Pictured is the monster that Anthony Pierce created for his newest movie called Pond Scum. (Provided photo — Peter Berra)

LAKE PLACID — The fear of losing jobs to an increasingly digitized world is not new, at least not for professional artists. Anthony Clark Pierce, who will be featured at this year’s Lake Placid Film Festival, was in art school more than 30 years ago when one film sent a shock wave through the practical effects community.

“In the last year that I was in art school, ‘Jurassic Park’ came out and everything went digital, and we all thought we’d never get work,” Pierce said.

Thankfully, however, practical effects involve vast, varied, and versatile abilities that can be transferred to many other settings.

“One of my art school professors said, if you go down to Orlando, you can always find work in theme parks, you can always find work in stage shows,” Pierce said. “These places will always need the skill set you just learned.”

Pierce followed his professor’s advice and moved to Orlando, where he quickly found work restoring amusement park rides.

Pictured is practical effects artist Anthony Clark Pierce at the Hotel Saranac. (Provided photo — Peter Berra)

“My first job was refurbishing the Mad Hatter teacup ride at Disney,” he said.

The teacups were eventually mended, and another job opened, and then another. His hand-bound portfolio is a substantial archive of everything from sharks to zombies to Tony the Tiger.

As Pierce described, “I’ve been working in practical effects in one way or another ever since I started, and I still love it. I love the variety of projects I get to work on.”

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The film trade

Anthony Pierce flirts with one of the movie props he created. Pierce will be attending an assembly at Lake Placid School on Friday, Oct. 31, at 9 a.m. to discuss becoming a film tradesperson with students. He will also give a seminar called ‘Making The Monster: Practical Effects Workshop’ at High Peaks Resort in Lake Placid on Saturday, Nov. 1, from 2- 3 p.m. The seminar is open to the public. (Provided photo — Peter Berra)

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As part of a project to develop the potential for film in the Adirondacks, Pierce was invited by Gary Smith, chair of Adirondack Film and the Lake Placid Film Festival, to give seminars on the work of a film tradesperson. Pierce will be sharing his expertise in practical effects at Lake Placid Central High School on Friday, Oct. 31, and on Saturday, Nov. 1 at the High Peaks Resort in Lake Placid.

“We want to develop the potential for film in the Adirondacks,” Smith said. “If we can get young people excited about the industry, make them understand that they can learn a film trade and have a future in the vast business of filmmaking, we can accomplish so much for the area.”

What exactly is the trade of practical effects?

“Practical effects are visual effects used in filmmaking created by the use of three-dimensional models or figures,” according to a definition given by the Merriam-Webster dictionary.

Or, as Pierce put it, “Practical effects are any effect that is produced physically on set and captured live on film in real time.”

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Making monster movies

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The ebb and flow of work inherent to the entertainment industry is part of what Pierce finds alluring about his job. The downtime between gigs is when Pierce applies his knowledge of practical effects to his passion — making monster movies. Movies, described Pierce, are all the arts — music, sculpting, design, painting, and theatrics. It’s where he explores the full range of his imagination, stretching and flexing his artistic muscles.

“It’s the all-encompassing art,” he said. “You can move around in all of it, play with anything. That’s what I love about it.”

For Pierce, the process of making movies is an act of creativity and survival, and his films are deeply personal.

“I’m a recovering alcoholic,” he shared. “My doctor told me, if you don’t stop drinking, you’ll die. Making movies keeps me going, stops me from drinking, keeps me alive.”

His first film, “Till Death Do Us Part,” is about the process of Pierce quitting drinking. The zombies in the film are a metaphor for anti-depressants like alcohol. The symbolism is gutting — it’s a story about Pierce killing off the alcoholic part of himself. It’s also a story about the dissolution of his marriage at the time. As he put it plainly, he quit drinking, and she would not.

“The story includes a relationship between a man and a woman,” Pierce said. “That’s me and my ex-wife, and we are no longer together for all the reasons you can see in the film. Some of the fights are so real it’s like a documentary film.”

