CENTRAL

Two DAVE School Grads Get LostEvery week on ABC’s hit show Lost, there’s a virtual power strugglebetween good and evil – emphasis on the word "virtual." While agood majority of the show is shot in Hawaii, the bulk of its visualeffects are completed miles away in Kansas City, Mo., by two DAVESchool grads … virtually, of course.Meet Nickolas Jay Stevens and Sean Joseph, who work at BranitVisual FX. They are among a slew of recent DAVE grads who havequickly found themselves in demand. Besides Lost, they’ve also seentheir handiwork on popular shows like 24 and Californication, as wellas now-defunct shows like Pushing Daisies and Moonlight.“Having your name in the credits of a movie or TV show is[addictive],” Nick said. “It’s addicting, and you want to keep doingthat. It’s very fulfilling to do something that so many people enjoy.”“I just love being artistic,” Sean said. “I love being able to come hereand come up with ideas. I’m from a small town in Oregon, and it’sgreat to have the experience to branch out and come here and justdo it.”While Nick and Sean were trained at the same school, their creativeapproach is somewhat unique. Instead of good vs. evil, think leftbrain vs. right brain – not that there’s a competition between the two.“Having your name in the credits of amovie or TV show is [addictive] ...”nick andsean“They’ve both got different but complementing skill sets,” said BruceBranit, owner of Branit Visual FX. “Sean is very technical and helpsout on a lot of our IT stuff. He’s become very, very useful. And Nickhas a very good eye. The creation of a shot is very much like focusinga lens. Each time you’re going at it, it just gets better. Nick is verygood at that.”Bruce and DAVE School owner Jeff Scheetz have been friends foryears, and each are especially complimentary of the other. “Thetalent coming out of the DAVE School is getting better and better,”Bruce said. “I’d hesitantly recommend DAVE School grads, but onlybecause I don’t want someone else to come in and cherry pick thegood ones. I guess that’s the nature of the business.”Branit Visual FX recently moved into swanky new digs in downtownKansas City, which is a sure sign business is taking off. And the twoyoung grads seem tickled to be riding the wave of success. Well,maybe only slightly more tickled than secretive because, hard-pressedfor some behind-the-scenes dirt on Lost, it was very clandestine.“Lost has a huge following, although I can’t really talk too much aboutthe show, you know,” Sean said. “But I do watch it. I wish I couldwatch every episode, but we’re just so busy around here.”Right-brainer Nick chimed in, “I had never seen the show. I gotonline and watched every single show up until the show we workedon. Now I watch it every week. It’s awesome we get to work on it.”Nickolas Jay StevensSean JosephDAVE SchoolThe old saying, “All work and no play makes for dull boys,” certainlydoes not apply to these two. For these visual effect artists, it’s definitelyall work and all play. ◄ WHAT'S AT RISK? | 42