NYFA Alum Joseph Servodio Reflects on His VFX Career and Emmy Win for "Ripley"

NYFA Filmmaking alum Joseph Servodio has carved out an impressive path in the world of visual effects. From his early days as a production assistant on Godzilla: King of the Monsters to credits on high-profile projects like Dune: Part One, The Mandalorian, and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, he continues to push the boundaries of visual storytelling. Most recently, he earned the 2024 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Single Episode for his VFX work on Netflix’s Ripley. In this Q&A Joseph talks about his career journey and his work on the show. 

NYFA Alumni Network: Can you tell us a bit about yourself, where you're from, and what brought you to New York Film Academy?

I grew up in upstate New York and have always dreamt of working in film and television. What originally drew me to the New York Film Academy was its hands-on approach to filmmaking education. I believe that actually getting your hands on equipment and just going out to shoot and edit something is so essential to learning about the process, the various departments and roles, and how they all come together to create a film.

NYFA Alumni Network: What projects have you worked on since graduating? Have you won any awards or been showcased in any festivals or competitions?

My first job after graduating was as the visual effects production assistant on Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Working on that film was my first introduction to all things visual effects, and up until then, a career in the field had never even crossed my mind. But I quickly took a liking to the department and found that visual effects production was something I was particularly good at.

After Godzilla, I worked my way up the visual effects ladder on various projects, including Dune: Part One, The Mandalorian, and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. My first project as a visual effects producer was Ripley, for which my team and I won the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Single Episode.

NYFA Alumni Network: Tell us more about your Ripley & how you got involved in the project?

I was brought onto Ripley by Maricel Pagulayan who is the visual effects producer who gave me my first production assistant job back on Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and has been an invaluable mentor to me ever since.

Ripley was a very fun but very challenging project. On the surface, it doesn’t appear to be a heavy visual effects project, but below the surface we had over 2,100 visual effects shots across 9 visual effects vendors. The biggest challenge on a show like Ripley is that the visual effects need to be truly invisible because the story is set in a world grounded in reality. This challenge was most apparent in episode III: Sommerso, in which we have a murderous set piece in the middle of the ocean off the coast of Sanremo. This scene was actually filmed in a small swimming pool in the backyard of a home in Italy and it required extensive previs to help guide the principal photography. Once the sequence went into shot production, the incredibly talented artists at Weta FX had to design the progression of wounds and blood spatter throughout the sequence, integrate plate photography and practical elements into a full-CG environment, carefully art-direct ocean simulations & lighting, create an extensive particle effects both above and below the water, add fire elements (both practical and simulated), and animate hero digi-doubles with underwater hair and cloth simulations. This sequence alone had 227 visual effects shots and 26 full-CG shots.

NYFA Alumni Network: Congratulations on your recent Emmy win for your work on the show! Tell us more about that.

Thank you! It was a really proud moment. I had worked on the series for almost three years, and as we neared delivery, I was feeling proud and excited about all the beautiful visual effects work created by the artists and teams who worked on the show. I sort of casually floated the idea that we should submit for the visual effects Emmy, and Netflix was completely on board.

To submit, I had to collect shot breakdowns from all our vendors (visuals that illustrated how the work was completed) and cut together a reel of those breakdowns, along with written materials about how the work was accomplished and the contributions of all our nominees.

Next thing I knew, we were nominated, attending the ceremony in Los Angeles, and then took home the Emmy!

NYFA Alumni Network: Any advice for aspiring filmmakers or those interested in VFX?

If you’re looking for your first job, start by making connections. Use LinkedIn to find production assistants or coordinators who work on television shows or movies you'd love to work on one day. Send them a kind message, and ask if they’d be open to grabbing a coffee so you can learn more about their career path and how they got to where they are. If you build a genuine connection, the next time they hear about an opening on a job, they might think of you. That’s exactly how I got my first job on Godzilla.

NYFA Alumni Network congratulates Joseph on all his success!