Studio Celebrates 10 Years in Entertainment Industry

The Senate Visual Effects, a boutique London-based studio, has announced expansion plans coinciding with its tenth anniversary in the entertainment industry. The facility, which began as an independent group of artists working on the award-winning series Band of Brothers, has transformed into a well-established company best known for creating digital environments that enhance
Sarah Hemsley, CEO of The Senate, says, “What started out as a temporary group of artists working together on a single project has evolved into a thriving and deeply committed staff of digital experts who constantly amaze me.”

Over the past decade, The Senate has worked with top directors including Michael Apted, Ron Howard, Christopher Nolan, Guillermo del Toro, Paul Greengrass, Roland Emmerich, Richard Loncraine, Kenneth Branagh, Matthew Vaughn, Julian Fellowes and Richard Attenborough.

The Senate’s creative team is lead by visual effects supervisors Richard Higham and Anton Yri, and visual effects producer Paula Pope. Higham’s credits with The Senate, which he joined in 2004, include Angels & Demons, Inkheart, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, 10,000 BC, Stardust, The
Bourne Ultimatum, 28 Weeks Later and The Da Vinci Code. While at The Senate, Yri, who came on board in 2005, has worked on Kick-Ass, Fast & Furious, Frost/Nixon, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, The Bourne Ultimatum, 1408 and Batman Begins. Higham and Yri are currently working on The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. As The Senate’s senior visual effects producer since 2005, Pope has overseen the studio’s work on most of its recent film and television work. Prior to joining The Senate, Pope was the digital producer on the award-winning HBO series Rome.

The Senate’s work in The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons was included in both films’ nominations for the Visual Effects Society VES Awards in the Best Supporting Visual Effects category. They are currently in production on The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader and Priest.


Recently completed feature work includes Shanghai. Other film credits include From Time to Time, My One and Only, The Hessen Affair, Sleuth, Doomsday and Closing the Ring. In addition to Band of Brothers, The Senate’s digital environments were key to the success of HBO’s highly-lauded series Rome and Rome II. Other broadcast credits include The Life and Death of Peter Sellers and several episodes of Lost.

For more information: senatevfx.com.