The Process of Visual Arts - The Future of Virtual Production in Movies & TV

ABOUT ME:

Meet Eli Jarra, Senior Artist and VFX Supervisor in Los Angeles.
Originally from Detroit, Michigan, Eli graduated from Specs Howard School of Broadcast Arts with a degree in Broadcasting. Over the span of his 25 year career, Eli has contributed to over 150 projects, including feature films – Avengers: Infinity War & Endgame, 
Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Thor: Ragnarok, Captain America: Civil War, Oblivion, Black Panther, Television series – Veep, True Detective, Big Little Lies, Survivor, Mad Men, Mozart in the Jungle, Grey’s Anatomy, Eastwick, Smallville. 
Eli's work on Smallville has garnered him multiple VES Award nominations and two VES Awards: one for Outstanding Compositing in a Broadcast Program and the other for Best Matte Painting in a Live-Action Broadcast Program. He is a member of the Visual Effects Society, Academy of Television Arts & Science, The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, and The Planetary Society.
One of Eli’s funnest moments was working with Will Smith on Hitch.  He says working in the new ACES color format on Oblivion and shooting high frame rate 3D stereo on dual Red cameras rank at the top of his greatest professional accomplishments. He is thankful to be able to work with the most talented and inspiring individuals in the industry.
Eli is excited to be developing content specifically designed for immersive technologies and is actively participating in the latest VR movement. He cites MC Esher, James Cameron, and Roger Deakins as his artistic influences and he would love the opportunity to work with Alex Proyas, Michel Gondry, and Gaspar Noê.
The best advice Eli has been given and embraces every day is “don’t make decisions when you’re angry”, “ignore the naysayers”, and, “happiness is having something to look forward to.”

Eli’s recent feature credits include: 
•	Jumanji 2 
•	Guardians of the Galaxy 2 
•	Captain Marvel 
•	Black Panther 
•	Thor: Ragnarok 
•	The Revenant 
•	Ant Man 
•	Dolphin Tale 2 
•	Avengers: Age of Ultron 
•	Captain America – Civil War 
•	Noah 
•	Avengers: Endgame 
•       Avengers: Infinity War
•       Spider-Man: Homecoming 
•       Social Network
•       The Internship
•       Oblivion
•       Ant-Man and the Wasp
•       The Revenant
•       The Amazing Spiderman 
•       The Internship
•       SpaceJam 


INTRODUCTION:

Hello!  My name is Eli Jarra.
My job often brings many challenges and rewards when working in Film & Television.  It's something I've been doing for a long time and something I find very rewarding.  As people would inquire into what I did for a living, I found they were intrigued by hearing about the behind-the-scenes of some of their favorite movies or TV shows.

A few years ago, in 2013-2017 I started speaking about some of these experiences to the kids at Pinecrest Schools here in southern California.  The presentations quickly evolved into more elaborate breakdowns of the various departments. 
Kids found this not only compelling but extremely inspiring as well.  Since then, I continue enriching students with the process of what it takes to get a movie to the big screen.

I encourage students to keep an open mind about what they’re learning in regards to the importance of teamwork and professionalism on-set.  By breaking down and simplifying the process, my goals are to give them the confidence and courage they need to implement some of this new information into their own creations.   I plant a seed of curiosity where they can imagine themselves as a writer or director, or perhaps a cinematographer filming on camera or setting up lights, maybe seeing themselves building something special in the art department.   
I try and cover the many different roles on set and well as in post-production where I discuss editorial and sound, color and visual effects.  These are the departments that are instrumental to completing the project once production has wrapped.  
At present, I speak to a variety of age groups, starting from 4th grade all the way to high school.  I have also done a master class with the Animayo animation festival and WonderConn.

I find presenting and teaching to these young minds quite rewarding, sometimes even more so than the actual movie work itself!    
That’s why I created the class “The Process of Visual Arts”.   



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CLASS POLICIES:  

1) Age Range:
My Process of Visual Art classes are ideal for students between 4th through 8th grades.  I’m open to high school learners if they fall within an age range of five years. 

2) I aim to keep classes close to the scheduled amount of time, however, classes with low enrollments or especially talkative students may run a few minutes under or a few minutes over.   

3) If a class does not meet the minimum enrollment requirements, I will contact the parents and learners to confirm they want to continue class 24 hours before class is scheduled to begin. I will teach the class unless the parent or learner requests to transfer to a more-full section.   

4) Classes will begin at the scheduled time, even if all learners are not in the classroom (unless there appears to be a technical issue). I will not contact absent learners during class time so I can focus on the learners who are present. However, I will contact absent learners after to transfer them to another section.   

5) If no learners are in the classroom, I will wait 10 minutes before exiting the classroom. In this situation, I will contact the families after I have left the classroom to transfer learners to a new section.  

6) Due to the copyrighted nature of the material I will be presenting, I will NOT be able to provide classroom recordings afterwards.  I’m really sorry about that, studios make it very difficult to publically release their intellectual property even for educational purposes.