“We don’t create monsters, aliens, or other crazy things like that,” says the studio CG Supervisor Robert Rioux. “We create the kind of effects that no one even notices are there.”
Whether working on HBO’s Watchmen or films like Jonathan Levine’s Long Shot, Real by Fake’s goal is to make the studio’s work completely invisible. For example, on Apple TV+’s Morning Show, Real by Fake replaced entire New York backdrops for Los Angeles cityscapes and created expansive CG views for a high-rise Manhattan apartment, all without breaking the audience’s dramatic immersion.
Such work certainly keeps the Real by Fake team busy. Alongside television and feature film projects, the studio also works on commercials and music videos. “I usually work on up to six projects at the same time,” says Rioux. “There’s a lot of work to focus on, as well as preparing for and carrying out R&D for the next projects coming in. As such, we need to be thoroughly organized as a studio; ftrack Studio is pivotal in achieving this.”
Real by Fake transitioned to project management and production tracking in ftrack Studio when the assortment of tools it previously used to track projects met their limits. The change to ftrack Studio, according to Nathalie Lanthier, Project Manager, was transformational. “Moving to ftrack Studio was such a gamechanger for Real by Fake. Once we made the change, we could take on bigger shows and process more projects at the same time, all while saving the team a huge amount of work.”