Wyatt Weed, moderator: Wyatt is an actor, FX technician, and filmmaker from Springfield, Ill. He spent 20 years in Los Angeles working as a jack-of-all-trades in the film industry before moving to St. Louis and joining Pirate Pictures, a local production company. Wyatt’s visual-effects-related credits include “Flight of the Intruder,” “Star Trek: Voyager,” “Necronomicon,” “Species,” “Dark Shadows,” “Tales from the Crypt,” “Predator 2,” “Lord of Illusions,” “Mission: Impossible 2,” and “Red Planet.” He has worked as a model maker, sculptor, prop maker, puppeteer, and creature-suit performer. Wyatt moved into second-unit directing and visual-effects supervision on the features “Kung Fu Rascals,” “The Guyver,” “Guyver: Dark Hero,” “Guardian of the Realm,” and “Drive.” He directed “Star Runners,” a science-fiction television pilot, and the feature films “Shadowland” and “Four Color Eulogy.” In 2016, Wyatt completed work on “The Dark Knight Returns,” an epic Batman fan film that has been a passion project for 30 years. His FX-driven short “Neo 421” can be seen at this year’s Showcase.

Josh Johnson: Josh is a St. Louis-based director, visual-effects supervisor, and VFX artist with more than 13 years of experience in the film and television industry. His feature-film credits include “Rich Hill” (The Orchard, 2014 Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner), a documentary that required complex invisible visual effects; “A Ghost Story” (A24, 2017 Sundance premiere); “The Long Dumb Road” (Universal Pictures, 2018 Sundance premiere); “Native Son” (HBO Films, 2019 Sundance premiere and Critics’ Choice nominee); and “Omniboat: A Fast Boat Fantasia” (2020 Sundance premiere). He also worked on the Emmy-nominated HBO documentary “Abortion: Stories Women Tell.” Most recently, he worked on “The Birthday Cake” starring Ewan McGregor. Josh’s commercial credits include work for Samsung, Converse, Taco Bell, MTV, and Smithsonian, and music videos for Lil Nas X and Sia.

Kristin Pratt: Kristin is a St. Louis native living in Vancouver, Canada. She has nearly 10 years of experience working in the VFX industry, specializing in layout. She’s worked on 25 major motion pictures from all the top production studios, including Fox, Disney, Warner Bros., Paramount, Sony, and Universal. In 2010, Kristin earned her bachelor’s degree from Webster University’s animation program. While interning at AniMagic Inc., a local animation studio, Kristin realized she wanted to specialize in visual effects and CG animation, and in 2011 she moved to Canada to study at Vancouver Film School. After a one-year intensive program, she completed their 3D animation and VFX course in 2012. After graduation, Kristin cut her teeth in the industry at Moving Picture Company (MPC), working her way up from runner to layout technical director (TD) during her first six months at the studio. As a layout TD, she worked on such projects as “Godzilla,” “Maleficent,” “Night at the Museum 3,” and “Game of Thrones.” After nearly three years at MPC, Kristin joined the team at Double Negative (now DNEG). She was DNEG’s first layout hire at their newly formed Vancouver branch. During their first show, “Alice Through the Looking Glass,” she helped to define the layout department and grow the team, and Kristin was promoted to lead in recognition of her efforts on the project. As a lead, she completed films such as “Star Trek Beyond,” “Fast and Furious 8,” and “The Meg.” In 2017, she was promoted to CG layout supervisor and has since worked on numerous films, including “Deadpool 2,” “Venom,” “Hobbs and Shaw,” and the upcoming “Dune.” In 2019, Kristin was admitted as a member into the Visual Effects Society, an esteemed organization in the film and VFX industry.

Tom Seymour: Born and raised in Alton, Ill., Tom lived in St. Louis as an adult, working for five years as an architectural draftsman before making an abrupt career change in 1987. Entering the local film and video industry, he did a little of everything — set construction, props, grip, camera, sound, whatever needed doing. In 1992, Tom made the move to Los Angeles during the height of the music-video era, which provided him with abundant work and opportunities. Tom’s career reached a critical turning point in 1996, when he was hired on the miniature FX crew for “Dante’s Peak”: As a result of that shoot, he met an array of SFX professionals, obtained his  first pyro license, and entered the union. For the last 25 years, Tom has done nothing but practical effects and pyrotechnics for commercials, TV shows, video games, and movies, including “Titanic,” “Godzilla,” “Lethal Weapon 4,” “Virus,” “Spartan,” “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,” and a pair of the “Pirates of the Carribean” sequels. He served as the longtime SFX foreman on the TV series “Criminal Minds.” A reel of his SFX work can be found on YouTube.