CMU School of Drama


Friday, September 04, 2026

Disclosure Day: Matthew Butler - Production VFX Supervisor

The Art of VFX: In 2022, Matthew Butler took us behind the scenes of the visual effects on Morbius. Since then, he has moved from the comic book world to the retro-futuristic adventure of The Electric State, and now returns to discuss his latest collaboration with Steven Spielberg on Disclosure Day.

1 comment:

Lex McDonald said...

This was a really interesting article to read to see how steven speilberg actually utilizes elements of design and how incredibly simple it can be, despite being such a nuanced shot, with the initial proposal being simply a sketch. Outside of that, it is interesting to see the advantages the film industry has when doing anything practically, as they can use as much or as little of the actual practical pieces and digitally recreate the rest, whereas theatre must rely entirely on practical impact. It's also interesting to see how VFX production has almost become like actual shop production, with lead times, special requests, and other shop-like processes to produce a movie. It shed a lot of light for me on how similar the 2 industries actually are and how creative directors often resemble film directors and vice versa in their original visions and their collaboration with designers in accomplishing a central vision.