'Matrix Revolutions' combines efforts of college buddies

For college friends Jeff Kasunic and Mark Rakocy, watch ing "The Matrix Revolutions" together was more than just a cool experience. That's because Kasunic worked on the movie's special effects, and Rakocy helped design the IMAX brand logo shown before the movie in large-format theaters.

"It was completely surreal to be sitting in a theater watching two separate things that we both worked on," Rakocy wrote in an e-mail.

Rakocy and Kasunic - former members of the film-and-music collaborative Midnight Syndicate headed by Cleveland-area resident Edward Douglas - are living their dreams in the film industry. The three men met while students at John Carroll University.

Kasunic worked on digital effects for "Matrix Reloaded" and "Matrix Revolutions " and is working on "Shrek 2." Rakocy creates trailers for television and DVD releases.

Kasunic, 32, moved to San Francisco in 1999 and has bounced between that city and Los Angeles. He did computer work for various companies during the day and continued practicing his computer animation at night.

Kasunic was hired this year by ESC Entertainment, a film production company that did the effects for the second and third "Matrix" movies. He helped digitally create the thousands of Agent Smith duplicates standing on a sidewalk in "Matrix Revolutions."

DreamWorks hired Kasunic in October as a "lighter" in the feature-animation department of "Shrek 2." Kasunic creates the illusion that light is shining on the digital sets and characters in the movie and controls shadow placement.

"The sequel is two to three times more complex than the first one," he said. "It's going to blow away ["Shrek"] in terms of the way it looks." The voices of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz star in both movies.

In 2001, Kasunic moved to Los Angeles and Rakocy joined him there. Rakocy, 32, started out as a production assistant on low-budget films. About 18 months ago, he got a job in the motion-graphics department at Hammer Filmworks, a trailer-editing company.

Rakocy creates the background for movie titles, especially the ones in which the words and letters fly across the screen. He has done trailers for "Femme Fatale," "Alex & Emma" and "Bowling for Columbine."

Rakocy also is writing scripts and would like to make his own movies in the future. He said he feels good about being in Los Angeles. "I wish I'd made the move earlier."

In April, Kasunic expects to start work on another DreamWorks animated film, "Over the Hedge," starring Jim Carrey.

"It's really, really cool," he said about his DreamWorks job. "Like pretty much a dream come true. It doesn't feel like I'm at work."

To reach this Plain Dealer columnist:

jwashington@plaind.com, 216-999-4539

© 2003 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission.