collapse of risk-taking across studios and streaming, and why neither audiences nor executives are really to blame -- the incentive structure is. Chris and Daniel also get into the sin-eater problem, why indie film has lost its live-wire energy, and what it actually takes to stop doom-scrolling and just make the thing. Links and References What The Devil Wears Prada and Your iPhone Have in Common: Nothing Has Changed in Twenty Years > The Devil Wears Prada (2006, dir. David Frankel) The Devil Wears Prada 2 (2026, dir. David Frankel) Justin Denton, The Curse of the Sin Eater Five Easy Pieces (1970) The Last Detail (1973) Whiplash (2014) Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) Swiss Army Man (2016) Sinners (2025) Suits (TV series) The Office (TV series) Frasier (TV series) The Big Picture podcast > This episode is sponsored by: Center Grid Virtual Studio Kitbash 3D (Use promocode "CGGarage" for 10% off)

Hollywood isn't dying. It's being deconstructed and reassembled into something nobody has a blueprint for, and the people falling into the water right now are the ones who have to figure out what the new ship looks like. Chris Nichols, Daniel, and James are recording this one from a moving car, driving from Los Angeles to Angel's Camp, California for a live location shoot on their Monstrous Moonshine western, June July. The conversation they have on the way there turns into one of the more honest assessments of what the industry is actually going through: not an AI problem, not a streaming problem, but a collapse of the middle-ground ecosystem that used to grow directors, fund weird ideas, and keep creative risk alive. But first: how a pocket watch changed everything. Before any of that industry talk, the crew digs into what happened when they started shooting vid-viz for June July on an iPhone. James, who plays the outlaw Ross in the film, found something in that low-stakes exploratory process that nobody had scripted: a lonely man who thought he had more time, holding a dead man's pocket watch and staring at the life he ruined. That discovery rewrote Ross's entire arc, threaded a new storyline through the larger film, and proved that vid-viz isn't just a pre-visualization tool. It's where the real story gets found. From there the conversation opens up into what it actually means to survive a reshuffling industry, why the lens test mentality is the most insidious way creative people avoid making things, and what anyone with 25 years of experience and a suddenly obsolete skill set is supposed to do next. Links: Monstrous Moonshine > James Blevins IMDB > James Blevins LinkedIn > Virtual Production: 'June July' Filmmakers Test New "VidViz" Technique | The Creative + Tech Orbit > This episode is sponsored by: Center Grid Virtual Studio Kitbash 3D (Use promocode "CGGarage" for 10% off)

500 episodes of television is a number that stops people cold, and Jay Worth hit that milestone last year without slowing down. Worth came up through the pressure cooker of Digital Domain's commercial division, survived the 23-episode broadcast grind on J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot slate across Alias, Fringe, Lost, and Cloverfield, and helped define what prestige television VFX looks like on Westworld before most people knew what a volume stage was. Now co-producer on Fallout, he has spent three decades turning budget constraints and impossible schedules into a methodology that the biggest shows in streaming depend on. On Fallout Season 2, Worth breaks down how the show shot entirely in California, brought Raynault VFX in Montreal in for New Vegas, tackled the Deathclaw sequence using fire as the only light source on a volume stage packed with practical snow, and delivered 3,200 shots while staying laser-focused on world-building over spectacle. He also gets into his philosophy of getting into the writer's room on day one, why VFX diplomacy is a craft that needs to be taught, and how he thinks about AI as just another tool in the same way the industry once thought the volume stage would be a magic bullet. Links: Jay Worth on LinkedIn > Jay Worth on IMDB > Fallout Season 2 (Amazon Prime Video) > Raynault VFX > Magnopus > Episode 542 - Refuge VFX: How a Portland Boutique Landed Fallout, Shogun, and One Piece > This episode is sponsored by: Center Grid Virtual Studio Kitbash 3D (Use promocode "CGGarage" for 10% off)

Portland, Oregon is not where you expect to find a VFX studio with credits on Fallout, One Piece, Shogun, and The Peripheral. Fred Ruff built Refuge VFX there anyway, starting with six freelancers crammed into an office barely big enough to breathe in, and grew it into one of the more interesting independent shops working in streaming today. The secret, if there is one, is that Refuge treats every sequence as a storytelling problem before it is ever a technical problem. On Fallout, they blocked out shots the production couldn't afford to ask for and sent them anyway. On The Peripheral, they redesigned alien characters mid-production to keep a show from looking like a Doctor Who budget episode. That is not how most VFX shops operate, and that difference is the whole point. This conversation with Fred and Alex Theisen, Refuge's Executive Producer, gets into how that philosophy actually runs a business, what the streaming bubble burst felt like from inside a mid-sized independent, and where AI fits into a professional VFX pipeline right now (short answer: not where clients think it does). Fred makes a sharp argument that AI is not making productions cheaper anytime soon, and that the industry's obsession with the cost question is the wrong frame entirely. Daniel Thron co-hosts. Links: Refuge VFX > Fallout (Amazon Prime Video) > Shōgun (FX/Hulu) > One Piece (Netflix) > The Peripheral (Amazon Prime Video) > This episode is sponsored by: Center Grid Virtual Studio Kitbash 3D (Use promocode "cggarage" for 10% off)

There's a Tuesday night writers group that has quietly shaped the careers of some seriously talented people working in Hollywood right now, and CG Garage is slowly pulling back the curtain on it. Sean Rourke is the second member of that group to come on the show, following Andy Cochrane, and his path through the industry is one of the more unlikely and instructive ones you'll hear. He spent 12 years as Head of Editorial at The Third Floor, the previz studio behind some of the biggest films in production, and he got there by being the only person in the building who remembered how to unjam a three-quarter-inch tape deck. What followed was a career built on dying technology, accidental promotions, and a consistent instinct for being exactly where the creative work was happening. Co-host Daniel Thron and Sean dig into what previz editorial actually is and why it attracts the kind of people who want to direct, how audiences have been quietly rewired by streaming into expecting 10-hour stories and now feel cheated by a 2-hour film, and what AI tools actually look like inside a working production pipeline versus the buzzword version that investors keep funding. Sean also teaches Comic-Con Film School, a four-day filmmaking fundamentals class he has run every year for 20 straight years, and makes a sharp case for why film school still matters even when every specific tool it teaches goes obsolete. And if you follow vampire cinema at all, he runs a YouTube channel called The Vampire's Castle, just scored an interview with Jason Patric about The Lost Boys that has apparently never happened before, and is very pleased about recent awards-season developments. Links: Sean Rourke / The Vampire's Castle YouTube > Sean Rourke > The Third Floor (Previz) > Andy Cochrane on CG Garage > Ben Hansford (AI educator, USC) on CG Garage > This episode is sponsored by: Center Grid Virtual Studio Kitbash 3D (Use promocode "cggarage" for 10% off)

Jess Loren has built one of the most-followed voices in the entertainment technology space on LinkedIn, and she has earned it by calling industry shifts before they become consensus. Her read on Gaussian splats as a genuine production tool, not a novelty, is proving correct. As co-founder of Global Objects and a board member of the Visual Effects Society, Jess has spent the last year turning that conviction into working pipelines: partnering with XGrid as California's media and entertainment distributor, building Go Scout for collaborative splat-based location scouting, and installing a virtual production wall inside ISS (Independent Studio Services) where filmmakers can shoot a full day on LED for $6,000, props included. Recorded live at the HPA (Hollywood Professional Association) Tech Retreat in Palm Springs, this conversation covers why polygons are giving way to splats, how AI is quietly restructuring VFX workflows, the uncomfortable reality of synthetic actors and deepfake-flooded social feeds, and what happens when a research lab asks you to find 40,000 random objects for training data and you realize the answer is a prop house. Jess also breaks down Global Objects' partnership with ISS to digitize the world's largest prop library, creating 3D assets destined for Fab, Turbo Squid, and eventually, robot training sets. //links// Jess Loren on LinkedIn > Global Objects > Independent Studio Services (ISS) > XGrid > Visual Effects Society > HPA Tech Retreat > This episode is sponsored by: Center Grid Virtual Studio Kitbash 3D (Use promocode "cggarage" for 10% off)

Why are we still waiting for a green light from people who do not understand our craft? This reality is at the heart of our conversation with Andy Cochrane, a creative who has spent twenty years navigating the collapsing bridges of the entertainment industry. Andy takes us through the trenches of his career, from the grueling 70-hour weeks as a runner on CSI: Miami to the high-stakes visual effects world of Asylum and Terminator Salvation. We discuss the hard realization that being a "button pusher" in a massive pipeline is no longer a safe bet, and why the most vital work is now happening in the "weird stuff" between traditional film and immersive technology. The future of storytelling belongs to the tactical generalists who are willing to build their own labs rather than wait for a studio to discover them. We look at how Markiplier bypassed the traditional, expensive studio marketing machine by leveraging his own fanbase to bring Iron Lung to life, and why artist-driven projects like Everything Everywhere All at Once have become the new blueprint for success. Andy breaks down his current mission in Santa Monica, where he is bypassing traditional distribution models to create "Loud Movies," an open-source medium that prioritizes human experience over corporate commodification. It is a deep dive into why the most important tool in your kit isn't a new piece of software, but the willingness to keep moving while the building collapses around you. The CG Pro Show > Andy Cochrane on LinkedIn > Andy Cochrane on IMDB > Mark Duplass: The Cavalry is not Coming > This episode is sponsored by: Center Grid Virtual Studio Kitbash 3D (Use promocode "cggarage" for 10% off)

If the movies you're seeing lately feel like they were assembled by a committee rather than a creator, you're looking at the wrong side of the lens. We are dusting off a classic format today, leaning into the kind of raw film breakdowns we used to live for. The spotlight is on two heavyweights: Josh Safdie's Marty Supreme and Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another. Both of these pictures have just locked in Best Picture nominations for the 2026 Academy Awards, and it feels like a signal fire. After years of franchise fatigue and focus-tested safety, we are looking at a lineup that suggests great, uncompromising cinema is finally clawing its way back to the center of the frame. Fair warning: we aren't holding anything back here, so consider this a total spoiler warning. We are going deep into the structure, the endings, and the technical magic tricks that make these films work: from the anxiety-inducing rhythm of Safdie's 1950s ping pong subculture to Anderson's mastery of the long-lens Mojave car chase. This year's nominations feel like a turning point, a collective realization that the audience is hungry for movies that challenge them rather than just pat them on the back. It's a look at why the "cavalry isn't coming" for Hollywood, and why that might be the best news we've heard in decades for anyone who actually cares about the craft of visual storytelling. //links// Monstrous Moonshine > Marty Supreme Trailer > One Battle After Another Trailer > Original Ending of Marty Supreme > This episode is sponsored by: Center Grid Virtual Studio Kitbash 3D (Use promocode "cggarage" for 10% off)

Josh Safdie's Marty Supreme transports audiences to a vibrant 1950s world of professional ping pong, yet many viewers remain unaware that the film contains over 500 visual effects shots. Eran Dinur, the film's VFX Supervisor, reveals how his team meticulously recreated period accurate crowds in Tokyo and Wembley while keeping the digital work entirely "invisible." He views his role as a bridge between the filmmaker's vision and the technical reality on set, ensuring that every digital element supports the story without drawing attention to itself. For Eran, the ultimate compliment is a viewer who walks out of the theater believing every single frame was captured in camera. The transition into high end visual effects was an unlikely one for Eran, who spent fifteen years as a classical music composer before a random software download steered him toward ILM and eventually the Safdie Brothers. This musical background provides a unique perspective on the rhythm and "choreography" of effects, whether he is timing CG ping pong balls to Timothée Chalamet's performance or animating the surreal openings of Uncut Gems. Beyond the technical craft, he addresses the current industry backlash against CGI and the marketing trends that prioritize "practical only" narratives. He also offers a practical look at the future of AI in cinema, arguing that tools are only as good as the control an artist has over them. Eran Dinur on IMDB > Eran Dinur's website > Marty Supreme Trailer > Marty Supreme Wikipedia > The Filmmaker's Guide to Visual Effects: The Art and Technique of VFX for Directors, Producers, Editors and Cinematographers by Eran Dinur > The Complete Guide to Photorealism for Visual Effects, Visualization and Games: For Visual Effects, Visualization and Games by Eran Dinur > This episode is sponsored by: Center Grid Virtual Studio Kitbash 3D (Use promocode "cggarage" for 10% off)

Will 2026 be the year of the ultimate industry reckoning or a digital renaissance? Hosts Chris and Daniel are joined by guests James Blevins and Erick Geisler for a deep dive into the "mild, medium, and spicy" predictions that will define the next year. As the dust settles on early AI experiments, the group moves past the "Will Smith eating spaghetti" era of novelty to discuss the professionalization of tools, the massive consolidation of legacy studios, and the survival of the traditional theatrical experience. The conversation pushes boundaries, exploring everything from the rise of personal AI creative agents to the outlandish possibility of data centers orbiting in space. By examining the potential collapse of current tech giants alongside the emergence of AGI, the panel maps out a world where the lines between science, religion, and storytelling are permanently blurred. This episode isn't just a look at what's coming, it's a high-stakes debate on who will lead the charge in the collision of Hollywood and high-tech. Netflix's Acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery > Flawless AI: DeepEditor & Ethical Reshoots > Starcloud: The First NVIDIA-Powered Space Data Center > NantWorks: Converging Biotech and AI > This episode is sponsored by: Center Grid Virtual Studio Kitbash 3D (Use promocode "cggarage" for 10% off)

Why does the superhero spinoff Gen V often look more visceral and grounded than its blockbuster feature film counterparts? The answer lies in the unique philosophy of Visual Effects Supervisor Karen Heston, who joins Chris and Daniel to reveal the analog soul beating beneath the show's digital surface. Heston traces her journey from the chemical smells of a black-and-white darkroom to the high-pressure world of "Flame" compositing in New York, where she learned to be a "finisher" capable of managing clients and pixels simultaneously, a skill set that eventually propelled her to lead major projects like Arthur Christmas and Beasts of No Nation. The conversation pulls back the curtain on the gory, creative success of Gen V. Heston explains that the show's secret isn't an over-reliance on CGI, but a fierce commitment to practical filmmaking, using giant props for shrinking characters and silicone "blood darts" to anchor the digital effects in reality. She discusses the intense collaboration required between stunts, prosthetics, and VFX to pull off "blood powers" that feel weighty rather than cartoony, and concludes with a forward-looking discussion on how AI might reshape the industry by bringing back the era of the "generalist" artist. Karen Heston on IMDB > Karen Heston on LinkedIn > Gen V on Prime > This episode is sponsored by: Center Grid Virtual Studio Kitbash 3D (Use promocode "cggarage" for 10% off)