A DENBIGH man has scooped a top award for visual effects in a Hollywood TV series.
Ed Bruce, 33, originally from Denbigh, was honoured for his work on medieval fantasy Game of Thrones at the Visual Effects Society (VES) award ceremony on February 7.
He won the outstanding supporting visual effects in a broadcast programme award at the California event.
“The VES awards are kind of the Oscars for visual effects, therefore to be specifically nominated for a VES is fantastic,” said Mr Bruce.
“This is a great personal moment for me and my family.
“It's a great honour which I'm incredibly proud to represent the hard work and efforts of my wonderful team of artists,” he added.
The annual VES event recognises outstanding visual effects artistry in 23 categories of film, animation, television, commercials, special venues and video games.
“I was very surprised. It's a strong competition every year and VFX (visual effects) is such a big part of most shows and films that there is so much for an awards body to choose from,” said Mr Bruce.
“To be acknowledged by your peers is very humbling.”
Mr Bruce moved to Dublin to pursue a career in visual effects and started as a runner before working his way up to Ireland’s biggest post production facility, Screen Scene as head of the 3D department, and soon became the visual effects supervisor for a Game of Thrones.
“Working on set was great fun, I got to work alongside some great directors, crew and actors, but a real pleasure for me was working alongside a very talented VFX supervisor called Adam McInnes, who won the VES with me,” he said.
Mr Bruce’s family live near Trefnant and his dad, Roger was a teacher at Denbigh High School for many years and his mum Laraine helped establish CareChecker Limited in Denbighshire.
“I've lived in Dublin since 2000, but very much see myself from Denbigh, and proud,” said Mr Bruce.
“I got my education from the good teachers at Denbigh High School which certainly have helped with where I am now.
“When I was at school I was totally unaware of my profession now or what it entails, but VFX is a great area for young people to get into, they can travel the world and work on very cool projects,” he added.
Mr Bruce was unable to attend the awards ceremony because of the current projects he is working on which include, A Good Day to Die Hard (Die Hard 5), Coup and Skins.
“My VFX producer Sarah Mooney and VFX production assistant Nick Murphy were instrumental in helping the project get delivered,” said Mr Bruce.
“The show was also fortunate to have Garry Curran, screen scene's colourist, his eye for detail and talent really brought the world of Westeros to vivid life,” he said.
The Game of Thrones TV series is based on George R R Martin’s best-selling A Song of Ice and Fire series of fantasy novels.
To see the full list of VES award winners, visit www.visualeffectssociety.com/10th+Annual+VES+Awards+Recipients