I can’t bear to write about myself in the third person and my publicist has been passed out somewhere deep in the Beverly Hills Waldorf Astoria since last Wednesday, so I guess I’d better get on with it.  I am the daughter of the character actor Dennis Burkley. He and Mark Hamill were buddies, so at six I attended the cast and crew screening of the first Star Wars circa 1977, on the 20th Century Fox lot.  

I didn’t know at six, but Mark also created a whole new genre of jobs.  And after some sordid years touring with rock bands, such as the Rolling Stones, Aerosmith and Metallica, Photoshop came out and I decided this was something I could do. 

By 1995 some of us “upstarts” were cutting our teeth on such big films as Titanic and the Fifth Element. This was a time before Internet or cell phones, we were young and wildly alive in Venice beach, surfing the very crest of that high and beautiful technological wave.

I became a Matte Painter, I have proudly served at Digital Domain, Asylum, Method, MPC, and the Mill. I started my own company for tax purposes, have worked on over 50 films and way too many commercials to bother counting. Now after 23 years in the business I work almost exclusively for 20thCentury Fox. I am currently working on Shane Black’s the Predator FIVE at Fox. I’ve put some thought into it and what I’d like to give you (young upstart) is not a lesson in Matte Painting,but to pass on what I’ve learned about this INSANE business, how it’s changed, where it is now and what you can expect now that you’ve bought the ticket. The question is, are you ready to take the ride?