Susan Zwerman

UPM 1st AD, Associate Director

SUSAN ZWERMAN - (DGA UPM/Visual Effects Producer)

Susan is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the Directors Guild of America, the Producers Guild of America, and the Visual Effects Society. She is the recipient of the 2013 Frank Capra Achievement Award in recognition of career achievement and service to the industry and to the Directors Guild of America.  She chairs the DGA AD/UPM VFX/Digital Technology Committee.  Over the past 15 years she has planned and hosted numerous technology and visual effects seminars for these organizations.

Her credits appear on more than 50 major films, producing the visual effects for Tall Tale (Disney), Broken Arrow (Fox),Alien Resurrection (Fox),  Mafia! (Disney), Men of Honor (Fox), Around The World In 80 Days (Walden Media and Disney), Fat Albert (Fox), The Guardian (Disney), and Vamps.  Her location manager credits include the acclaimed All That Jazz,  Wise Guys, Scarface, Nightshift, Nighthawks, and The Flamingo Kid. 

A special highlight in Ms. Zwerman's career was winning a Grammy Award for "Best Concept Music Video" in 1988 for producing the I'M FAT music video starring Weird Al Yankovic.   This led to her producing the fantasy sequences and music videos of 'Weird Al' in the film UHF.  

Susan Zwerman was the heart and soul of the Exceptional Minds Studio, known for her work on  Black Widow (2021), Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019), Avengers: Endgame (2019), Captain Marvel (2019), Green Book (2018,)  Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Black Panther( 2018), Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), Pitch Perfect 3 (2017), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), War for the Planet of the Apes (2017), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015), while working as the Studio Executive Producer at Exceptional Minds, a non-profit professional school and studio that prepares young adults on the Autism Spectrum for careers in digital animation and visual effects. She has provided these artists opportunities to work on high-profile features films as well as various televisions shows.

In addition, Ms. Zwerman is a well-known seminar leader at many universities, teaching visual effects techniques in the entertainment field.  Ms. Zwerman and Mr. Finance are co-authors of the seminal book on producing visual effects, "The Visual Effects Producer:  Understanding the Art and Business of VFX". She is also the Editor with Jeffrey Okun of  "The VES Handbook of Visual Effects" (Third Edition) published in July 2020.

Credits

Visual Effects Producer: Vamps; The Guardian (Disney); Fat Albert (Fox); Around the World in 80 Days (Walden Media); Men Of Honor (Fox); Mafia! (Disney); Alien Resurrection (Fox); Broken Arrow (Fox). 1st AD Visual Effects: Tall Tale (Disney). Production Manager: Strays; Mom and Dad Save the World; Firebirds; UHF. Location Manager: Nighthawks; Wise Guys; The Flamingo Kid; Scarface; Nightshift; All That Jazz. Producer: Weird Al "I'm Fat" (music video, Grammy award).


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DGA Quarterly
A big-budget adventure film, such as Around the World in 80 Days, can have hundreds of visual effects shots. Using this as an example, we explore managing the production of VFX work.