What’s your role at Lux Aeterna?

I wear a few hats as Creative Director and CEO, I oversee the creative output, supervision and final delivery of VFX at Lux Aeterna. This means working with production, supervisors, and artists in the studio as well as liaising with clients, making sure the work exceeds their expectations as well as delivering on time and on budget.

What does your typical day look like?

On a typical day, I might engage in client meetings or calls to foster relationships, discuss project progress, and address any concerns or feedback. It’s really important to demonstrate a deep understanding of the client's vision and needs, ensuring a positive and collaborative working relationship.

Mornings are generally the creative hands-on time either writing up creative solutions, generating mood boards or storyboards, pitching for new work, editing mood reels, lots of breakout sessions or drifting from desk to desk with fellow colleagues discussing ideas, approaches and processes.

Throughout the rest of the day I’ll have leadership team meetings where we discuss the priorities for the day/week/months with ongoing projects, any significant developments in the industry, and address any immediate concerns or challenges. I’ll meet with the finance team to review budgeting, financial projections, and resource allocation for current and upcoming projects, ensuring that the company's financial health is robust and aligned with strategic goals. I will also catch up with our operations manager on a daily basis to make sure that the company is running smoothly with regard to recruitment, PR, staffing and general studio management.

At some point in the day I might meet with the executive team to discuss longer term strategy, long-term goals, business development strategies, and potential areas for expansion or diversification. I continually work on business development initiatives, such as identifying new clients, exploring partnerships, and attending industry events.

It’s inevitable that I end up multi-tasking across all aspects of Lux Aeterna’s business. I have a brilliant support network of production staff, operation managers, IT as well as phenomenally talented artists that make it all possible.

No day is ever the same except for the squeak of the drinks trolley on a late Friday afternoon.

Which project are you the most proud of and why?

It’s hard to pin it down to one project. We’ve recently worked on The Crown (Left Bank Pictures & Netflix) creating an environment using a Virtual Production stage at Shepperton Studios. It’s a beautiful and emotive piece of work which we turned around in record time.

We’ve just completed work on a television movie called Einstein And The Bomb (BBC & Netflix). The story is framed around Einstein's arrival in England after being forced to flee Nazi Germany in the 1930’s. We had to create the Berlin Philharmonic Hall which was destroyed in the war. We managed to find an early blueprinted model in Germany which we recreated in full photo-real CGI filled with a mixture of 3D crowd simulations with specially shot green screen material. It has been great seeing it seamlessly integrating into the specially shot footage.

A project close to my heart is ‘8 Days To The Moon & Back’, a feature-length drama documentary marking the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11. I had the privilege of filming Neil Armstrong some 25 years earlier in New York when I started my career at the BBC. ‘8 Days’ was a unique drama because the actors lip-synced to the actual real astronauts audio which had been recently declassified from the cockpit audio recordings. We used cutting-edge digital effects and dramatised performances to create the visual journey and bring the original audio to life. We even came up with an ingenious first person astronaut point of view of walking on the moon. It did well at the awards picking up both BAFTA and Emmy nominations.

How do you approach a new brief or project?

It’s really important for me as a Creative Director not to just recycle techniques. I love the carte blanche approach where you take away all the constraints and really hone in on the creative and work out unique solutions to some of the questions being asked. For example, the solution could be a fully procedural 3d VFX approach or a live action studio shoot and sometimes a combination of both.

Each brief is different so it follows that each presentation can take on a unique form. I sell my ideas with mood boards, storyboards, visual references, written outlines and synopses. I also cut mood reels which is a good way to show how the pacing and the tonality might work. Anything to communicate the concept, idea and approach. In my head I approach every project as if it has to be award winning.

I try and avoid the obvious or the usual tropes associated with a subject or genre. I like to metaphorically throw all the component parts up in the air and see where they fall. It gives you a completely different perspective when piecing it back together.

What advice would you give someone who wants to work in VFX?

Study your craft and enjoy the learning process. You will need to dedicate time to continuous learning and improvement in your craft. Stay updated with the latest techniques, industry trends and software tools, a lot of these are free at entry level. On a practical level, learn how to collect references in order to communicate your objectives. Check out on-line courses and attend workshops and seek mentorship opportunities to expand your knowledge and skills. Follow your passion, get obsessed and start living it. This is a lifestyle career and the learning should be enjoyable and not just a means to an end.

Who’s your dream client and why?

The relationship with the client is paramount and over the years we have garnered a strong relationships with the likes of BBC, Netflix, as well as numerous production companies spanning documentary and drama. Some of these relationships go back over twenty five years! Many of them have now become good friends. Having a client who works collaboratively leads to a deeper understanding of the vision, goals and expectations. Fostering a collaborative relationship with clients is key to promoting transparency, creativity, efficiency, and ultimately leads to the delivery of high-quality and impactful visual effects that meet the client’s objectives. A close collaboration builds trust and develops long term returning clients.

What career advice would you give your younger self?

I was always pretty determined and headstrong about what I wanted to do in life. I never listened to careers advisers as they never seemed to project a career in the creative arts when I was growing up.

My mother is an artist, I was born with either a pencil in one hand or a lump of clay in the other so being a creative has always been part of my DNA. I’ve stubbornly always followed my passions and never really took to any advice in my younger years so I’m sure I wouldn’t have taken it from my older self.

Interested in learning more about our work? Check out our Projects Page

A Day in the Life: Rob Hifle