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9 months ago
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French VFX experts Franck Lambertz and Sophie Leclerc have spent most of their careers working outside of their native France.
Lambertz was with MPC for 18 years, helping to set up its L.A. hub in 2008, followed by Amsterdam in 2013 and Paris in 2015 as well as spending time at its London HQ.
Leclerc worked as a freelance visual effects producer in L.A. for more than two decades for studios including Universal, Warner Bros, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, EuropaCorp and Newline.
The pair have recently returned to France to co-head the new Paris studio of leading Montreal-based VFX firm Rodeo FX, the credits of which include Stranger Things, The Witcher, The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power, John Wick: Chapter 4, Dune and Blue Beetle, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, and Zack Snyder’s Rebel.
The Paris studio marks the first French hub for Rodeo FX, which now employs around 900 VFX artists across five sites also based in Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto and L.A.
Lambertz and Leclerc are among a growing number of French visual effects professionals returning home as the country’s VFX sector scales up.
This growth is thanks in large part to the introduction in 2020 of a 10% bonus on the basic 30% Tax Rebate for International Production for incoming productions which also do VFX work in France as well as increased investment in infrastructure and training under the country’s Great Image Factory initiative.
“When you do at least two million euros ($2.1M) worth of special effects in France you get a 40% rebate on your entire eligible spend. There are more and more companies looking towards France to both shoot and do post-production,” says Leclerc.
Lambertz suggests this has created a virtuous circle under which more local VFX artists are staying in the country, or returning, as it draws bigger VFX projects, with this talent pool in turn attracting more work and companies like Rodeo FX to set up shop.
“France has always been a breeding ground for VFX artists with a good level of training and skills on a par with elsewhere, but these people would leave for London or the U.S. once they got to a certain level because French cinema – even if it is creative and of a high quality – didn’t offer a lot of opportunities in terms of visual effects work,” he says.
“People like me would flee, looking for fresh challenges abroad but now with everything that is coming together thanks to the rebate and the extra investment here that’s no longer necessary as we’re now beginning to attract bigger VFX projects in France.”
He points to the rising membership numbers of the French branch of the Visual Effects Society (VES ) as seasoned professionals return home.
Other factors supporting the growth include the promotional work of professional body France VFX as well as the country’s network of world class VFX schools such as the ARTFX school of digital arts, which has branches in Lille, Montpellier and Paris.
“It’s an incredible school. It trains the students in such a way that they are operational from the day they leave,” says Leclerc.
Rodeo FX’s push into France has been spearheaded by the company’s founding President Sebastian Moreau in Montreal, who personally oversaw the creation of bespoke the state-of-the-art studio, hidden behind a nondescript façade in the French capital’s 11th arrondissement.
“We’re very optimistic about the opportunities the Paris office will bring to Rodeo FX. Sophie and Franck make an excellent team to help the studio grow and open new markets in Europe,” he says.
The studio officially opened its doors in June 2023, with Leclerc arriving in October followed by Lambertz in November.
Leclerc first connected with Moreau in L.A., where she contracted Rodeo FX to work on productions such as Luc Besson’s Lucy and Valerian and the City Of A Thousand Planets.
“That’s how we got to know one another. About six months ago he said, ‘I’m opening a branch in Paris, are you interested?’ He was drawn by the talent pool, combined with the tax rebate,” she says.
The aim is for the Paris studio to generate its own contracts, whether they be related to work shot in France and wider Europe, or elsewhere, rather than mop up work generated by the North American hubs, although its staff will collaborate with these other studios.
“Part of my job is to bring in the films. Thanks to my time in L.A., I have good network and know lots of directors there such as Luc Besson. We did a lot of films together,” says Leclerc.
As well as big incoming international dramas and movies shooting, Leclerc suggested France’s move into more ambitious productions – such as Pathé’s Three Musketeers trilogy and Netflix’s hit series Lupin – will also be a growing source of work.
Lambertz emphasizes that Rodeo FX is open to all forms of content.
“The beauty of our profession is that it’s in perpetual evolution. The way we do things today is not the same as we did them 20, 10 or even five years ago. Rodeo FX is constantly evolving. It doesn’t confine itself to movies or episodic work but also works on advertising campaigns and experiential projects,” he says, citing Rodeo FX’s Stranger Things’s The Demogorgon Experience activation for Netflix during the 2023 edition of Cannes Lions.
Some eight months after its official opening, the Paris studio employs some 30 staff and is currently working on two U.S. shows (which it cannot disclose), which were conceived to be shot partly in France so as to tap into the 10% VFX bonus.
“The work has been shared between a number of Parisian VFX studios,” says Lambertz.
Quizzed on whether the company’s arrival might be seen as a threat by pre-existing VFX companies in Paris, such as BUF, The Yard and the French branch of MPC, Lambertz suggested it is seen rather as a positive development.
“We’re going to need a lot of VFX providers to be able to deliver big projects on time and to a certain quality,” he says. “Having more VFX companies in Paris further professionalizes the sector and reassures potential American clients.”
Leclerc concurs.
“The increase in VFX companies will draw bigger productions as is the case in London or Montreal because they’ll be a bigger pool of artists.”
