On the latest 8111 I catch up with Stephen Rosenbaum!!! Stephen grew up in Los Angeles and always loved building things. As the youngest of three he thought he'd likely follow in his father's footsteps and become a doctor. But in 1977 he saw Star Wars and the seed was planted. While attending Berkeley he enrolled in the College of Environmental Design and began working in the nascent field of computer graphics.
Stephen decided to stay in Northern California after college and landed a dream job as the first TA (Technical Assistant) at Industrial Light and Magic in 1989. Under the guidance of Doug Kay and George Joblove he honed his skills, developing software tools and scripts for managing files. The team was small and the opportunities were omnipresent.
In those early days Stephen shared an office with John Knoll and they worked together to present some of the first digital composites. With the successes of The Abyss, Terminator 2, and Jurassic Park (among others) Stephen became the Computer Graphics Supervisor on Forrest Gump. In 1995 he won the VFX Oscar alongside Ken Ralston and George Murphy.
When Ken Ralston left ILM for Sony Imageworks, Stephen joined his mentor and began working as a Visual Effects Supervisor on Contact. Stephen list of credits is impressive; Indian in the Cupboard, I Robot, The Waterhorse, Avatar, and he's been nominated for the VFX Oscar three times.
Most recently Stephen served as the Visual Effects Supervisor on the impressive Apple TV+ series Masters of the Air. It was great fun to catch up with Stephen and to hear about his amazing journey. I cannot wait to see what he works on next.
John Knoll and Stephen Rosenbaum at ILM in the late 80’s or very early 90’s.
Classic Cinefex photo from Jurassic. Stephen at the computer, Stefen Fangmeier pointing, and Dennis Muren supervising.