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Greg Mitchell

Greg Mitchell

Cinematics Director
Epic Games Studio

“Lights, camera, action” were three words Greg Mitchell assumed would only be associated with the film industry. Little did he know that he would eventually use those same words while creating cinematics for AAA game titles, and working for a studio called Epic Games, Inc.Greg_Mitchell-1

An early fascination with video games and making 8mm home movies for high school projects drove Greg’s desire to pursue a creative career. As a college student in 1990, he spent semesters studying the art of filmmaking, learning to shoot and edit, and discovering the early beginnings of digital video and 3D animation. Upon finishing college, Greg stepped into the world of motorsports television where he spent the next 11 years directing, shooting, and editing high-energy promotional pieces and race team profile stories for ESPN, Speed Channel, FOX Sports, and TNN. Crafting vignettes where the person told his or her story in their own words was Greg’s favorite way of creating a feature story and it won him a Joey Award from the San Jose film commission in 1996. In his spare time, Greg kept his foot in the door of 3D animation with an eye toward a growing video game industry. Eventually he got the opportunity to create game and teaser trailers for Westwood Studios – home of the famous Command & Conquer series and Epic Games.

Real-world production experience and a knowledge of 3D layout and camera animation made him a perfect fit for an evolving game industry and in early 2005, Greg joined the cinematics team at Midway Games. In 2006, he went to work for Epic Games and it’s been full steam ahead ever since with the launch of Gears of War in November of that same year. Greg is now the Cinematics Director for Epic and has worked on bestselling and award-winning game titles such as Unreal Tournament 3, Shadow Complex, Infinity Blade, Bulletstorm, and the entire Gears of War Trilogy. Today, “lights, camera, action” aren’t exactly what he says when directing cinematic actors on motion capture stage, but in principle it’s relatively the same. Best of all, Greg’s childhood pastimes have come together in this ever-changing world of video games and transmedia.