With a broad range of experience in commercial post production, Ashley Hydrick says her role at Arsenal FX all comes down to shared philosophies. "In launching Arsenal FX with Mark Leiss, I am lucky enough to be paired up with not only an extremely talented artist, but one of the nicest guys in town," she says. "We agree that it's extremely important to surround yourself with good people who are supportive. That energy extends to our entire staff, who feel that they have a voice and their contributions count, which in turn, enables the creative process to thrive without restriction."

Prior to the launch of Arsenal FX in October 2008, Hydrick was a staff producer at Beast Editorial. "I enjoyed working with Beast, but this was a chance for me to help build a company from the ground up, and that was very exciting to me," she explains. Hydrick's time at Beast was part of a five-year tenure in commercial editorial, which included successful runs with Jigsaw and Chrome.

Visual Effects have also figured prominently into Hydrick's work history. As the lead scheduler at Digital Magic, Hydrick worked on commercials, as well as network TV programming such as "Star Trek" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". A South Carolina native, Hydrick graduated from Georgia State University with a degree in commercial music and recording. She'd planned to become an audio engineer, and spent two years at Crawford Communications, a huge Atlanta-based conglomerate of production, post, audio, original music, vfx, graphics, satellite services and duplication. Regular clients included Coca-Cola and Turner/CNN/Cartoon Network. Moving up within the company, Hydrick became Evening Operations Manager for the entire company, and was soon hired away by Artisan Pictureworks, where she rounded out her experience in Operations and post.

Based in Santa Monica, California, Hydrick is able to indulge her love of motorcycles, horseback riding, wine tasting, and hiking.

"I've been drawn to this industry by the energy, creative atmosphere, and fun people," Hydrick concludes. "And I love that this business lives and breathes by the mantra 'Where there's a will, there's a way.' My work invovles a lot of creative problem-solving and I thrive on that."

-March 2009