The Mill (aka The Visual Effects Company) is a visual effects firm based in Soho, London, with studios in Los Angeles and New York. Established in 1990 by Robin Shenfield and Pat Joseph (with their film VFX division formed by director Ridley Scott and his brother Tony in 1999), the company is one of the leaders in commercial effects. But it has done some film, television and video game work on the side.
See also their sister company Moving Picture Company, Framestore and Digital Domain; other VFX firms established in commercials. The company should not be confused with the film starring Lil Rel Howery.
Projects by The Mill include:
- 28 Weeks Later
- A Very Muppet Portal Campaign
- The Adventures of Pluto Nash
- Alice (2009)
- Band of Brothers
- Black Hawk Down
- Cats & Dogs
- Chocolat
- Coronation Street (50th anniversary special)
- The Dark Knight
- Die Another Day
- Doctor Who
- The Sarah Jane Adventures (First two series)
- Torchwood
- Enemy of the State
- the Energizer Bunny campaign (as of 2016)
- Ghost in the Shell (2017) (Opening Sequence)
- Gladiator
- Hannibal
- The first two Harry Potter movies
- A Knight's Tale
- Merlin
- The Oscars (Animation packages for 2012 and 2014; plus the "What Makes An Oscar" tribute video)
- Paramount+'s Mountain of Entertainment campaign
- Primeval (Season 5)
- Prometheus
- The Reckoning
- Sinbad
- Skyscraper (Titles)
- Snow White & the Huntsman
- The Story of O.J. by Jay-Z (with Titmouse)
- Stranger Things (Titles, with Imaginary Forces)
- The Switch
- Transformers: The Last Knight (IMAX trailer)
- Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
- The Walking Dead (2010) (Titles)
- Woolly Mammoth: Secrets from the Ice
Video Game Commercials and trailers
- Apex Legends (Opening cutscene and several trailers)
- Bodycount (2011)
- Brink! (Cutscenes)
- Burnout Paradise
- Call of Duty: Ghosts (Trailer, game intro and outro; Excinction DLC intro)
- Dark Spore
- Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
- Doom (2016) (teaser)
- Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire (Horizons trailer)
- Heavenly Sword
- Kid Icarus: Uprising
- Killzone 3
- Kirby: Planet Robobot
- League of Legends
- LittleBigPlanet
- Mass Effect 3
- Metroid: Other M
- Mirror's Edge
- Nintendo commercials "Magic Unwrapped" and "Magical Nights"
- Paper Mario: Color Splash
- Pikmin 3
- Multiple commercials for the Sony PlayStation.
- Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire
- [PROTOTYPE 2]
- Star Wars Battlefront (2015)
- Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Tropes Associated with The Mill:
- All-CGI Cartoon: Most of their video game projects and several of their commercials are this.
- Cool Car: Built one named The Blackbird.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: See opening paragraph.
- Medium Blending: Not counting VFX work. They produced a few commercials for British bank Halifax featuring (the still) 2D animated versions of Top Cat and his pals, The Flintstones and Mystery Inc..