Mat Beck: President
Mat Beck, ASC is a visual effects supervisor, cinematographer and director, known for his work on over 60 feature films and numerous TV shows, commercials and music videos.
Notable films include classics such as Titanic, The Abyss, Moonstruck, The X-Files, True Lies, Galaxy Quest, Batman Returns, and The Nutty Professor among others. Since founding Entity FX in 2002, Mat has supervised visual effects for such film projects as Miami Vice, Scary Movie 4, Hitch, The Aviator, Spiderman 2, Herbie: Fully Loaded, Sweet Home Alabama, The Air I Breathe, Rush Hour 3, Into the Wild, The Spirit, Law Abiding Citizen, The Final Destination: 3D, Betty Anne Waters, and Michael Jackson's This Is It.
On the television side, Mat has produced and executive supervised all the effects in Warner Brothers hit series Smallville, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Eastwick, and Vampire Diaries. He has also supervised effects for HBO's Six Feet Under, Entourage, and Band of Brothers, as well as ABC's Night Stalker, and Warner Brothers Pushing Daisies. Recent commercial spots include Lotto: Aerosmith's Dream On and Nissan.
Mat has extensive experience as a director of photography including live action, miniatures, high-speed, aerial and bluescreen cinematography. He has been a member of the American Society of Cinematographers since 2000.
Mat is also an experienced director, having led multiple second units on feature and television projects. He also directed the Smallville Season 6 episode "Prototype".
He has won two Emmy Awards for his visual effects work on A&E's Sports Science, and received an Emmy nomination for his work on HBO's Band of Brothers. He was also been nominated multiple times for a VES Award for his work on Smallville.
Mat’s educational background is in computer software and hardware development, physiological psychology, film theory and photography.
He is a member of the American Society of Cinematographers, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the Visual Effects Society (board member), the International Photographers Guild Local 600 (DP), the Director's Guild of America, and the Writer's Guild of America.
Ellyn Lewis: General Manager
As General Manager, Ellyn Lewis is a part of Entity FX's senior executive team, contributing to the maintenance and growth of the company and handling all aspects of finance and accounting. In addition to the financial management of the company, Ellyn oversees the well being of all staff employees and manages the day-to-day facility operations.
Ellyn brings over 15 years of experience in a variety of entertainment companies. She joined Entity FX and assumed the General Manager role in 2005, having previously served as CFO of a video production and distribution studio.
She began her career in the entertainment industry as the office manager of a radio commercial production company, honing her skills as an accountant and operations manager. Over the years, Ellyn has held Controller positions at a wide range of facilities including audio post production, commercial and film production and music video production.
Dan Rucinski: Executive Producer Dan Rucinski brings more than 10 years as a production supervisor and hands-on visual effects and CG animation producer to the role of Executive Producer at Entity FX. Dan works closely with Entity FX's clients, as well as the company's Los Angeles- and Vancouver-based team of producers and supervisors, to ensure delivery of the best visual effects work.
Dan has a strong background in meeting new visual effects and animation challenges in both series television and feature film. His theatrical credits include producing the visual effects for the groundbreaking large-scale greenscreen film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, as well as visual effects producing or production supervision on films such as Apocalypto, The X-Files: I Want to Believe, Herbie: Fully Loaded and Frank Miller's The Spirit.
In his tenure with pioneering visual effects and CG animation company Foundation Imaging, Dan was the CG animation producer on the first daily CG animated series on television, Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles. Other notable credits at Foundation included producing CG animation for the TV series Max Steel and Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future. At Entity FX, he has supervised visual effects production for a range of episodic television programs and mini-series, from Harper's Island to Eastwick and The Vampire Diaries.
Dan has consulted and overseen vfx and animation teams in overseas markets in addition to managing visual effects and animation productions in the U.S. As a 3D development producer for the Walt Disney Company, he worked with animation and vfx studios around the world on various projects.Dan also served as a producer on the Disney release Tinkerbell, overseeing a large crew of CG artists in Mumbai, India.
Earlier in his career, Dan contributed to a range of film and television projects as an art director, set director and production designer. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television.
Trent Smith: Senior Producer
As Senior Producer, Trent oversees the VFX production of numerous television, film, commercials, and special interest projects. With over six years of visual effects experience, Trent brings a wealth of knowledge and experience as well as creative solutions needed in a fast pace environment. His attention to detail and storytelling with great communication with clients and artists allows him to easily take a project from concept to final delivery.
On the television side, Trent oversees all the digital effects for The CW's Smallville and The Vampire Diaries, and ABC's Eastwick. He has also worked on HBO's Six Feet Under, CW's Supernatural, and managed over 100 VFX shots on CW's Aquaman pilot. On the feature film side, Trent has worked on films including Herbie: Fully Loaded and Spider-Man 2.
