Luma Bolsters VFX Division with New Hire and Promotions

Santa Monica and Melbourne-based visual effects studio Luma strengthens its production management team with the hire of Digital Production Manager Ashley Bettini and the promotions of Justin Porter and Michael Perdew. The exciting growth period will further enable Luma to deliver the technical and creative artistry for which they are renowned.

Ashley Bettini will act as boots on the ground at the Santa Monica office, working directly with VFX Supervisor Vince Cirelli and Luma’s artists and coordinators. Bettini brings an abundance of experience from the client side, most recently at Lionsgate. Having started her career as a Production Assistant at ILM, Bettini worked her way up the ranks to become Visual Effects Production Manager and Data Wrangler for the past five years. During that time, she worked on such films as The Last Witch Hunter, Lucy, and Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s 2015 Best Picture winner Birdman.

Bettini first worked with Luma as a vendor on The Last Witch Hunter, and was impressed with the level of work they completed, a draw matched by the collaborative spirit of the company and its unrivalled work culture.

“The quality of work was the main appeal, but I also immediately wanted to be part of the team of people with whom I had such an amazing experience working with,” she explains. “The community of artists and supervisors here are so knowledgeable and everyone truly works together to reach the level of effects needed for each feature.”

In Melbourne, Justin Porter has been promoted to Digital Production Manager. Formerly Lead Digital Coordinator, Porter has been instrumental in managing Luma’s global creative teams to build sequences for blockbusters such as Deadpool, Ant-Man, and Avengers: Age of Ultron.  Porter first expanded into the new role on Allegiant, for which Luma created the entire integrated world of the “Factionless” environment.

Continuing Luma’s track record for hiring from within is the advancement of Michael Perdew to the role of Production Supervisor in Santa Monica. Perdew joined Luma in 2009 as an Assistant Technical Coordinator and quickly worked his way up to VFX Producer. The promotion to Production Supervisor puts him in charge of overseeing interdepartmental projects across both facilities.  Michael also works closely with Luma’s systems and development teams to generate new production tools in order to enhance efficiency and methods.

During his time at Luma, Michael has worked on over 25 film projects in varying capacities including major titles like Deadpool, Ant-Man, True Grit and Guardians of the Galaxy, working alongside Cirelli to manage all aspects of the show and VFX team.

The addition of Ashley Bettini is a brilliant complement to the continuing growth happening at Luma, as the company continues to carve its legacy in the worlds of feature films and original content creation. Recently, Luma expanded its presence to the tech sphere with the launch of Luma Labs, a venture capital arm geared at incubating and accelerating notable startups.