In our second episode, my guest is filmmaker Ethan Shaftel whose VR short EXTRAVAGANZA premiered at the Tribeca film festival to great acclaim and helped him rebrand himself (or extend his brand) as a cutting-edge immersive content creator.

Despite never having carried the title "visual-effects artist", Ethan is a self-taught aficionado of all things post-production. He fearlessly takes on any technical challenge that stands in his way, and he can easily pick up a 3D software and quickly figure out how to use it for his needs.

Ethan's website:

http://www.ethanshaftel.com/

EXTRAVAGANZA website:

http://www.extravaganza.film/

EXTRAVAGANZA behind-the-scenes clip (Recommended!):

https://vimeo.com/216605490

The title image for this episode is from EXTRAVAGANZA by Ethan Shaftel.

Opening and closing song: "14 Days" by Akın Sevgör.

@akinsevgor

Next week I'll be back with Episode 3 featuring Tomer Eshed, who's currently directing the animated feature film DRAGON RIDERS.

In this inaugural episode, I'm joined by filmmaking duo Kevin R. Adams and Joe Ksander whose animated feature film NEXT GEN (A Netflix original) was released earlier this month.

The release of NEXT GEN, which they co-wrote and co-directed, is an exciting step in their transformative journey from highly regarded CG animation artists and supervisors (at studios including Disney and ILM) to writing & directing duo of feature films.

It's a pleasure for me to witness and to enjoy the fruits of their hard work, having followed their journey for some time, and especially given their truly humble and generous personalities.

Next Gen trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf3ALGKgpGU

Next Gen on Netflix:

https://www.netflix.com/title/80988892

Gear on Vimeo:

https://vimeo.com/129279370

TMNT short on Vimeo:

https://vimeo.com/271592453

The credit for the title image for this episode goes to Narineh Hacopian.

Opening and closing song: "14 Days" by Akın Sevgör.

https://soundcloud.com/akinsevgor

Next week I'll be back with Episode 2 featuring Tomer Eshed, who's currently directing the animated feature film DRAGON RIDERS.