11th September 2017
Press release
- Groundbreaking rendering solution created for UK special event project ‘Dinosaurs in the Wild’ among Milk’s recent achievements
London, Monday 11th September, 2017: Award-winning independent VFX studio Milk Visual Effects, has been named among the top 100 fastest growing UK tech companies in the 17th annual Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100.
Published yesterday, Tech Track 100 is a league table, which ranks Britain’s private technology, media and telecoms companies with the fastest growing sales over the past three years. The tech Track 100 adopts the London Stock Exchange’s Techmark definition of a technology company, as one that shows a commitment to innovation, research and product development. Milk ranked at number 73.
Founded in 2013, London and Cardiff based Milk creates visual effects for high-end television and feature films such as Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, Ex-Machina, High-Rise and Sherlock, winning three consecutive BAFTA Television Craft Awards, an Emmy and in 2016, Milk co-founder Sara Bennett became the first woman in twenty years to win an Oscar for best VFX, for Ex-Machina at the 88th Academy Awards.
Milk’s recent work includes UK special venue theatrical project ‘Dinosaurs In the Wild’ which saw the studio create a ground-breaking rendering solution to process almost 80 million frames using Google Cloud Platform, in just 10 weeks.
Milk developed and animated a range of large-scale CG dinosaurs and created their environment in 7K stereoscopic 3D; to bring to life an immersive Dinosaur ‘safari’ experience, which transports family audiences 67 million years back in time to the Cretaceous period. ‘Dinosaurs in the Wild’ launched at the NEC in Birmingham, UK, in June 2017 and moves to Manchester in October 2017 and London in February 2018.
Milk has also recently completed work on Kingsman 2 (Lionsgate) and Alex Garland’s forthcoming feature Annihilation (DNA/Paramount)), and is currently in production on projects including Electric Dreams (Channel 4/Left Bank/Sony).
Milk’s CEO, Will Cohen, said: “We are thrilled to be included in the Sunday Times Tech Track 100 as one of the fastest growing British tech companies. We are passionate about delivering the most innovative, challenging and creative visual effects solutions to help tell our film, television and digital content clients’ stories. Our growth over the past three years is testament to the dedication, expertise and agility of our team at Milk.”
Steve Langan, CEO of Hiscox Insurance Company, (sponsor of Sunday Times Tech Track 100) commented:
“Congratulations to all of the companies on the Sunday Times Tech Track 100. Their courage is laudable; rapid growth and continual innovation takes grit. We are extremely proud to be associated with such an impressive list.”
Milk was founded by five VFX supervisors and producers in 2013 and now employs 150 staff across its sites in London and Cardiff. The studio has won multiple awards for its creative work, including three consecutive BAFTA Television Craft awards for Doctor Who (in 2014 and 2015) and critically acclaimed BBC drama Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (in 2016). Milk won an Emmy in 2016 for work on the BBC drama Sherlock, and in 2016 co-founder Sara Bennett became the first woman in twenty years to win an Oscar for best VFX for her work on the film Ex-Machina. Other recent highlights for Milk include work on the film Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them (Warner Bros.); Ben Wheatley’s High-Rise and Free Fire; The Martian (20th Century Fox) and The Last Dragonslayer (Sky). In June 2017 Milk appointed Ivan Dunleavy as Chairman and received long-term investment from the Business Growth Fund to develop and expand the business.
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Notes to editor:
For further information or imagery please contact:
Jenny Burbage, Milk
T: +44 (0) 203 6978448 M: +44 7785 996340
Email: jenny@milk-vfx.com Twitter: @MilkVFX
About Sunday Times Tech Track 100
The annual Sunday Times Tech Track 100 league table, now in its 17th year, ranks Britain’s fastest growing private technology media and telecoms companies by their average annual sales growth over the latest three years.
The tech Track 100 adopts the London Stock Exchange’s Techmark definition of a technology company, as one that shows a commitment to innovation, research and product development. For more information visit http://www.fasttrack.co.uk/league-tables/tech-track-100/
About Dinosaurs in the Wild
For more information visit https://dinosaursinthewild.com
