GVFX, initially Gajdecki Visual Effects, was a

visual effects Visual effects (sometimes abbreviated as VFX) is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outside the context of a live-action shot in filmmaking and video production. The integration of live-action footage and other live-action fo ...

company initially based in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, founded in the spring of 1991 by John Gajdecki. The company is notable for being one of the first visual effects companies in Canada. A second branch of the company based in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

was started in 1998. Gajdecki left the company in 2002, leaving corporate executive Ron O'Brien as president and CEO. A year later, the company's

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

branch closed in the summer, with the Toronto office closing in September, leaving the company consolidated to its Vancouver branch. The company was in financial trouble at that point, with employees being owed back wages, and Gajdecki stating that "this company didn't have enough money to cover its expenses". Carrying the high capital costs of visual effects equipment proved too much, and he has since liquidated much of his corporate and personal assets to cover the outstanding bills. The Vancouver branch was restructured in 2004. One of the first series that GVFX worked on was the short-lived '' Dracula: The Series'', but their first big success was with '' Kung Fu: The Legend Continues.'' Since then, GVFX has worked on various television projects such as ''

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'', ''

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'', ''

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'', and films such as ''

Mimic In evolutionary biology, mimicry is an evolved resemblance between an organism and another object, often an organism of another species. Mimicry may evolve between different species, or between individuals of the same species. In the simples ...

'' and ''

Bride of Chucky ''Bride of Chucky'' is a 1998 American black comedy slasher film written by Don Mancini and directed by Ronny Yu. The fourth installment in the ''Child's Play'' franchise, it stars Jennifer Tilly, Brad Dourif, John Ritter, Katherine Heigl, and ...

'', among others. The company was working on ''

I, Robot ''I, Robot'' is a fixup collection of science fiction short stories by American writer Isaac Asimov. The stories originally appeared in the American magazines '' Super Science Stories'' and ''Astounding Science Fiction'' between 1940 and 1950 ...

'' prior to bankruptcy. After the company went bankrupt, Gajdecki moved to

Rainmaker Studios Mainframe Studios is a Canadian animation studio owned by Wow Unlimited Media and based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Founded in 1993 as Mainframe Entertainment Inc. by Christopher Brough, Ian Pearson, Phil Mitchell, Gavin Blair and John Gra ...

as a visual effects supervisor, and they carried the rest of the production. Gajdecki would continue to work as a visual effects supervisor on films such as '' Slither'', '' The Hole'', and ''

Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2 ''Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2'' is a 2011 American comedy film. It is the sequel to 2008's ''Beverly Hills Chihuahua'' and the second film in the ''Beverly Hills Chihuahua'' series. Directed by Alex Zamm, and starring George Lopez, Odette Annable an ...

''.

Footnotes

External links

* {{Official website, https://web.archive.org/web/20030805024718/http://www.gvfx.com:80/
johngajdecki.com
personal website of GVFX founder * Eye on the VFX Industry Vancouver article on the CG Society website: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=733718 Companies based in Vancouver Mass media companies established in 1998 Visual effects companies