Award-winning VFX studio Milk has appointed industry veteran Steve MacPherson as chief technology officer. In the newly created role, he will be responsible for all of Milk’s technology strategy and operations including systems, pipeline, editorial and R&D, to support and develop the studio’s rapidly growing creative and technical ambitions as it takes on an expanding roster of premium film and episodic projects.
MacPherson brings to Milk his rich technology expertise born from his early days at NASA Ames for Cray Research, at MPC and as a DNEG co-founder. He joins Milk from Framestore in London where he was chief technology officer for 10 years.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Steve to Milk, particularly someone of his calibre and rich VFX technical experience. Steve’s role will be pivotal as we continue to build a strong platform for Milk’s growth; he will sit at the top table helping shape our strategy and expanding our scale and capabilities to deliver premium, high quality film and episodic content to our clients,” said Milk executive chairman Jag Mundi.
“Milk represents all those reasons I fell in love with the visual effects industry – a strong, creative team, a dynamic and open culture, technology challenges and great people working on demanding projects. Furthermore, I’m excited by the growth ambition and the commitment by the Milk board to place technology development as a core driving force; it’s a rare and beautiful thing. I’m over the moon to help Milk VFX move forward into the future of entertainment,” said MacPherson.
His appointment comes as Milk settles into its new studio in London’s Clerkenwell; its recent acquisition of Lola Post Production and continued boost of its creativity across an exciting range of episodic and film projects, including Sony Tristar’s highly acclaimed The Woman King and the much anticipated second series of Amazon’s Good Omens. MacPherson will also work closely with Milk’s creative team to develop Milk’s real time / Unreal pipeline. In this role he will be collaborating with VFX and real time supervisor He Sun on the ambitious new eight part NBC series Surviving Earth.
Milk recently announced that it has acquired independent, BAFTA Award winning VFX studio Lola Post Production. Lola and its entire Soho based team will join the Milk VFX family while remaining as a separate, distinct studio with Rob Harvey at its helm.