East Side Effects

East Side Effects is an independent boutique visual effects studio based in New York City. Founded in 2013 by visual effects supervisors Alexander Lemke and Michael Huber, it creates effects for feature films, episodic television and commercials. Its work emphasizes invisible visual effects: compositing, environments and image alterations designed to integrate seamlessly with photographed material and support a production’s visual storytelling.

The studio combines on-set supervision with post-production execution, working directly with directors and editorial teams. Its capabilities span digital compositing, photorealistic CG environments, matte painting, set extensions, crowd replication and atmospheric simulation. Camera tracking, matchmoving, motion-control integration and rig or stunt-wire removal support work that ranges from subtle image cleanup to substantial transformations of filmed scenes. Its supervision offering also includes bidding, while pipeline design and production tracking support the delivery process.

Film and television work

A sustained creative relationship with Joel and Ethan Coen has produced several prominent projects. For The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, East Side Effects served as the lead visual effects facility, contributing digital character alterations and animal augmentations across the anthology’s varied settings. On Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth, the studio developed black-and-white environments and atmospheric effects that complemented the film’s stylized imagery.

For television, East Side Effects has served as a key visual effects team on Severance. Its work spans the first two seasons and includes environment generation, set extensions and transformation sequences. These projects sit alongside film credits including Creed, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, Mother!, I’m Thinking of Ending Things and Past Lives.

The portfolio also extends to episodic productions such as Dexter: New Blood, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Masters of the Air, as well as the films Drive-Away Dolls, Honey Don’t! and Song Sung Blue. Across these productions, the studio’s work combines visual effects supervision with shot creation, adapting its compositing and environment capabilities to different photographic styles and production requirements.