How James Mulholland Swapped VHS Tapes for VFX

James Mulholland, with an immense body of work and plethora of industry experience, stands as one of the most humble, down-to-earth people I’ve interviewed yet. Skipping ahead to the end of our conversation, when asked if he’s “got anything else to add,” he states, “I’d like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to chat about my favourite nerdy subject. And also my wife Josee, as she’s the best for giving me the space and time to delve into this subject that often can be all consuming.” 

That’s the kind of humility that embodies James personally, and professionally as creative lead and VFX supervisor at leading post production studio, Parliament. Now based in New York, James’ career began in London, as a runner at Double Negative, who thought his animation reel made for his musician friends to play at gigs was good enough to offer him his first start in the industry. 

His love for this “nerdy subject”, however, can be traced back to long before James was traversing the streets of Soho. “I grew up in the ‘80s and ‘90s and was always drawn to Spielberg, George Lucas and Robert Zemeckis’ movies. Stuff with animation, fantasy and sci-fi elements that were larger than life and different from everything else – and I wanted to know how they did it.” he explains. 

Collecting tokens from his parent’s newspapers, he’d save-up enough to redeem a behind-the-scenes VHS tape for the likes of ‘Jurassic Park’ or ‘Independence Day’ – “whatever the blockbuster was that year” – to dissect just how it was made. For James, they satisfied his curious and impressionable mind, reflecting that he “watched those VHS more than the movie.” 

Going on to create his own claymation animations and study fine art and sculpture at college, James says he “gravitated naturally” towards 3D CGI, an area of the craft that he now specialises in. Although he adds, “I didn’t think at the time that it would be as difficult as it was. It took me a really long time to ‘get it’ and understand it, but when I eventually did, it started to pay huge dividends, especially on set as I was able to understand cameras, 3D space and movement.”   

Based initially in London, James was part of the Oscar-winning VFX team for Christopher Nolan’s ‘Inception’ and the BAFTA-winning VFX team for ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ parts one and two. Commercially, whilst working with The Mill, he worked on lauded campaigns for Guinness, Audi, BMW, Sky, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Nike, Jaguar and Heineken. 

In 2017, he moved across the Atlantic, first to The Mill’s Chicago office as CG lead and shoot supervisor, before moving over to the New York studio, landing in the city he never thought moving to was a “possibility”. Here, he was offered his first taste of advertising for the Super Bowl with Bud Light, in addition to working on numerous international campaigns for the likes of Playstation, Cartier, Ford, Chevy and Paramount.

 

The 2018 Playstation campaign, ‘Journey Ahead’, was a formative moment in his career, “it was the first huge project I led when I came to the states, and the first I worked on with Nathan Kane.” Not only is it a job that he’s very proud of, it marked the beginning of his working relationship with Nathan, who went on to become a partner at Parliament, and an ally for James, “I’ve worked with him on almost every project since and he has been a creative partner and mentor to me since moving here.” 

As part of Parliament, James has continued his trajectory of working on high-profile creative projects with global brands. In November, he delivered a winter wonderland themed ode to New York, “the city where love never sleeps”, for Tiffany’s holiday campaign featuring Anya Taylor-Joy. Continuing the theme of glitz and glam, he also worked on Taylor Swift’s ‘Bejeweled’ music video, as well as working as creative lead on multiple Super Bowl spots. 

Looking to the work itself, James explains, “I pull inspiration from storytelling, art, and real-world experiences. Blending everything from films and photography, to the textures of everyday life to match the heart of a brief. Working closely with collaborators and keeping up with trends and tech helps me craft fresh, impactful solutions for each project.” 

At the centre of it all, is the importance of collaboration. Speaking in particular on working with directors, James reflects, “I’ve been very lucky to work with some of the best directors in the field and I think supporting a director’s vision through VFX is the best way to help your work resonate. I feel like the story trumps everything and direction comes next.” He continues, “In VFX we’re there to enhance the story, direction and all the things that need to be good, to resonate at the same frequency to affect an audience. This comes with working tightly with the crew, in particular production design and edit, and working in tandem to take on various parts of the image and timing you see on camera.”

Discussing the use of emerging technologies and AI in his process, James takes a pragmatic approach, suggesting that whilst the tools have aided in making “a lot of things faster at the beginning of the process”, they are ultimately pulling references from the “wealth of human creativity.” Instead of looking at it as a solution to large creative problems, utilise it as a way to solve “smaller, more specific problems”, ensuring that his own imagination is always at the helm. He concludes, “These tools are meant to enhance everything, not replace. So you have to learn and know the foundation of the industry, then you can use these tools to help you create something.” 

Appealing to his childhood love of fantasy, James’ excitement for the increasing number of scripts that are diving into the genre is evident. Describing the “rapid fire” flow of scripts as "exhilarating", he adds that AI has likely played a part in this, as directors can use it to concept ideas that they would have unusually required a team for, providing a “clear north star” for the VFX team to get stuck into. 

Just as the excitement for unpacking how things were made drew him in as a child, it’s the prospect of getting to be the person that makes them that drives James today. Thriving on the unpredictable nature of the job, that takes him from the bidding process, to set and into the post production studios, he’s become the person that he used to watch eagerly on VHS – a kind of self fulfilling prophecy, you could say.