We’ve been there.
Built by a team that has delivered tens of
thousands of shots for Academy Award-winning
films and Super Bowl spots, we understand that
you’re only as good as your people.
We built Hotspring to close the gap between clients and artists globally, allowing companies to find the best talent and build the flexible production models required for the next generation of content creation.
Team
Jon Mason
Co-Founder & CEO
Prior to starting Hotspring, Jon was the co-founder and CEO of Trace VFX, one of the world’s largest VFX vendors with over 1,000 full-time staff based in Mumbai. Over 7 years, Jon built Trace into an industry-standard brand for quality and consistency before exiting to Technicolor, a publicly-traded media, entertainment, and technology company.
Varun Parange
Co-Founder, COO & Product
Varun was co-founder and COO at Trace VFX, and prior to that, Product Manager at ServiceChannel, an Accel backed software platform. At ServiceChannel, Varun managed the development of the online vendor discovery product Fixxbook, a platform for connecting contractors with facility managers used by numerous Fortune 100 companies.
Ben Stallard
Managing Director
Ben has 25 years’ experience in the VFX industry with over a decade at The Mill, including 6 years as Head of Production and most recently as Group Production Director and Executive Board member. Leveraging his extensive network, Ben founded Artclubvfx, a start-up VFX outsourcing business based in London before joining the team at Hotspring.
Arvind Upadhyay
General Manager
Before joining Hotspring Arvind was part of the core team at Trace VFX. After getting his start cutting mattes, Arvind quickly moved up the ranks to become a 2D supervisor – managing a team of over 400 staff and overseeing the QC of thousands of shots a year. He now leads operations at Hotspring, identifying and collaborating with our network of creative talent around the world.
Gemma Humphries
Executive Producer (UK)
Gemma has worked in the VFX industry for over 20 years. 17 of those were spent at The Mill where she joined as a producer before becoming an EP and then took on the role of Head of Production. During her time at The Mill she worked with Directors such as Wes Anderson, Ringan Ledwidge. MEGAFORCE and Ivan Zacharias and on campaigns for Nike, EE, Honda and Playstation.
Andra Bard
Executive Producer (US)
Andra has over 25 years experience in VFX. Her career started in high school, shuffling papers and peeking backstage at Boss Film. She further earned her chops at Digital Domain, Sony Imageworks, Weta Digital, Universal and Technicolor. Projects include The Day After Tomorrow, The Fast and The Furious and Lord of the Rings. Most recently she was Head of Production at Trace VFX.
Nico Cotta
Global Creative Director
Nico has been polishing pixels around the world for over 25 years – working as a VFX Supervisor for award-winning companies such as Framestore and MPC before founding two companies, London-based CCVFX and cloud-based Blaze Network. A pioneer of the remote working model, Nico now leads the talent development and execution of high-end compositing & CG work on Hotspring.
Mayumi Boruah
Production Manager
Mayumi has held various production roles both in India and abroad. Through the years she has worked across the spectrum of production in VFX and animation – producing commercials at Trace VFX, animation at Reliance, and film at Gener8 in Vancouver. With an MBA to boot, Mayumi now manages the production team at Hotspring helping clients around the world connect to great talent.
