richard servello - Senior Compositor and Supervisor
It's been a long road. As a kid I was inspired by films like The Dark Crystal, Pee Wee's Big Adventure, and Jurassic Park for creating new worlds to get swept away in. As a teenager, films like Dark City, and The Crow grabbed my attention for the way they presented darkness as a character and built a world that couldn't be real, but forced itself into reality. In college, films like Fight Club and The Matrix sparked the real inner drive to be a part of the creation of these worlds.
I attended Full Sail University's Computer Animation program when it was in it's infancy. There were very few schools teaching visual effects and it was a long time dream to learn the trade. While in attendance I discovered compositing. It was never even on his radar. It was a foreign part of the process that became a fast obsession. Learning the in's and out's of Shake I graduated with the new goal of being a professional compositor. Living in Florida tho. It wasn't an easy goal to achieve. I decided that the only way in, was through. He picked up some free work on an independent film out of Atlanta, Georgia called Zombeak. It was a crazy movie about a possessed chicken. As luck would have it. A shot from that film on his reel landed me my first real job in an advertising firm.
After a couple years working in advertising, an opportunity presented itself. A feature film in Los Angeles needed an experienced compositor for 4 weeks! I packed up all of my worldly possessions and moved out west in pursuit of a career so hard fought. The job ended and the studio had no more immediate work. Fortunately, I have always been a networker. Contacting a long time friend and editor I had worked with, I was put in touch with a producer and that kick started a 13 year career in Los Angeles.
I have worked on many great feature films, including Oscar winning Life of Pi. I have worked on action films like Green Lantern, San Andreas, and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and countless television series, like Angie Tribeca, Westworld, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Major Crimes, and Dallas.