I am writing in praise of Visual Effects Supervisor, Stephen Lloyd. I first had the pleasure of meeting Stephen while working on NAOMI (Array/CW/Warner Brothers.) I was serving as Co-Executive Producer and Producing Director on the first season of the television series. Based on the DC Comics book, Naomi is a young Black female superhero. Bringing this character to life in a credible manner that can stand amongst the powerful superheroes we’ve come to know as fans an audience members is incredibly important to me and I quickly learned it was equally important to Stephen. I have been Producing Director on Queen Sugar (WB/OWN), Co-Executive Producer on Clarice (the TV sequel to THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS) for MGM/CBS and Producing Director on three time NAACP Image Award Winning limited series, Self Made: Inspired by The Life of Madam CJ Walker (Netflix/WB.) I have also directed on YOU (WB/Netflix), The Red Line (Greg Berlanti/CBS) and three Shonda Rhimes’ series for ABC (For The People, How To Get Away With Murder, Station 19.) Having specifically helped orchestrate swarms of Death’s Head Moths on Clarice, altering modern day architecture to turn it into the early 1900s for Self Made and filming and editing flames and explosions for Station 19, I’m acutely aware of the attributes needed in a solid VFX Supervisor. Stephen Lloyd has every single one. Stephen was tasked with coming into NAOMI late and getting up to speed immediately, literally less than a week before we lensed the episode. I was nervous about being able to film my scenes and develop shots so that NAOMI’S unique powers would be believable in such little time. Stephen had an adept way of both understanding and describing what was necessary and putting me at ease. He’s a great communicator. And he works with alacrity- we never waited on him for intel, estimates or decisions. Stephen cares deeply about the characters and narrative and made himself available to us without delay or pretense. He assessed the need for a company to design the characters’ powers and located and presented one to give the Creators and Showrunner an opportunity to visualize scope, color and shape in advance. And he’s a wonderful set partner— chiming in before you need him to do so, quiet when filming and always respectful of crew and actors. In the short time Stephen and I worked together, I learned more about how to create credible Visual Effects than I have from any Supervisor on any other production. I endorse him wholeheartedly. Just let me know when you plan on hiring him because I’m gonna need him on my next job ;)
Sincerely,
DeMane Davis Co-Executive Producer/Producing Director Array/CW/Warner Brothers
