TTF - Key Persons
Austin Bonang joined TTF in 2007 as an asset builder and shot creator. He ascended the ranks to supervise several major blockbuster films. Austin especially enjoys visualizing action sequences and is adept at creating depth and dynamism in each shot. Formerly, Austin was a CGI Generalist at Yu+cO where he was responsible for asset creation, animation and rendering. He began his career at Digital Domain where he worked on stereoscopic conversion for Disney's Meet the Robinsons. In his spare time, Austin continues to hone his skills by studying iconic films.
Barry Howell brings an eye for visual storytelling, technical visual effects and animation production to projects in film, television and special venues. Whether supervising complete previs teams or creating shots hands on, he is most at home when collaborating with directors and key crew to realize a cinematic vision. He is regularly called upon to help design attractions for some of today's largest theme parks and experiences.
After graduating from Old Dominion with a computer science-animation degree of his own design, Barry began his career as an animator/TD on the CGI series Roughnecks: The Starship Trooper Chronicles, executive-produced by Paul Verhoeven. His continued television work culminated in an Emmy Award for Special Visual Effects for the Sci-Fi Channel's Children of Dune mini-series. In a pivotal moment, he was next invited to join George Lucas' team previsualizing Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, where he met the other future founders of The Third Floor.
Barry's work has been recognized by several awards and in the credits of many recent feature films.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Virtual Production Manager, TTFL
Job Titles:
- Creative Department Project Manager
Job Titles:
- Head of Virtual Production
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Founder
Job Titles:
- Virtual Production / Department Manager
DAN E SM ITH - Chief Strategy Officer
Job Titles:
- Chief Strategy Officer
- Chief Strategy Officer ( CSO ) of the Third Floor
Dane currently serves as Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) of The Third Floor and oversees projects where previsualization, virtual production, and real-time content creation are making significant in-roads. Dane's evaluation of emergent technology, combined with the design of cross-functional teams, drives development of practical technical applications and creative solutions for clients.
Doug's career in the entertainment industry has spanned forty years. He began as an animator and a story artist at Walt Disney Productions (The Black Cauldron, The Little Mermaid) before transitioning to live action as a storyboard artist, screenwriter, 2nd Unit director (Army of Darkness, Spider-Man), TV director (the pilot episodes of Hercules, The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess), and feature film director (The Last Legion).
Gerardo Ramirez has supervised previs and postvis on some of the biggest blockbusters in recent memory, including seven Marvel films. Gerardo is skillful at designing complex action sequences while taking into account story and character. He has a passion for cinematography and animation, and likes to create shots with that look like paintings come to life. Gerardo received his Bachelor's degree in Media Arts and Animation and has taught animation at Cal State Fullerton.
Gerardo enjoys photography and landscape painting, and seeing new places.
Ian has over 20 years of experience in the industry, working on small independent movies to huge franchise blockbusters. His time in the cutting rooms has given him a deep understanding of storytelling and editing techniques. He has worked with directors such as Paul Greengrass, Matthew Vaughn, and Guillermo Del Toro and learnt his craft from notable editors such as Lee Smith (Batman, X-Men Fist Class, Inception), and Chris Rouse (Bourne, United 93).
Since joining THE THIRD FLOOR he has cut previs for over a dozen movies such as Maleficent (Rob Stromberg), Edge of Tomorrow (Doug Liman) and Exodus (Ridley Scott) to name just a few.
Originally from Virginia, Jason studied comic book art at the Joe Kubert School in New Jersey. While studying 3D animation in 2002, he landed his first job on an SNL Veggie Tales spoof. Prior to joining The Third Floor in 2010, he worked with Luma Pictures, Cafe FX, Image Engine, and Rhythm and Hues. As a versatile supervisor, his extensive experience in Previs, Postvis, and Character Animation provides the opportunity to collaborate with some of the industry's most prestigious directors and producers. In the past 17 years, Jason has contributed to some of today's major feature films, including nine Disney/Marvel franchises, innovative commercials, and cutting edge game cinematics. Jason enjoys playing hacky sack with his team while entertaining them with his knowledge of B-Action movies.
Job Titles:
- Global Director of Technology
Job Titles:
- Artist
- Visualization Supervisor
Jen is an experienced visualisation artist with a background in animation. After starting her career as a layout artist and animator with Double Negative, she quickly found her way into visualization and joined The Third Floor London in 2014.
Job Titles:
- Chief Creative Officer
- Founder
As Chief of Staff, Lauren works directly with The Third Floor's CEO and is responsible for leading communications and marketing, managing company initiatives, and spearheading special projects. Passionate about magnifying the company's brand presence, Lauren works to maintain the board's vision and team culture while elevating TTF's profile across film, television, games, location-based entertainment, virtual production, and the metaverse.
Lauren has served TTF for over a decade, supporting its expansion from 20 people in Los Angeles to 500 globally, most recently playing a key role in launching new Beijing and Atlanta studios. Always reaching for opportunities to increase company growth and morale, she views visualization as a perfect hybrid of storytelling and technology, seeing endless possibilities for TTF's platforms and content creation teams.
Job Titles:
- Global Head of Production
Job Titles:
- Executive Director, London
- Managing Director, TTFL
Visual effects and post supervisor Marcus Alexander has joined the company as Executive Director, London. Alexander's background combining visual effects supervision, post-production management and fast-paced film deliverables will provide key insights as new collaborative workflows and technologies continue to emerge.
In 2010 Alexander made the career leap to focus on the client side of VFX and Stereo Supervising. During this lengthy career path Alexander racked up some extremely notable film credits including Venom, Jumanji, Aquaman, Godzilla, Suicide Squad and many more.
He has also lent his skills as a cinematographer, visual effects supervisor, stereographic designer and visual effects editor to multiple productions - from Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace and The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader to Wrath of The Titans.
Job Titles:
- the Last Jedi ( Previs Supervisor )
Job Titles:
- Virtual Production Supervisor
Job Titles:
- Visualization Supervisor / HoC, TTFL