Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Victor Luzzi. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Victor, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

It is very hard to choose the most meaningful project I’ve been on for many reasons, but the main one being that I think that every project was meaningful in its own way. I either made connections and even friends, or I learned new things, things I didn’t know how to do and now I know. But also, with the bad experiences I had, I learned many other things I should not do. So all of this to explain that I have never entered a project and left the same way I came in. I always take many positive things from any project I have participated in and project’s I made myself. But of course, there are definitely some milestones that I can choose from my perspective. This project for me is very interesting, especially the whole story of how I got there in the first place, but that I can leave for another day. Just an overview, about a year ago, I started working with two awesome companies, Radiant Images and MeetMo. And with them, I had the chance to participate in by far the biggest projects of my life so far. Either work directly coming from both of these companies or by side projects that came from coworkers, clients, and even friends I made over the last year working with them. Only in the period of less than a year I started working with them, we did projects for Sony, T-Mobile, Meta, Disney, Universal, Done&Dusted, NASA, NVidia, Amazon Studios, Fox, Nissan, and many others. Some of them I had the chance to participate in more than the others, but gladly I had the chance to at least watch most of these projects happening from the inside and out and learn a lot by that. And after every delivery, I was more and more surprised with how awesome both of these companies are and especially how awesome everyone that runs and works there is. By the end of this story, I would love to dedicate a few lines to thank all of the people involved.

Out of all of those projects I mentioned, of course, one of them had to be the special one. Although again, it is pretty hard to choose, I would say the one that meant the most to me is the one we did for Formula 1. Back in November of 2023, we went to Las Vegas to shoot an innovative promotional experience for T-Mobile, featuring the Formula 1 event. The experience itself was one of its kind, a 12k 360 experience of the whole Las Vegas GP. We did everything from rehearsing, capturing, stitching, editing, compositing, mixing, and delivery within 24 hours from inside a trailer on an empty parking lot using T-Mobile’s 5G Technology, with the help of Nant Images back in LA and many other cool companies and friends. I heard a lot of times these crazy stories of what Radiant and MeetMo have done, but I only really believed it when I saw it with my own eyes. The project was a success and that was my first big production in the USA, and thankfully it wasn’t my last. We worked a lot, it was insane and super fun, stressful but captivating. We did night shifts for the week before the shoot to prep everything, and run all the tests we had to before our opening for rehearsal and shoot at the track, which worked really well for me as I always had less trouble keeping up late at night than waking up early in the morning. I wish I could also talk about my experience with the TikTok project, but I’ll have to leave that for another day. I know this was supposed to be about me, but to be honest, there is no way I could do that without taking the proper time to talk about and thank all these people that have given me these opportunities in the first place. Michael Mansouri, Gianna Wolfe, Kurk Stevens, Elnar Mukhamedyarov, Andrew Schwartz, and Johan Romero. I’ll always be thankful for everything they’ve done for me and we did together. And if the next project is my last one, I’ll always come back to Radiant for a cup of coffee. Because they are behind the best and most meaningful projects and moments of my life and career in the US. Thank you!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Another interesting thing, I think the way I started my career was very simple. I had a problem and I thought of a solution and that led me here. Before I even entered the market, back when I still home in Brazil, living in my mom’s house and having really the only responsibility to study. Which yeah, was tough for me, I always hated school and still do. I only started enjoying math, physics, biology, geography, history and other school related subjects once I wasn’t in school anymore. Well getting back to the story, I found out my love for films and storytelling in general from a very young age, I like to say it started when I was 4 but that is a lie. The truth is it started when I was so young I don’t remember when it started cause I can’t remember one moment of my life where this wasn’t my dream already. So I heard that you forget pretty much everything that happened before you’re 4, so in that case let’s say I can only trace it back so far. I wasn’t poor in Brazil, but I wasn’t rich. I had a decent life and overall life quality, even better than what I have today in the US, but I couldn’t afford anything other than the day to day needs. I really wanted a good or any camera really, some other film equipment I tried to save up to buy. But the truth is, at least at that time, even if I could afford the stuff I needed to make a film, realistically I wouldn’t be able to do anything with it. The film community in my city was very small not to call it nonexistent. all the films in Brazil were made farther from my city than what a 10-year-old would be able to go by himself. And even though my family tried to help a lot of times, by taking me places I needed to go from a very young age already, there’s only so much they could do. So here’s the problem; I can’t shoot no film without a camera, no sound or light equipment and no location, and even though there are workarounds all these issues, let’s be real… Can’t shoot without actors. And I know some people are gonna judge me and say well, if you’re really determined you don’t need anything, you use your phone, shoot at home and you’re all the actors you need. And although that can be true, I have done that in the past, I am the biggest fan of that idea and here’s why: Yes, I believe you gotta any tool available to get the job done and yes, I believe that between shooting films instead of not for whatever excuse you may have, I’d say screw it, shoot it! But there is controversy here for me, because if you just “use whatever tool you have available” even though that could and probably will work, that will distract you to thinking of something else that isn’t in your face. And me personally, I wanted the films to look good, so definitely I can’t be the actor and I can use my phone’s camera please. at least not at that time.

