Reel Drive: A Look Behind the Boards

Born and raised in Jamaica, Ruel Smith discovered at an early age his passion for animation and VFX. After seeing the Lion King and Jurassic Park as a kid, he instantly knew what he aspired to be and he has not stopped since. 

After migrating to the United States, Ruel met his mentor - an art teacher who started a DIY animation program out of love for animation - helping pave the way for Ruel's future career. He got his foot in the door after moving to LA at the age of 22, working his way through the VFX & Animation world on sets from Captain Marvel to Griffith Observatory's new Planetary show to an MLK VR project for Time Magazine. 

In today's episode, join our host Nick Martini and Director/VFX Supervisor Ruel Smith as they discuss maneuvering through one of the most difficult industries in order to pursue a dream of telling meaningful stories.

Born in Mexico City, award-winning cinematographer Nico Aguilar became fascinated with filmmaking at a very young age when he began crossing paths with some of the country’s legendary filmmakers, who eventually became his close mentors. In today’s episode, Nico brings us on his intimate journey of filmmaking, from paying his way through film school, to being taken under the wings of some of the best filmmakers of our generation, to working on large-scale productions with actors including Kate Beckinsale, John Malkovich, Ken Jeong, Ray Liotta, Adiren Brody, and Charlie Day.

Brilliant filmmaker William Desena unapologetically shares his own ideas about what it takes to make it in the industry from the tedium of filming fashion shows to his inspired Marriott film capturing 6 countries in just 20 days.

Bryan Smaller is one of the youngest and most impressive colorists in the industry today. He has collaborated with artists including Kanye West and The Weekend, and his work has been featured on Apple TV +, NBC and Netflix. Join us as he takes us deep into his passion for color, his work at world-renowned Company 3, and the future of color and its new technologies.

From making urban ski movies in Maine to creating eye-catching commercials, music videos, and more recently narrative features, Mack Fisher is killing it in the industry as one of LA's elite cinematographers to keep an eye on.

If you don’t know Leigh Powis yet, you will. He’s gone from legendary urban skier to gifted editor to crushing it as a brilliant director.