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In a world increasingly dominated by digital effects, few names stand out like Gerd Nefzer’s. The German special effects (SFX) supervisor has built a legendary career blending old-school craftsmanship with modern blockbuster demands.
His work on Blade Runner 2049, Dune, and other major films has earned him not one, but three Academy Awards – all for projects filmed in Budapest. We sat down with Nefzer at Origo Studios, to discuss his path into the industry, the evolving role of special effects, and why Hungary has become one of his favorite places to work.
Budapest Reporter: Your work as an SFX supervisor spans the entire production. What part of the process do you personally find the most creatively satisfying?
Gerd Nefzer: You know, I see the finished picture like you for the first time, when it screens at cinemas or television. I think one of the most satisfying things is seeing your work for the first time on a big screen, not just on a computer screen. It’s just a huge difference.
It’s an amazing moment, seeing your work with all the other components, like visual effects, color grading, and whatever they mix in. Sometimes you think back while sitting there watching, like “Ah, I should have done this differently or better,” you know. But still, it’s a great feeling.
Budapest Reporter: Can you tell us a bit about your core team? What do you look for in people who join your department?
Gerd Nefzer: After 38 years in the business, I have a really good core team, and I always have them with me if possible. When I’m here in Budapest, I also try to get some of the local crew in. This is now my sixth or seventh movie here in Budapest, so I’ve known the people here for years. They’re really, really great technicians to work with.
In special effects, there are so many aspects when you look at people’s experiences. You need a lot of steelworkers when you build rigs or gimbals. You need guys who are good with chemicals for all the breakaways, soft parts, and so on. You need a good office crew, coordinators who can organize, plan, rent machinery, write the invoices, do risk assessments. You also need a very good buyer who knows where to get all the stuff we need. Sometimes it’s very simple stuff, sometimes it’s very complicated stuff.
There’s a lot of logistics as well, especially when you shoot abroad. For example, when you’re based here in Budapest, but you have to go to Morocco, or the UAE, or Slovakia, we always have to carry a lot of equipment. Sometimes it’s hundreds of tons that we have to take with us, equipment-wise and material-wise. It all has to be coordinated – customs, logistics, everything. It’s a lot, and you have to find the right professionals for all of this.
Budapest Reporter: Your background in agriculture is quite unexpected for someone in the film industry. Are there ways that early experience still shapes your problem-solving approach in special effects?
Gerd Nefzer: Yes, I was a farmer before all this. I came into this business by accident, so to speak. My father-in-law started a business in the ’60s, but not as a special effects company – he worked with picture vehicles, historical vehicles, and as an armorer, dealing with movie guns and renting uniforms.
One day, when I was finished school, he asked me if I wanted to join him for three months on a set, to take care of historical vehicles. I had nothing else to do, so I said, “Okay, let’s try this one.” The three months now turned into 38 years, from one movie to another, over lots of television series, the company was growing. After a couple of years, we started to do special effects too.
It was a long period to get to this position where I am now. Especially if you work internationally, you need a good reputation. In this job, the most important thing is experience. Special effects involve so many different things you have to do, and they are always looking for very experienced people.
But to answer your questions: I do have plenty of useful experience from my farming days. When you have to replicate weather, you know the difference between a light rain and a heavy rain. You know how snow behaves. As a farmer, you also learn a lot of techniques: hydraulics, pneumatics, mechanics, a bit of electrics. That has helped me a lot.
Budapest Reporter: Looking back at your career, which special effects sequences do you consider the most complex or rewarding to pull off?
Gerd Nefzer: The biggest sequences I did – and the ones I’m most proud of – were done here at Origo Studios, not far from where I’m sitting now. It was for Blade Runner 2049.
We built a huge rig with the Spinner – that’s the flying car. The director said the Spinner has to fly into the third floor of a hotel, create dust, turn around, land, the doors open, the actors climb out, they have a fight with explosions, they climb back in, and the vehicle flies out again. It might sound simple when you say it like that, but it was really tricky.
Whenever you move something with hydraulics, it tends to look fake. It took us quite a long time to get the right computer program, the right valves, everything tuned just right to get the movement natural. In the end, when I look at Blade Runner, it’s still one of my favorite things I’ve done in my life.
But on every show, you have different tasks. Every show has something where you feel proud of what you’ve accomplished.
Budapest Reporter: What factors make a studio truly great to work in from an SFX perspective?
Gerd Nefzer: I really love working here at Origo Studios. When you look at the way the sound stages are designed here, you realize the people who planned it were filmmakers themselves.
There are small details you notice – like outside, the concrete columns. No one realizes it, but they have holes exactly the size of scaffold tubes, which we use all the time. Inside the stages, you have enough power, solid concrete floors where you can drive in with heavy machinery, like cranes. You have a great roof structure, where you can hang tons of equipment. There’s water supply, everything you need.
Most studios have a good stage, but when you step outside, the parking is too small, the workshops are too small, or badly equipped. Plus, Origo is a bit outside of the city, which helps a lot. You don’t have traffic jams like crazy every morning. If you live close, you can be here in 15 minutes. And because it’s not in the middle of a neighborhood, you can make noise, use bright lights all night long, and no one complains.
