Sino Screen Speaker Series invites professionals and executives from all aspects of the entertainment industry to share their stories and insights every month. We intend to create dynamic conversations between remarkable industry leaders, who are making an impact to shape the entertainment world, and the audience who are eager to learn. We hope that through listening to the speakers’ stories on how they break into their respective fields and how they discover their individual paths to success could benefit the audience in many ways.

We have successfully organized and hosted two sold-out speaker series events with one in the area of film finance and the other in producing for both the China and the US markets. For the third speaker series event that is going to take place on November 17th, we are planning on taking the audience deep into the VFX world.

Storytellers are increasingly leveraging VFX to stretch their imagination and share their innovative spirits with the audience. But what is the essence of VFX? What is the difference between VFX and animation effects? How do collaboration and coordination of visual effects at different stages take place in film and television projects? How do the visual effects in high-budget productions and low-budget projects differ? What is the future trend of visual effects?

On November 17, Sino Screen will explore the answers to those questions by inviting Marvel Film's visual effects coordinator Joan Fang as the host, and together with Oscar-nominated visual effects veteran Jacques Stroweis, and Jeff Chao, who has vast experience in film investment as well as two Hollywood visual effect artists Han Cao and Hong Zhu from China. The panel will unveil the entire VFX process from pre-production to post-production, covering both the creative and the business side as well as the difference in working for the Chinese and the US projects to better inform our audience.

Speaker #1: Jacques Stroweis

Jacques Stroweis is an Oscar-nominated VFX Supervisor with expertise in CG and advanced imaging technologies. He is also a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences (AMPAS), the Directors Guild of America (DGA), the Visual Effects Society (VES), and the Advanced Imaging Society (AIS). Among his long-term endeavors in the industry, Jacques co-founded and helmed Creative Visual Effects (CVE) for Sony Pictures where he served as VFX supervisor, CTO, and executive producer for a decade. Today, Jacques works as a freelance VFX supervisor/producer for the Studios as well as for independent producers, both on-set and post-production. Jacques’ most recent endeavors have taken him to China where he supervised several mainstream big budget VFX-driven films and episodic TV series, including the Chinese film The Monkey King 2.

Speaker #2: Jeff Chao

Jeff Chao is the Vice President of Finance and Business Development at Digital Domain. Jeff was Senior Director, Finance at Participant Media, where he managed film investments for a $250 million film fund between Participant Media and Image Nation Abu Dhabi, which produced films such as Lincoln, The Help, Hundred Foot Journey, Best Exotic Marigold Hotel I & II, Contagion and Snitch. Mr. Chao has had direct involvement with film investments for over 31 films with budgets ranging from $2 million to $75 million. During his time at Participant Media, Jeff also supervised the growth of the Digital division, TakePart.com from a blog to a Multi-Channel Network (MCN) with 10 million views per month. Jeff was also involved in the acquisition and set up of Pivot Television, a cable network for social good that won an Emmy award for Joseph Gordon Levitt’s Hit Record.

Speaker #3: Han Cao

Han Cao is a Visual Effect Artist focusing on Compositing. Han started his career at Ingenuity Studios Working on Major Music Videos for Taylor Swift, Maroon 5, Imagine Dragons, and Award-winning Features such as Get Out, Happy Death Day and action-packed Sci-fi like Geostorm. With 5 years of professional experience, He stepped up from an artist to Compositing Supervisor. Han is currently working at Encore VFX as a Lead artist, working on DC Superhero TV shows like Flash and Supergirl. With a great passion for both Art and technology. Han loves exploring the most effective ways to get the work done and solving problems creatively. Other than the work itself, Han also stays connected with the industry professionals and has built great connections with major Chinese VFX studios and clients.

Speaker #4: Hong Zhu

Hong Zhu is a CG artist with over 10 years of experience in the Film & entertainment industry. He has worked on high profile TV shows such as Flash, Super Girl, and Love Death and Robot (Awarded 3 Emmys) as Lead Lighting artist/Generalist. He is currently working as a Lead Scene Assembler (Generalist) at Blur studio which is known for creating high quality game cinematics for various AAA titles. His most recent work at Blur studio includes game Cinematics for Call of Duty Modern Warfare, League of Legends and elder scroll online.

Moderator: Joan Fang

Joan Fang (original name Chuyan Fang) is an LA-based film producer and visual effects producer from China. She is known for managing visual effects on Marvel Studio's Spider-Man: Far From Home, and Universal Studio's Dolittle. She has also produced many independent films including Li Shan, Sunset Sunrise, and Sound of New Year. Her previous work has won Alfred P. Sloan funding award, 43rd Cleveland International Festival Hot List, 2019 Asians on Film Honor Award and Best Sci-fi nomination.