Award-winning VFX supervisor and lead artist Michael Gregory joins MPC Los Angeles as Head of 2D. He comes on board from MPC London where for the past 13 years he has worked on many of the industry’s most acclaimed commercials, including Channel 4’s Cannes Film Craft Grand Prix-winner 'Meet the Superhumans' for the Paralympics Games. Gregory brings expertise leading teams on large-scale projects, an exemplary aesthetic sensibility and long-standing relationships with top directors to his new role.
“Michael has a keen eye for excellence, as he’s proven time and again in his work,” said Andrew Bell, Managing Director, MPC LA. “Having come up the ranks at MPC London, he truly represents the high standards of our culture. I’m looking forward to seeing his contribution to our work and clients, as well as his influence on our up and coming talent.”
“My ambition is always the same,” Gregory said. “I want to be involved in the most challenging creative jobs and push technology and imagery to its limits. I began as a graphic designer and enjoy working with beautiful imagery. I’m excited for the new opportunities at MPC LA, and know my eye for detail and ability to organize workflow and inspire our very talented team will drive the best results for our clients.”
Gregory has worked with top-tier directors such as Jonathan Glazer, Traktor, Nick Gordon, Noam Murro, Mark Romanek, Tom Tagholm and Neil Gorringe, to note only a few. He has won a host of awards, including a VES honor for Outstanding Animated Commercial for Cadbury “Spots v Stripes” and a D&AD Pencil and British Arrow for Channel 4’s “Street Summer” campaign, for which he helped develop an innovative new filming technique.
Gregory joins as MPC LA readies for a move this summer to a new state-of-the-art, 25,000-square-feet studio space in Culver City, where it will integrate its diverse capabilities in advertising and film encompassing VFX, content production, color grading, VR and film pre-production and VFX supervision onto one floor. “It’s going to be fantastic to have every department on the same floor,” Gregory said. “The best work always comes from collaboration. Great communication between different disciplines always achieves the greatest results.”
“Michael joining from the London studio will help us maintain the MPC culture as we expand,” said Paul O’Shea, Creative Director, MPC LA. “His work ethic, creative values and passion to create work of the highest standards make him a great mentor for the team. These days we work with MPC teams globally on projects so moving talent between offices is very healthy for us. And … he supports the finest football team in England—West Ham—which also helps!”
Gregory added, “The wonderful thing about visual effects are the ideas and execution are so varied. Every time I receive a script it excites me more than the last. One week it will be a dragon fighting Vikings, the next, a girl who explodes into a 1000 butterflies. When you read, ‘… and a dragon rises from the ocean,’ what more inspiration do you really need?”