From a technical point of view, what they have here at Origo is outstanding. It’s one of my favorite studios in Europe. And it’s not just the stages, it’s the workshops too. You walk in, and you immediately feel that they understood what filmmaking needs. The size of the stages, the space, the facilities – it’s really outstanding compared to most other studios in Europe. And now they are building even more stages, which is always a big advantage for us.
Budapest Reporter: Besides technical advantages, what’s your impression of the local talent?
Gerd Nefzer: When I worked here the first time, 15 years ago, it was tough to find an experienced crew. There weren’t a lot of international movies made here yet, and the flow of production between local movies and international productions is different, no matter where you shoot.
Today it’s different. One big show after another is coming here, and now you find a lot of great, very experienced professionals who know exactly how to work on big international movies. They understand the hard work, the long days, the hours, the requirements.
When we hire the crew now, I know exactly who I need to call. Around 25-30% of my crew is local, the rest is mixed. On a big production like Dune: Part Two, we had people from 12 or 13 different countries working together. It was just amazing.
Movie-making is teamwork. You need to leave your ego behind. You stay together for months, you are like a family, and the Hungarian crews really fit into that spirit. You can trust them. If you tell someone, “Hey, build this rig to lift our main actor 20 meters up in the air,” you have to trust that it’s made solid, safe, and right. And here, you can.
Budapest Reporter: Even with the perfect crew and production environment, budget and timeline pressures can influence how SFX is approached, including decisions about what’s done physically versus digitally. How do you navigate those conversations, especially when advocating for in-camera effects?
Gerd Nefzer: That’s a process that starts when you go through the script, during the first meetings with the director, the visual effects supervisor, and the art department. A couple of years ago, I thought physical effects would die out. I thought we would all be out of a job because everything would go digital. It’s not like that at all. Most of the directors I have worked with said, “We try to do whatever we can practically, in-camera.” Of course, if it gets too big, too dangerous, then visual effects step in, to enhance explosions, to extend backgrounds, things like that.
Imagine you’re an actor standing in a blue or green studio. The director tells you, “Now a guy comes in and fires at the furniture,” or “This lamp falls from the roof.” But nothing is actually happening. It’s very difficult for actors to react naturally if it’s all imaginary. How do you follow a falling lamp if there’s no falling lamp?
That’s why most directors want as much practical action as they can get. And you can see it on the screen too, whether it’s real or just layered later in post. Even if the trend today sometimes leans towards LED walls and big virtual productions, classic movie-making with real sets and real effects is still alive. It’s better for the actors, for the director, for the DOP, for everyone.
Budapest Reporter: You got three Oscars, all for projects filmed here in Hungary. I suppose getting the first one for Blade Runner 2049 was a huge surprise, but how did winning a third one recently feel in comparison?
Gerd Nefzer: How does it feel to win an Oscar? I cannot even describe it. I still get goosebumps when I think about the moment I held it in my hands. All three movies – Blade Runner 2049, Dune: Part One and Part Two – were made here at Origo. The first one was the biggest surprise, I never could have imagined in my life that I would even get close to an Oscar.
It’s almost unbelievable to win three Academy Awards. It’s a great feeling, and it’s even greater knowing that all three of them are connected to work we did here in Budapest.
Budapest Reporter: After decades in the industry, has your philosophy toward special effects changed over time?
Gerd Nefzer: You know, a lot of people ask me, “What changed after winning an Oscar?” And I always say, “Nothing has changed.” You still have to work just as hard as before. I know people who won an Oscar and didn’t get offered a job for years because producers thought he’ll charge double from now on. So it’s not always beneficial for the work.
What has helped is that nobody questions anymore whether I’m able to do big movies. That’s gone after the second Oscar. Before that, especially coming from Germany, you are always questioned. Same goes for my friends here in Hungary.
“Is this German special effects supervisor experienced enough?” You have to prove yourself every time. You need the trust of the producer, the director, the actors, and even the insurance companies. If they don’t trust you, you don’t get the job. And getting that trust takes a lot of experience, but to gain experience, you have to be allowed to do big movies first.
When I started, there was always a supervisor from the U.S. or the U.K. above us. It took years and years to get our first jobs as supervisors. And it’s the same for Hungarian supervisors too. You have to keep proving yourself again and again until they believe in your work.
Budapest Reporter: What advice would you give to young professionals hoping to enter this field?
Gerd Nefzer: Go to a school first: a film school, a production school, whatever. Today, you have the chance to study these things. When I started, there was no such opportunity.
And if someone wants to do special effects specifically, they should learn something practical first. Be a plasterer, a plumber, a welder, a carpenter – something real. Learn it properly, finish it, and come into our world with real experience in your hands.
Special effects is a complex craft, because there’s no school in the world where you can fully learn it. You can take a pyro license, a high explosive license, but that’s still only a small part of it.
You need to know hydraulics, wood- and steelwork. You need to know how to work with people, how to work with directors and producers. You even have to be half a politician sometimes. It’s a very versatile field, and only real, hands-on experience will make you good at it.
