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About Us: Bio
WHO WE ARE
Shannan Louis
Shannan tap-danced her way into the world in 1979. She’s a Gen Xer gifted with the technological understanding of a millennial. She can set up a VCR, DVD player and a smart TV. She remembers when the Berlin wall came down AND seeing the first Fast & Furious movie … in a cinema!
Hailing from a performing arts background, Shannan contributed to various theatre companies both on and off stage. By her early 20s she was an established amateur performer in the Perth (Western Australia) arts scene. Shifting gears in 2002 she focused her efforts and moved into the nonprofit sector.
An avid traveler, Shannan and her trusty backpack have solo traversed the planet. From standing on the pyramids of Giza to bicycling down death road in Bolivia, she’s experienced the best of what the world has to offer.
After settling in Canada, Shannan decided to return to school and study documentary filmmaking. Passionate about spreading accurate information to those who wouldn’t normally have access to it, she sees documentary filmmaking as providing an integral means to foster social awareness and knowledge transfer.
Building on her interest in film, she entered the thriving VFX industry in 2015, working on some of broadcast and streaming’s highest rated episodic productions.
FatBelly VFX incorporates Shannan's interest in filmmaking, her love of giving back to the community around her and her ability to foster talent to make incredible film and television visual effects for global clients.
Sally Barnett
Sally has spent the past 18 years living in the UK and Canada but recently returned to her home country of Australia.
She is tenacious! Once she puts her mind to something there is nothing stopping her.
She loves dogs (especially Clancy), live music, graffiti, history…the list is too long.
Not one to shy away from physical challenges, she’s run a half marathon, hiked Machu Picchu and been to the very highest mountain in Australia, Mount Kosciuszko.
She’s swam in waters of Belize, Mexico, Iceland and North America as well as snowboarded and mountain biked throughout Canada, Europe and Japan.
Prior to VFX Sally has worked in the Intellectual Property, Executive Recruitment and Tech Consulting industries. She specializes in supporting growth, process optimization and quality.
Some may call her nosey but we call her inquisitive! She wants to know how things work and why.
Sally is passionate about Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG). She researched and wrote a paper on the underrepresentation of women in the VFX industry from a strategic perspective, as her final thesis for her MBA program and is keen on conducting more research into the VFX industry globally.
She’s been on the fringes of VFX for six years, providing consulting services, and is now plunging head first into the waters by leading FatBelly in Australia.
Louise Bertoncini
Louise has been working in the film industry for over 15 years, beginning as an editor in Perth in the early 2000s, before moving to London to work for Film4 as a segment producer, editor and director.
Her love for Australia was strong and she returned to the homeland in 2009.
She’s worked in production and post on TV commercials, music videos, live action and animation. Since 2016 she has specialized exclusively in VFX for features and episodic including Venice Film Festival Award winning film, Hounds of Love. She’s pretty talented!
In her spare time (if that’s a thing), she directs and edits documentaries.
In 2019 she wrote and directed an award-winning Documentary, “The Throwback”.
And most recently in 2021, she directed the short historical documentary “Murder on the Dancefloor” about the infamous 1925 murder that took place in the ballroom of WA's Government House. This is currently on display at the Old Court House Law Museum as part of the “Trial by Public Perception” exhibition.
Louise's interest in people and their stories allows her to easily connect and communicate with artists and clients to get any job done. She is also a mother of two gorgeous kids which means she is very used to dealing with tantrums and chaos, which comes in handy in VFX!
Kim LeBlanc
An avid animal lover, beer connoisseur & lover of bad jokes - Kim is the Coordinator at Fatbelly VFX. She has 3 animals at home: 2 cats and 1 husband, who is, as Kim herself, an integral part of FatBelly.
She hails from Saskatchewan, but don't let that fool you, she has a keen eye, fantastic attitude and killer wardrobe!
Kim was originally in fashion design but now uses her knack for organization to wrangle everyone in the studio and brings structure to the chaos that VFX sometimes is.
Florian Schuck
Growing up in the 80s in a small village in Germany, Florian very early on found his creative vein and throughout his childhood taught himself pencil drawing techniques and later in High School majored in Arts and English. Before he was allowed to drive, he got his private pilot's license and flew gliders recreationally.
Upon graduation he trained as a military first responder and realized that in his free time spent way too much time at the local Blockbuster. His passion for motion pictures led him to pursue a career in the art of visual effects and he moved to Berlin to take on an internship at the company now known as RISE FX, which turned into an apprenticeship and led to a BA in digital media design.
The other passion that developed at the same time was for the Canadian way of life and it became apparent that it was a perfect fit, so it became a goal to move to Canada. After more than two decades in the industry as an artist, who participated in various acclaimed productions such has Life of Pi, American Sniper, Game of Thrones, 300, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Dr. Strange and various Narias, he has adapted a wide spread of styles from invisible photorealistic compositing to the creation of fantastical effects.
Within 2 decades in the field, he has chosen Canada as his home and has progressed through the ranks, partly as a Canadian citizen and found Fatbelly to be yet another home. At Fatbelly he has been leading a team of talented artists for the past 3 years to help establish themselves on the global stage of visual effect studios.
Clancy Louis
Born in 2021 Clancy brings youthful exuberance and much puppy love to the FatBelly Studio.
As Head of Marketing he attends all FatBelly client calls, dailies and any other meetings that the Head of Studio attends.
Clancy also ensures that the staff morale is high and he loves a good game of catch.
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