James Whitlam

James Whitlam has over thirty years of experience in the world of visual effects, the first ten as a compositor and 3D generalist in film, commercials, broadcast design and video games, followed by a move into production and management level roles in 2002.

As a VFX Producer, Executive Producer and Senior Manager at Rising Sun Pictures, James oversaw teams on five Harry Potter films, as well as producing Academy Award winning work on The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. This was followed by three years as Senior Producer at Method Studios, where James produced VES winning and Academy Award nominated work on Peter Berg’s Deepwater Horizon before relocating to the UK in 2016 to join Framestore as Executive Producer.

In this role James oversaw the company’s Academy Award nominated work on Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and Disney’s Christopher Robin, as well as the much-loved Paddington 2. Making the switch from features to episodic in 2018, James took on the production-side VFX Producer role for HBO / BBC on the BAFTA winning adaptation of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials. After successfully helming two seasons (and winning a BAFTA of his own) James returned to Framestore to head our Episodic division, marrying his love of managing complex, cross-site projects with his experience of being immersed in production. In 2022 James relocated from London to Los Angeles to provide US filmmakers and executives on the ground service from script to shoot to post.