With the years he spent sharpening his vast and varied expertise, Pierce was able to make the movie himself.

“I wrote it, I filmed it, I did all the effects, I cut it, I cast it,” he detailed. “I had a $30,000 budget and funded the entire project myself, and I loved every part of the process.”

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“Pond Scum”

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Pierce’s newest creation is called “Pond Scum.” The monster is featured in his next film, a movie as personal and wrenching as “Till Death Do Us Part.”

“I have a daughter I barely know,” Pierce said. “‘Pond Scum’ is about me and my estranged daughter.”

In the story, Pierce must save his daughter from a nightmarish swamp monster. The swamp monster is the embodiment of estrangement — the gap, the unsaid, the undone. The process of making “Pond Scum” was cathartic for Pierce as regret and heartbreak shapeshifted into script and sculpture. The painstaking detail of painting beige rubber into believable green scales was a welcome relief. Yet, despite the creative release, Pierce expressed hesitation when he described the dilemma he wrestled with while writing the story.

“The question is, does the daughter even want to be saved by this dad she barely knows?” he said. “I don’t know. Maybe the movie is an apology to my daughter for not being around while she was growing up.”

Whether it’s his writing or sculpting, Pierce’s artistic process is guided by an instinct he’s honed over three decades of experience.

“I start sculpting with clay when I’m creating a monster,” he said. “I take a 3D scan of an actor, then I cover the entire 3D-scanned mannequin in clay. And then I let my hands go.”

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Everywhere a sign

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Teacups and monsters are only part of Pierce’s versatile repertoire. He also has a successful sign company. He traced the origin of his sign making to a combination of coincidence and his enterprising nature.

“One day, a neighbor of mine in Orlando asked me if I could make him a sign, so I did,” he said. “Then I started freelancing in sign shops. Then I decided to open my own shop, and now I run a successful sign shop.”

Pierce nevertheless does not pretend that his path to success is due to coincidence alone. There are essential qualities he thinks you need to have to make it in the movie business — he stressed that diligence, resourcefulness, and perseverance are key.

“Grab your iPhone and start producing content,” Pierce said. “You don’t need a diploma, you need to do it, and do it, and do it.”

College, he explained, isn’t necessary to make it in his line of work. College is where an aspiring artist will typically create a portfolio, but Pierce insisted you don’t need college to make a portfolio. You just need to be diligent.

“You can make your portfolio by doing your work,” Pierce said.

Pierce also underscored the importance of being resourceful.

“Whenever you can, take opportunities to learn the hands-on stuff,” he said. “Go to work in a Halloween haunted house to learn makeup. Work horror nights. Go find work at amusement parks doing make-up. By the end of the season, you’ll have a portfolio.”

His last words of advice for aspiring artists were about taking it on the chin. No matter how good you are, he said, you won’t make it without grit.

“Learn to roll with the punches,” he said. “You’ll receive more no’s than you do yeses. You need the perseverance to stay in the game. Don’t let one person jam you up so much that you stop trying.”

As a testimony to how he lives his own advice, Pierce responded to the competition leveled by artificial intelligence with his signature scrappiness.

“I decided I had to learn AI, or it was going to take me out of a job,” he quipped. “Since I’ve gotten into AI, visually, there’s nothing I can’t do. I do my practical effects and then enhance them by using AI. I’m unstoppable now.”

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Learn more

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Those interested in the world and skillset of practical effects can check out Anthony Pierce’s websites (www.anthonyclarkpierce.com and www.tonyssignshop.com/signs), or attend a seminar given by Pierce called ‘Making The Monster: Practical Effects Workshop’ on Saturday, Nov. 1, from 2 – 3 p.m. at the High Peaks Resort in Lake Placid. Students attending Lake Placid High School can also catch Pierce give a presentation at 9 a.m. at a school assembly on Friday, Oct. 31.