Meet the Butcher Birds — Lacey Hutchison

Lacey Hutchison – Post-Production Coordinator & Project Manager

Continuing our “Meet the Butcher Birds” series where we showcase our amazing crew, we’re sitting down with our highly organized Post-Production Coordinator and Project Manager, Lacey Hutchison, who discusses her VFX background, the livestream production workflow, and why laughter in the workplace is essential!

Can you tell us a bit about your background prior to Butcher Bird Studios?

I was fortunate enough to start coordinating productions straight out of college. I started out working in themed entertainment, project coordinating several media-focused museum galleries. From there I moved to a company that produced industrial touch-screen interactive projects and videos, as a hybrid coordinator/editor — this is also where I met and worked alongside several of the Butcher Birds! I eventually moved into that company’s visual effects department, and have been coordinating and producing VFX for the past 6 or 8 years (how do we count pandemic years?), mostly for episodic television.

Can you describe your role at Butcher Bird Studios?

My main purpose is to act as a hub of communication between Post and all the other departments, so nothing loses momentum or gets forgotten. I’m making sure creative direction from the client is being translated to editorial, working with the technical team to ensure we deliver the file specifications they need, notifying the team of any priority shifts or schedule changes, and keeping track of all incoming and outgoing assets. Oh, and a lot of QC!

What’s your most memorable project with the team and why?

Geeked Week 2021 was my first livestream production, and it was a doozy! With 5 days of content to keep track of, there were a lot of plates I had to keep spinning, on top of being thrown into a new type of production environment. Luckily, Butcher Bird works with the best crew and everyone was understanding of me catching up on livestream terminology and workflow. It was incredibly rewarding to see the project get to the finish line as smoothly and successfully as it did.

Is there anything you wish you knew before starting your career?

Early in my career someone told me I laughed too much, and it really screwed with my head for a while. Laughing is good for you! Laugh more! You can do a good job and still enjoy yourself.

What does the future look like for the industry? What’s the next big thing?

The technology around virtual production is blowing up right now! Shows like The Mandalorian already look great, but they are really only starting to explore what the tech is capable of. I think we’re going to see a lot more productions taking advantage of this developing tech at all budget levels, and maybe one day we will actually fix it in pre!

Finally – how do you spend your free time outside of work?

Thrifting for vintage ceramics, writing ridiculous songs, starting overly-ambitious gardening projects, making bow ties, and playing with my new puppy Wally.

Interested in staying up to date with the team’s latest projects? Sign up to our newsletter here.