Trent came to Entity FX from Paramount Television and Touchstone Television. Previously at Pixel Envy, Trent assisted on set and coordinated numerous music videos for Jennifer Lopez, Shakira, Tool, Aerosmith, Goo Goo Dolls, and Alanis Morissette. He also worked on set on the television series Lone Gunman and X-Files as well as Steven Spielberg's miniseries Band of Brothers for HBO. On the feature film side, he worked on The New Guy, The Sweetest Thing, Tuck Everlasting, and also worked on commercials for Jeep and Nike. Before Pixel Envy, Trent was at Fortress Films' working on B-17s Flying Legends where his work included set supervision and web content.
His interest in visual effects was initially inspired from working at Shortends, a production company specializing in short promos.
Krista Maryanski: VFX Producer, Production Manager
Krista is the production manager at Entity FX, and also a VFX producer. As production manager, she handles staffing for all in-house jobs, maintains contact with artists and actively recruits new talent as part of her weekly routine. As a producer, she liaises between clients and the visual effects team to effectively manage production goals, budgets and schedules. She has successfully enabled the delivery of a range of television and feature film projects.
Prior to joining Entity FX, Krista held positions at several leading post-production facilities. As Post-Production Coordinator at Revolution Studios, she worked directly under both the post-production and post-finance department heads on such movies as Rocky Balboa, The Waterhorse, and Golden Globe-nominated Across the Universe. She learned the "ropes" of the business at the commercial house Sight Effects, working with and supporting the company's senior producing staff.
Krista holds a BFA degree from the University of Georgia.
Brian Ali Harding: Visual Effects Supervisor
An accomplished cinematographer, photographer and all-around visual effects pro, Brian Ali Harding combines a love of images and storytelling with the craft of visual effects. Over more than a decade in the industry, he has lent creative and technical expertise to a wide-range of productions — from Oscar-winning movies to popular television dramas to innovative independent films.
At Entity FX, he regularly serves as a feature film visual effects supervisor, with credits including Law Abiding Citizen and Frank Miller's The Spirit. In television, he has supervised visual effects for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Supernatural, Eastwick, The Vampire Diaries and eight seasons of the visual effects-driven hit series Smallville, among other projects.
Brian's knowledge of visual effects draws from extensive hands-on experience as a 2D artist and matte painter, where he has earned credits on high-profile projects such as The Aviator, Spider-Man 2, Galaxy Quest, The X-Files TV series and Smallville, for which he won a 2004 Best Compositing Visual Effects Society Award. Collaborations with acclaimed directors such as Norway's Frank Mosvold show off Brian's camera work, which has also been featured in A Good Day to Be Black & Sexy, Robot Rumpus, Summer Blues and other indie productions. Brian's made his theatrical directing and writing debut in 1998 with the film Day 532, which took the Silver Spire Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival.
Brian earned a degree in film production from Loyola Marymount University.
Eli Jarra: Visual Effects Supervisor/Lead Compositor Eli has contributed to over 50 projects, ranging from feature films to television series to commercial ads. He frequently serves as a visual effects and digital effects supervisor as well as a 2D artist and compositor. Eli's notable credits include major feature film projects: Michael Jackson's This Is It, Law Abiding Citizen, Into the Wild, Miami Vice, Hitch, Herbie: Fully Loaded, Spider-Man 2, Vanilla Sky, Not Another Teen Movie,I Still Know What You Did Last Summer and others. His experience as a visual effects/digital supervisor has been tapped for productions such as The X-Files: I Want to Believe, Superhero Movie and Rush Hour 3, as well as television shows such as Eastwick.
Eli's work on the TV series Smallville has garnered him multiple VES Award nominations and two VES Awards: one for "Outstanding Compositing in a Broadcast Program" and the other for "Best Matte Painting in a Live-Action Broadcast Program."
He graduated with a degree in broadcasting from Specs Howard School of Broadcast Arts. He is a member of the Visual Effects Society; S.P.E.C., an Inferno artist's special interest group; The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association; and The Planetary Society.
David Alexander: CG Supervisor, Lead 3D Artist David is an VES Award-nominated visual effects artist and supervisor with credits spanning television, commercials and feature film.
Across his career, David has contributed to a wide range of productions, including Michael Jackson's This Is It, Law Abiding Citizen, Eastwick, Smallville, The X-Files: I Want to Believe, Into the Wild, Crocodile Dundee 3, Ghosts of Mars, Donnie Darko, Swordfish, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, The Terminal, The Cat in the Hat and Monarch of the Moon. David received a VES nomination in 2008 for his work on Smallville.
