Wider Lens sat down with Matthew to learn how he defined the role of the VFX Editor for himself, why early creative involvement is key to good storytelling, and what it takes to balance spectacle with subtlety across genre-spanning productions like the upcoming Freaky Tales and Fear Street: Prom Queen.
“I think of VFX Editing as having three pillars: compositing, VFX tracking, and editing. Those skills combined have taken me pretty far.”
-Matthew Steeves
What was the career path that led you to VFX Editing, and how did you make it your niche?
Matthew Steeves: I’ve always been fascinated by visual effects and how movies make the impossible look real. I grew up in Moncton, New Brunswick, and initially studied theatre, graduating from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson). But it wasn’t until my fourth year, when I took cinematography and special effects courses, that things really clicked. The special effects instructor worked in film, not theatre, and that industry connection led to my first on-set experience. I volunteered on a TV film, Road Rage, and on the first day, we blew up a car. I was hooked!
I got my pyrotechnics and gun-wrangling licenses and worked on the sci-fi series Starhunter, but the demanding set hours weren’t sustainable. So I shifted gears and enrolled at Sheridan College to focus on visual effects and compositing. That’s where I met Dennis Berardi, who later brought me on as the first coordinator at his new company, Mr. X. It was an incredible hands-on opportunity where I learned the full VFX pipeline and worked with tools like Flint, Flame, and Inferno.
When SARS hit Toronto, work dried up, so I moved back east, started a small Post Production business, and then joined The Postman in Moncton. There, I honed my editing, colour correction, and online assisting skills. I kept noticing the title “VFX Editor” in the credits of productions, and realized it combined everything I loved.
I reached out to Dennis again, and in 2013, I moved to Toronto to work at Mr. X as a dailies Editor. It was a major leap – I was cutting and reviewing hundreds of comps daily, including on projects like Crimson Peak, where I saw Guillermo del Toro reviewing our work. That set a new bar for me.
After Mr. X, I joined Deluxe, where I did online assisting and my first VFX editing job on Shadowhunters. I had a hybrid role, prepping and pulling my own plates during the day while assisting online at night. Later, I moved to Red Lab, where I worked across commercials, TV, and features, and joined the DGC. That led to my first union gig on American Gods.
VFX Editing is a fairly new role in Post Production – how did you define that role for yourself through your work?
Matthew Steeves: At the time, the category of VFX Editor didn’t officially exist, so I was technically hired as an Assistant Editor, but I ended up doing full-fledged VFX editing. That experience was a turning point for me.
One of the key skills I brought to the role was tracking. Before the studio coordinators even got involved, I was already organizing shots for bidding, using Google Sheets at first and then learning FileMaker to build a more advanced tracking system. That ability to rigorously track shots, along with my compositing and editing skills, really helped my career grow.
I think of VFX Editing as having three pillars: compositing, VFX tracking, and editing. Those skills combined have taken me pretty far.
You’ve worked across so many aspects of Post Production. How does your workflow fit into the larger picture? When do you typically come in?
Matthew Steeves: I like to come in when the production starts to assemble their visual effects elements for some really strong storytelling moments. I avoid coming into a project where we’re just jumping to turnovers, and that’s already been done. But if they’re working with lots of green screen shots, or VFX elements that need to be assembled to begin to tell the story of a shot, that’s where I like to come in. I help Editors and Directors get the initial starting point of their scene before they can present it, because they want to have something a little more polished and presentable before they pitch a scene to a studio, a Director or whoever needs to see it. There’s a bit of a rush before the first preview to assemble everything so it’s in a presentable state. Still, usually, the first thing I do is look at the cut and find out what the priorities are for the Editor to assemble the scene and then just start comping. This way, they have a temp cut that they know works for the story. On a typical production I work on, I’ll probably do between at least 300-500 comps. It’s almost like pre-assembling the entire movie or episode before it goes to a visual effects studio for polishing.
A sample VFX workflow from Fear Street: Prom Queen. Image courtesy of Matthew Steeves.
You work on projects that are both very VFX-heavy and more subtle in their effects use. How do you find that balance between making things look real enough for the story but still allow for the VFX studio to flesh out the look?
Matthew Steeves: One of the things I like to do for the Director is try to get a comp into the cut that is as close to final as we can get it. When that’s ready, we can present to a visual effects studio to say, “This is the look that we want,” and try to get ahead of the creative process so it’s less work for them on their end to figure things out after the fact. We try to answer those questions before it’s even turned over to the visual effects studio in the first place. But there is a fine line – going into one of my first jobs, American Gods, they were used to getting temps that were very obviously temps; there was text on the screen, things that are moving and not tracked. Working with Mr. X and being an actual comp artist for a few years, I really work hard to integrate everything so it doesn’t look like a temp. If it’s something I obviously can’t accomplish that a visual effects studio would have to take on with their more powerful tools, my whole idea is to get it as close to final as possible. I try to work closely with the Visual Effects Supervisor as well to get their input on where the shot is going and integrate their artistic vision as well. But at the end of the day, it’s the Director’s vision, and we need to get their ideas for a shot integrated into what we see on the screen.
How did you get involved with Freaky Tales?
Matthew Steeves: I was so lucky to get involved with Post Production Supervisor Lori Waters on that project. I knew of her from other projects; we’d crossed paths but never worked together. Through my connections at Deluxe, where the project was posted, I heard they were looking for a VFX Editor. I reached out to Lori directly, and she kept me in mind and eventually brought me on board. So, just knowing the right people, being in the right place at the right time, it was pure luck.
I did a lot of work on Freaky Tales, around 300 VFX shots in total. I delivered maybe 20 of them myself to online as final comps. There were a lot of moving parts, but it was such a fun film to work on.
One thing I really enjoyed was creating VFX looks based on what I had done for the film 8-Bit Christmas, like simulating VHS footage. So, when they asked for similar treatments for Freaky Tales, I was all in. I did the opening handful of shots with VFX-treated logos and transitions, all meant to feel like old VCR footage. The team didn’t quite know what the look should be, so they let me run with it. We went through rounds of feedback on the intensity of the look, such as how much jitter, fuzz at the bottom, and pause/play artifacts there were. The audio team had fun with it too, adding vintage tape sounds.
I also got to design changeover marks, those “cigarette burns” used in film projection, to mark the transitions between the four storylines. Each segment was shot in a different format, so each changeover mark had to match the specific aspect ratio and film stock of that section. It was incredibly detailed work, but really fun.
Temp images courtesy of Matthew Steeves/EOne
Your job balances creativity with technical operations. Do you prefer one over the other?
Matthew Steeves: I really need both. I’ve done coordinating full-time, and I do enjoy it, but after a while, I’ll crave the creative side and miss doing more of that. And then it’s the opposite on the creative side, where if I’m doing comps all the time, I start to miss more of the technical work, where there’s no wishy-washy process of “Is it done? Is it right?” It’s either correct or it’s not. So I need to have that balance to go back and forth and keep my brain happy.
You’ve worked on a variety of genres. Any favourites?
Matthew Steeves: I’d never done horror before Salem’s Lot. It’s actually not a genre that I enjoy watching, but it’s a genre that I thought would be fun to help be on the creative side. And it truly is. It’s a lot of fun to help come up with those scary, shocking moments in a film, you know? And there’s a lot of that in the other film I worked on recently, Fear Street: Prom Queen. There are some crazy horror moments in that. So be prepared!
Watch Freaky Tales in theatres on April 4th, and Fear Street: Prom Queen on Netflix on May 23rd
