Cinema Production Services, Inc.

Michael W. Joyce
Miniature FX Supervisor
President

Michael W. Joyce is the innovative Miniature FX Supervisor behind more than 60 feature films, including some of Hollywood's biggest visual effects movies such as "The A-Team", "The Final Destination" Series, "Get Smart", "Live Free or Die Hard", "Mr. & Mrs. Smith", "Vertical Limit", "Godzilla", "Independence Day", "True Lies", "Terminator 1 & 2", and more.

As Miniature FX Supervisor, Mike Joyce conceptualizes and supervises the building of many kinds of miniatures and effects.  His style crosses all genres and mediums with designs encompassing everything from the far reaches of the imagination to historical reproductions and contemporary landscapes.  Respected throughout the entertainment community for creative problem solving on any budget, Mike is often called upon for pre-visualization and production planning by top producers, directors and creative visionaries.

In the summer of 1997 Mike founded Cinema Production Services, Inc.  It stands as an independent resource to filmmakers and designers in search of experienced planning and precise execution of building and photography.

Models, Miniatures, Props and Physical Effects have been Mike's life for more than 30 years.  He got his start at Paramount Studios working on "Star Trek the Motion Picture" as a member of the effects crew.  From there he freelanced as a model maker with Apogee, Fantasy II, Boss Studios, Digital Domain and all the top feature film studios.  He learned his craft in the production trenches.

Mike's reputation for quality, inventiveness and attention to the bottom line grew quickly.   He was named Model Shop Supervisor by Fantasy II on the original "Terminator".  He was then hired away by visual effects legend, Richard Edlund, to be the Model Crew Chief for Boss Studios.

At Boss there was a diversified group of visual effects talent who pioneered motion control techniques as well as stop motion animation armatures.  In addition to feature films, Mike was instrumental in the physical creation and photography of the "Pillsbury" Dough-boy and "Hamburger Helper" Walking Hand commercials of the 1980s and early '90s.

When 20^th Century Fox awarded the feature film "True Lies" to Digital Domain, Mike was brought on-board as Crew Chief and to build-up the then fledgling Digital Domain.  Warner Bros. enticed Mike to take on "Batman Forever" as Model Shop Supervisor.  Greatly impressed, 20^th Century Fox hired Mike for the biggest miniature visual effects film of all time.

"Independence Day", or "ID4" as Hollywood insiders call it, represents the largest model movie ever made.  All models were built under Mike's supervision including such memorable miniatures as the White House, Capitol Dome, a fleet of F18s, Air force One, a fleet of alien attacker ships, alien destroyers and the alien mother ship.  The scope of production was enormous.  Approximately 50 crew members worked 12 months to complete the miniature construction and filming.

Warner Bros. recognized Mike's monumental achievements by awarding him his own visual effects division, Acme Models, in association with Warner Digital Studios.  No stranger to space themes, Mike supervised building "Mars Attacks!" for director Tim Burton.  (Hollywood lore has it that before "ID4", Mr. Burton's script had the planet Mars arriving to Earth.  After a screening of "ID4", script changes were made for Mars attacking Earth!)  Director John Bruno also came to Mike to build the Mir Space Station for "Virus".  "Cheetos, Cheetah" and "Halls Zinc Defense" commercials were also completed under Mike's supervision.

When Mike opened Cinema Production Services, Inc. he continued his tradition of working on top visual effects films and MOW's starting with “What Dreams May Come”, "Godzilla", "Soldier", “Aftershock”, “Reindeer Games”, "Vertical Limit", "Pluto Nash", "The Core", "Zathura", "Poseidon", "Flyboys", "Die Hard 4", and many more.

Check out imdb for Mike's complete list of Feature Films and MOW's...