You got the problem, now let’s go over the solution: Given the fact I can’t do much physically, I realized there are ways I could do it virtually. What if I could have any camera I wanted? with any specs, even stuff that isn’t even real yet. What if I could have any location and any actor I want in my film, regardless of how expensive they are. And what if I could do all of that at home from my computer for free? That was when I found out the world of 3D, editing and VFX. I built the worlds I couldn’t access in real life and casted the actors I couldn’t find in real life. And started working on animations, I wanted to tell my stories and I wanted to do that as best as I could and keep getting better. I never thought any of that one day would eventually become my main source of income, I never even considered it a job. I guess I never really looked from that perspective. But I did start realizing that when people started asking me to do things for them, and I realized that even more when started paying. I didn’t make a lot money obviously, but for a 10-12 year old boy without bills. I started saving up. By the time I was 16 I started working doing the same thing I was doing, Editing, Design, VFX, 3D, literally anything I could but instead of doing it in Brazil, I was freelancing for other countries with stronger economies and currencies. And that is when the money started coming for real. I saved up and moved to the US, where my real challenges began. But VFX for me a really interesting ability to have, because it always got me going anywhere I was, and always getting me introduced to people and opening doors at places I couldn’t normally access as a Production Assistant for example, at least not as quickly. I have done PA, 1st & 2nd AC, Cam Op, Set Design, G&E, helped producers find people and resources for small and medium projects and directed a few projects of my own that aren’t professional, but personal. But what I can say is definitely what’s gotten me the farthest was VFX Supervisor on Set, and VFX Artist in general. Today I work with everything, I work in post but also in production. While slowly building the blocks I need to eventually shoot my own films again, but this time much better.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Not exactly, but I do want to take this opportunity to talk about a very interesting and extremely important resource that is both incredible and terrifying. From the very beginning, I was always the guy trying anything available to get the job done and to tell my stories better. I tried every software, plugin, API, etc., that has ever come to my ears. Same with tech, so I definitely welcome with open arms the wonders that we are now able to create with generative AI. And the crazy things I would have done if I had access to it when I was a kid. I probably would have a few full-feature films already out there.

I understand why AI is a very delicate and controversial topic, trust me, I do. As an artist myself, a part of me feels threatened, but as a creative in the first place, I am much more intrigued by all the amazing things I can do with it. Yes, AI MUST go through thorough alignment, and we as humanity have to make sure it’s being used ethically. In that case, it’s the most powerful and the most world-changing technology we have ever and probably will see in our lifetime. Whether you like it or hate it, it will cause some dramatic changes. You can hate it, and curse at it, but it won’t stop it from growing, and it eventually will replace you and your art. The only solution with AI is applying the same principles that we have applied with every technological advancement in the history of the world where humanity succeeded. We must go forward with it, adapt, and use this technology instead of fighting it. You can’t win against progress, and you shouldn’t. You can and should participate in progress and find new and effective ways to run your business, solve problems, and create art with new available tools, especially AI. So my advice on this topic is don’t get politics involved. AI is a tool; it needs to be handled correctly and carefully, admittedly by the very people that create it. But after that, it’s just a tool to get the job done like any other.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I think I have a simple one for this. Being creative, or at least I think I am, has some cons like anything else, but it has some awesome pros too. I think my favorite is how many different perspectives you can find for anything, and the places and journeys these thoughts can take you. As storytellers, that is really helpful to create stories and shape them to be individual and original as best we can. And as just life, it’s just a really good way to get a conversation going.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.victorluzzi.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cal.zzi/
• Other: I have to update my website, most of these are stuff I did when I was 15. But it’s what I have for now, I am not working on my reel until I’m finished working on the current projects. But you can check out: www.RadiantImages.com www.MeetMo.Io

Image Credits
the group photo at the F1 shoot was shot by Robert Kerian. and the getty image’s photographer is in burned in the image.