CG Focus :: Interview with Kevin Kutchaver, VFX Artist on ABCs LOST

Interview with Kevin Kutchaver, VFX Artist on ABC's LOST
by Wes Beckwith

Kevin Kutchaver has been involved in creating, designing and producing FX for such blockbusters as Return of the Jedi, Ghostbusters II, The Adams Family and it’s sequel, along with all three Robocop movies, to name just a few. But it all started innocently enough with seven fighting skeletons and a really cool dinosaur named Gwangi.

Return of the Jedi (click for larger image) © Lucas Film LTD. / Twentieth Century Fox	The Addams Family (click for larger image) © Orion Pictures / Columbia TriStar

Children of Dune (click for larger image) © Hallmark Ent. / Buena Vista	Ghostbusters II (click for larger image) © Columbia Pictures Corporation

Twilight Zone the Movie (click for larger image) © Warner Bros.	Herc Skeletons (click for larger image) © Walt Disney / Buena Vista

We got the chance to talk to Kevin just before he won the Emmy for his work on LOST, the runaway hit ABC drama.

Since this interview was done, HimAnI founder Kevin Kutchaver has won the 2005 Creative Arts Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects For a Series for his work on the pilot (ABC Emmy Award winning drama “LOST”).

HimAnI’s contribution to the show involved matte paintings and scenes of the island’s mysterious “monster” knocking down trees in it’s wake. Supervisor Kevin Blank photographed background plates and high speed trees shaking in front of blue screens. These trees were layered into the comps by the hundreds by compositing artist Phil Carbonaro with matte work by Jon Terada. The real trees looked great, but were too expensive to snap and break, so the collapse was animated by CG artist John Gibbons. The combination of all these pieces helped us see the forest through the trees… or at least past the empty blue screens!

“LOST” won a total of 6 Emmy's, including best dramatic series, and outstanding director for a drama series for J.J. Abrams.

LOST shot sequence