Friday the 13th The Series Visual Effects Crew

In October of 1988 I worked on a few episodes of the television series titled, simply enough, and not with any nod to accuracy, Friday the 13th: The Series.

The show's visual effects supervisor was John Gajdecki, one of the more talented film-artist/technicians to have worked in this town (Toronto), and also one of the most congenial. He went on to set up his own company, GVFX (Gajdecki Visual Effects).

When I worked at Film Effects - Toronto in the early to mid 1990s, I again met up with John when my employer and GVFX got the 'opticals' contract for the television series Kung Fu: The Legend Continues. John, and his team, produced original FX elements on a Quantel "Harry" system at his facility; elements which he then outputted to 35mm film, which were then turned over to Film Effects. I took these film rolls and composited them with the appropriate live-action photography on the optical printer/camera.

Back to the photo.

My friends would spot me in a second. I've already gotten: "You look the same!" Think: a tall British-looking guy standing at the back in a brown jacket. My boss is sitting at the front of the gang.

Seeing my overall look now, I don't think I fit the image of an "inker" as much as I do a director from LWT or Thames Television.

Postscript: I remember most of the people in that photo. Gudrun Heinze, extreme left, and Claude Theriault, to my left, I more than remember since they were still with John during my Film Effects years. Fun times, even with the hard work and sometimes long hours.