Outpost VFX bolsters senior creative team

Outpost VFX has made four senior creative hires in the UK.

The studio, which has offices in the UK, Montreal, Los Angeles and Mumbai, has added head of CG Owen Jones (The Jungle Book); VFX supervisors Oliver Winwood (Guardians of the Galaxy) and Christopher Antoniou (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows); and production VFX supervisor Jason Evans (Kingsman: The Secret Service).

Jones joins following nearly two decades at MPC where he contributed to Academy Award winners 1917 and The Jungle Book. He will head up Outpost’s CG department in the UK.

He said: “I think the overall ethos of the company resonated with me – always trying to put people first and explore how we can do VFX the right way. I’m excited to help the team continue to develop and offer outstanding creative solutions to our clients worldwide.”

Winwood was recently CG supervisor for Disney’s The Lion King and has almost 20 years’ experience as VFX supervisor.

He said: “I’m excited. Outpost pursues a lot of cross-studio collaboration globally, but with London and Bournemouth you’re looking at a more nuanced scale. I see it as a hub – it’s a single UK studio with two major sites to provide options for talent and scale for filmmakers.”

Another 20-year veteran, Antoniou has worked as an animator and asset supervisor for DNEG, MPC and ILM.

He said: “I know Rachel [Matchett, UK Managing Director] and have worked with Owen and Oli, so for me it’s a case of building on that structure and working with CTO Tim Chauncey to continually improve our pipeline to support growing awards.”

Meanwhile, Evans recently oversaw the third season of the Amazon thriller Hanna. 

He said: “Everyone I speak to at Outpost is really excited about where it’s going, and the way I see Outpost moving forward is really clever. I’m looking forward to representing our in-house teams out on set.”

The 2022 launch of Outpost’s London office increased the studio’s global in-house capacity to over 720 people. The company has recently worked on Slumberland, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. It received two Primetime Emmy nominations in 2022 for its work on Foundation and The Man Who Fell to Earth.

Rachel Matchett, UK managing director, said: “I’m so excited this talented bunch has joined our growing UK operation – they will prove to be popular additions with our team and have so much to offer creatively to our clients.”