Russell Masters

Man of few vegetables.

Russell Masters started as a runner at Omnicon Video in 1984.

He thought it was all glitz and glamor, so he spent two years in the studio and on location assisting in all facets of productions from painting studio floors, scaling lighting grids, through to camera operating.

Although much fun was had on the production side, the flashing timecode displays of post production mesmerized him into a sense of armchair comfort.

Russell ventured headlong into the on-line editing environment. From Tape Assist/Junior Editor to Senior Editor.

His regular clients included David Denneen, Peter Cherry, Jeff Darling, Ross Nichols, Bruce Hunt, Graeme Burfoot, Tony Williams and many others. Due to the ‘full service’ nature of the Omnicon facility, and the effects-heavy work they were producing, offline, telecine, paintbox and 3D were all everyday facets of the job.

From pressing buttons to wiggling a pen – Russell moved to Videolab in 1993 as senior compositor on the first Quantel Henry system in Sydney.

By 1997 Videolab had grown quickly in all areas including telecine, 3D, design and compositing, and it soon became clear that the role of visual effects supervisor was becoming more necessary for pre-production, shoot supervision and overall post integration. Russell’s move into this role helped create an environment that drew clients from Australia and internationally to this world class facility.

In 2001, Russell was unleashed upon the world as a freelance Visual Effects Supervisor. During that time he worked internationally on campaigns including Philadelphia Cream Cheese (Germany), Discovery Channel (US), FedEx (Japan), Carapelli Olive Oil, Jennie-O-Turkey Stores, and locally for Qantas, Panasonic, Ford, Holden and Carlton United Breweries.

His vast experience and his long term relationships with directors, clients & artists combined with the ability to supervise a project from pre-production right through to delivery of the masters that enables Russell to consistently produce world class work in a professional and easy going environment.

Paul McDonald

Paul is one of only a handful of Paul McDonalds working in the Sydney post-production industry.

He comes from a unique heritage – his father being the only Scotsman honoured with the lofty role of People’s Commissar of Advanced Agriculture Research. His grandparents played a small but vital role in the filming of the fake moon landing of 1969 (chiefly catering and client services).

Paul took to tractors from an early age. Kolomenecs, Zaporozhecs, Fordzon-Putilovecs – he rode them all before he could even walk. In similar fashion Paul sped through his sredneye spetsialnoye and vyssheye training with flying colours, and using his fathers connections gained occupation as an experimental tractor test driver. The love affair continued for several years, unabated by the pressures of the modern world.

During his time at the elite Peoples’ Experimental Tractor Unit (ZPGX) Paul had a decorated career, most notably with the high speed Red Lightning project, as well as perfecting a local variant of the chisel plough suitable for the cold frosts of Siberia.

The fall of the Soviet Union and a diesel fume incident fell with double weight on Paul’s shoulders. The disbanding of the ZPGX forced Paul to look for work abroad.

With its similar economic dependence on the tractor and notable historical innovations in plowing technology, such as the stump-jump plough, Australia was an ideal choice. Paul now works as an online editor and visual effects compositor at Fanatic Films.

Nikki Rubino

So now we welcome Nikki Rubino to the Fanatic Family.

Half Italian heritage, Although her father was exiled at a young age as the mafia must have known in advance that his second daughter was to despise tomatoes.

Nikki has come a long way since her days of stocking footwear shelves at Big W at night, selling cakes at Michelle’s during the day followed by pouring beers on the weekend at St George Motorboat club. Finally enough was enough and she was whisked away for a year to London by the love of her life and lived the pommie life selling gym memberships. Upon return to Aus she landed a position at Singletons as the bottom of the chain in dubs and TV despatch which eventuated into junior editor of edit suite 03. But Nikki wanted more so put the feelers out and landed a job as assistant editor at The Tait Gallery although this was not meant to be as the business closed down due to the GFC and Nikki was out of work. Luckily due to the contact with Singos and the need of Coke Hype Tapes she picked up some Freelance with Fanatic and the 3 day stint lasted an extra 5 weeks. As Nikki is known for her social attitude she had to jet set off to Spain for a wedding before returning to Fanatic full time.

Now being the only girl in the building you can’t miss her with her fluro attire, funky shoes and cheeky smile once she opens the door to you. You will be guided through reception where most likely there will be Doof Doof or Random mash ups exerting from her computer where her little collection of penguins will be sitting.

Nikki covers reception, keeps the boys in order and is slowly becoming an Animatic/Hype tape guru. How does she do so with such abundance of energy you say? Knowing there is a bottle of frozen Malibu in the freezer for at the end of the day.