General Lift International Inc.

General Lift International Inc. Joe established General Lift in Los Angeles in 1981.

General Lift International provides "live action" motion controlled visual effects equipment for use with traditional motion-control shots, as well as in conjunction with computer-generated imagery on location, and on the effects stage. Joe Lewis went to California Institute of the Arts, received a Master of Fine Arts, and stayed as a technical faculty member teaching sculpture skills for 2 years.

After leaving Cal Arts, Joe started working in Hollywood designing and building specialized photographic equipment to support of “Star Trek the Motion Picture” in 1978, as well as numerous television commercials. As a company, General Lift has been serving the motion picture and commercial film business for over 30 years. We have a long history of providing innovative and creative solutions for the many challenging shots our clients have created. We designed and built the first underwater motion control system, the Aquaflex, for the film “Hollow Man” (1999). We designed and built one of the first light-weight portable systems for use in the film “Dead Ringers” (1987). We designed and built live action and miniature systems for Peter Jackson's entire “Lord of the Rings” trilogy” (2000) to (2002), as well as "King Kong” (2005) .... This deep and resourceful record has given us a unique position in our industry to apply our knowledge of design to the entire Genuflex series of motion control systems. We have always been known for our motion control services and enjoy an unparalleled record with regards to motion picture and commercial credits.

09/29/2020

We are proud to showcase our involvement on the first season of The Mandolorian. Kuper Controls were used to shoot the miniatures of The Razorcrest ship.

07/21/2020

Hello Friends,

Here is the Visual Effects Society's Webinar I was a speaker on last Tuesday. It was in support of the new 3rd Edition of the VES Handbook.

My topic was on Real Time Camera Tracking for Virtual Production.

take a look!

-Joe

https://vimeo.com/439311838

General Lift International Inc. is proud to present our new line of 3' & 4' motorized linear sliders, as well as our Pan...
01/22/2020

General Lift International Inc. is proud to present our new line of 3' & 4' motorized linear sliders, as well as our Pan, Tilt & Roll heads.

The General Lift 4 Channel Motor Driver box pairs perfectly with these sliders for many applications, especially Stop Motion projects.

With dual or single linear rail constructions, General Lift can customize to your shot's needs.

In addition, the sliders can be easily mounted in a vertical or horizontal XY configuration for full maneuverability of the camera. They can also be inverted upside down with the help of side mounting brackets.

Available with all systems are General Lift's newest focus/zoom units, which come with a standard 32 pitch gear and 15mm rod mount clamp.

09/06/2019

Recently General Lift International was contracted to build a 6 Axis DOF (Degrees of Freedom) hydraulic motion base for a Chinese film production.

Here is a video of some of our earlier motion base jobs from over the years as well a section at the end containing footage of our new custom rig.

05/16/2019

Here are some recent & past projects that include motion control time lapse.

Check out more videos of ours on Vimeo.
04/30/2019

Check out more videos of ours on Vimeo.

Joe Lewis went to California Institute of the Arts, received a Master of Fine Arts, and stayed as a technical faculty member teaching sculpture skills for 2 years. After…

04/22/2019

A recent project we did with ILM.

03/23/2019

Previsualization (also known as previs, previz, pre-rendering) is the visualizing of complex scenes in a movie before filming.

When using motion control to achieve a shot, previsualization is an important reference tool for everyone on set.

Here are some examples of previsualization for films we have worked on.

Address

601 N Nash Street
El Segundo, CA
90245

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when General Lift International Inc. posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category