About Adam
Adam Gascoyne is the co-founder of Union and its lead visual-effects supervisor. Renowned for his creative approach to visual-effects production, he has worked with many of today’s leading filmmakers, establishing close collaborations with directors Danny Boyle, Stephen Frears and Roger Michell, among others.
Gascoyne’s career began back in the early Nineties at the leading London visual-effects facility Cinesite, where he built a reputation for technical expertise in Flame. At the end of the 1990s, he was offered a job in New York with Spontaneous Combustion, a visual-effects studio serving the commercials and entertainment industries. It was here that he experienced first-hand the creative energy generated by working in a boutique studio atmosphere.
In 2001, Gascoyne returned to London, where he worked on several high-profile films, including Cats & Dogs, Black Hawk Down, Die Another Day and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. This grounding in high-end visual effects for feature films combined with the creative experience gained in New York won him his first executive role in 2004, when he was appointed visual-effects supervisor at London’s Clear Film, where he went on to serve as head of film VFX. During this period, he continued to work as a freelance facility supervisor for, among others, Moving Picture Company and Rainmaker UK, adding Kingdom of Heaven, La Vie en Rose, Slumdog Millionaire and the HBO series Rome to his CV.
In 2008, Gascoyne set up Union with producer Tim Caplan. It was bold move at the time, given the downturn in both the global economy and the UK visual-effects sector. He supervised all of Union’s early projects, which included blockbusters 127 Hours, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 and The Woman in Black.
As part of Danny Boyle’s core team for the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony, Gascoyne was responsible for supervising the three films created by Union that were featured during the critically acclaimed event. He was also credited as a director of photography. Following the success of the Olympics, he was named as one of London’s 1000 Most Influential People of 2012 by the Evening Standard.