Earlier this year Rob Bredow was promoted to SVP, executive director and head of ILM. He’s been at ILM since 2014 and has quickly risen up the ranks where he helped to launch ILMxLAB in 2015. He most recently worked on Solo: A Star Wars Story and is working on a certain new TV series too. Ahead of his View Conference keynote on October 23rd, Bredow spoke to Variety about the future of VFX and playing in the Star Wars galaxy….
“Solo” was your first experience in the “Star Wars” universe, which spawned the creation of ILM. What was that experience like for you?
It was one of the most professionally satisfying experiences of my career. Not only did I get to serve as VFX supervisor on the film, but Ron Howard was kind enough to include me in his “brain trust” of sorts, welcoming me into his creative process. I was able to participate with story ideas throughout the production, particularly helping along two of the big action sequences — the train heist and the Kessel Run — both key sequences in the film. I’m really proud of the final result and I think the seamless interactions between visual effects and each of the other departments really paid off.
How have things changed for you since you took on this new role at ILM? Will you still be working on VFX projects?
Fortunately for me, in my new role I get to be involved with all the projects at ILM. I get to collaborate with a wide variety of filmmakers across projects as varied as Marvel Studio’s “Captain Marvel,” “Bumblebee” for Paramount Pictures, “The Irishman” for Netflix, and an upcoming live-action series set in the “Star Wars” universe that is being written and produced by Jon Favreau. Of course, ILM has a world-class team of visual effects supervisors and producers who don’t need me to tell them how to do their job, but I can be a support to them and contribute thoughts for their consideration throughout the production of the films. To say I’ve got a dream job is putting it mildly.
Read the full interview here.
