Wildfire VFX
Fortunato
Whether he’s defying gravity for Spiderman, Mission Impossible II, Vertical Limit and Spy Kids, raising the dead for Devil’s Advocate and Dracula 2000, creating a world of talking animals in Dr. Dolittle and Racing Stripes, or subtly tweaking the straightforward realism of The Insider and American Beauty, creativity and problem-solving go hand-in-hand for senior visual effects artist Fortunato Frattasio.
A native of Montreal, Frattasio’s passion for detail began during his education and early career in graphic arts. With the advent of advanced digital technology, Frattasio found his passion for effects growing. Eventually he left design to pursue a career with high-end software developer Auto Desk. Quickly becoming one of the company’s in-house experts, he was sent out to train other artists and was soon offered a position with Warner Digital Studios. There Frattasio worked on such milestone projects as Mars Attacks, Contact and Batman & Robin.
As Frattasio’s career expanded so did his love of the art. He later moved on to work at Computer Film Company, Manex, Digiscope, Hydraulx, CIS Hollywood, and most recently Wildfire VFX, on films such as Armageddon, Terminator III, The Legend of Zorro, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, and In the Valley of Elah. It is there that he began to actively combine his graphic training with his film-based skill set. The result is an artist who can literally “envision” what a director needs. “You have to be an extension of the director’s mind,” he says. “Sometimes the work begins with just a few elements or the hint of an idea and only then do we begin to mold something. Ultimately we make worlds out of these delicate details, worlds that never existed before.”
