Bringing Mirage from Apex Legends to Life and More, Executive Producer of Emerging Technology Dan Phillips Stands at the Helm of Innovation

Portia Leigh
7 min readApr 21, 2021
Executive Producer of Emerging Technology Dan Phillips — Photographer unknown

Technology is changing at an incredible rate. In one instance a new app or VR program seems mind boggling and groundbreaking, only to be swiftly overshadowed by the emergence of more innovative tools and technologies.

It takes a unique mind to stay up to date on all of the latest innovations, and even more rare still, are those who are able to apply the newest technologies in unheard of ways and on a scale that will impact and influence the future use of technology as well as the development of new innovation.

Dan Phillips, the Executive Producer of Emerging Technology for the internationally lauded VFX company The Mill, is one of the industry’s ingenious leaders whose work has set new trends in the ways that brands use technology to influence and reach their target audience. The projects he comes up with, produces and spearheads range from massive interactive advertising and VR experiences, to blending augmented and mixed reality into brand offerings, and everything in between.

“The ways that audiences are interacting with brands and advertisers is changing faster than our behaviours and habits can keep up. The rise of streaming and digital content platforms is changing when and where you can capture audience views. In response, brands are looking for new ways of engaging with their consumers, and it’s all about interactivity and immersion,” explains Phillips. He adds, “Marketing to audiences in 2021 is still about storytelling, but now that takes place in different spaces, through experiential engagements, on interactive screens with consumers often placed as active participants within the brand narrative and giving them the ability to navigate their own, independent experience.”

From a business, branding and creative perspective, Dan Phillips is something of a messiah of new technology, as his work shows the world the possibilities of emerging technology and its potential for use in the spheres of both advertising and entertainment. It takes a lot for a brand to catch the public’s eye these days as there is so much vying for our attention, but this is where Dan Phillips’ shines.

As an Executive Producer of Emerging Technology at The Mill, he is the one behind the scenes who not only comes up with the strategies that help clients embrace new trends in technology, but he also creates and oversees the teams that put these technologies into action in the advertising campaigns and brand activations.

“It is amazing to work in a field where we are genuinely chasing firsts the majority of the time. I am constantly looking for new ways to foster engagement, new ways to harness and utilise technology, new executions on old platforms, and exploring old executions updated to new platforms. It is exciting, and my work allows me to embrace the unknown and help people navigate these spaces to utilise emerging technology in new and profound ways,” says Phillips.

Discussing what inspires and motivates his work, Dan Phillips explains, “My biggest passion is collaboration with the teams I lead, empowering people to do their best work and to care about how and why they do it.”

Among Phillips’ most recent projects is the “Oreo x Trolls: World Tour” augmented reality experience, which connected the popular cookie brand with the 2020 release of the “Trolls: World Tour” film from Universal Dreamworks, the cinematic launch trailer for EA’s blockbuster “Star Wars: Squadrons,” a riveting film for the new Sony Spatial Reality Display that allows viewers to experience the vast 3D capabilities of the innovative display, and the reveal of the beloved Apex Legends’ character Mirage live on stage during the 2019 Game Awards, which recently won a Gold Award at the Campaign Awards.

“Very few people attempt ‘live’ character performances, it is incredibly difficult to deliver at a quality high enough to completely engage and immerse an audience that is well-educated in digital characters. Dan had the vision, desire and courage to take on such a challenge,” says Cubic Motion’s Executive Producer David Barton.

“Dan was the driver behind recruiting all the relevant experts from across a global industry to deliver the show for Electronic Arts. It was Dan’s insight into emerging technologies that enabled this multidisciplinary group to be pulled together, there are very few people with this knowledge.”

Bringing the Apex Legends to Life at the 2019 Game Awards — Photography by Respawn Entertainment/Electronic Arts

Dan Phillips admits that bringing Mirage from EA/Respawn Entertainment’s hit game Apex Legends to life on stage during the Game Awards in December 2019 was among his most exciting projects to date. “I loved the Mirage project at the Game Awards because of the thrill of it being live and the need for all of the tech components coming together in one moment with no hitches. The planning was detailed and meticulous, and the execution was flawless,” admits Phillips. “We were almost too successful as some audience members felt that the live interaction could only have been achieved through recorded content.”

Through his work as Executive Producer at The Mill, Dan Phillips was one the key figures behind the scenes who helped conceive of the tech and creative approach that brought the popular CG character to life live on stage during The Game Awards. The tech that went into creating a virtual character that became the host of a live event and broadcast in real-time was extensive, and Phillips was there every step of the way.

“In collaboration with EA and Respawn, my creative technology studio The Mill developed a real-time rendered shooting technique in partnership with digital animation company Cubic Motion, using its Persona tech, and motion capture and virtual production studio Animatrik to bring Mirage to life, powered by Epic Games’ Unreal Engine,” explains Phillips.

“The Mill has worked with Apex Legends in the past, creating record-breaking trailers and cinematic scenes for the game, but this kind of live performance of a virtual character was the first of its kind.”

From finding the right talent in the technology and creative spheres, to managing the team as they worked through each phase of development, as well as keeping the clients at EA/Respawn Entertainment and The Game Awards themselves informed on the intricacies of the project’s unique tech developments, Dan Phillips was one of the lead masterminds behind the scenes who made Mirage a real thing.

Describing the experience, Dan Phillips says, “It was a unique challenge, taking elements of body and facial motion capture, game engine artistry, broadcast knowhow and performance capture and direction and wrapping them into one whole that had to be perfect on the night for live activation. There was no room for error and no second chance.”

With the gaming industry being known for leading incredible advancements in tech and being one that caters to audiences with high expectations, not to mention the fact that the reveal of Mirage on stage was viewed live by millions of people watching at home, there’s no doubt that there was a lot of pressure to deliver — and that is exactly what Dan Phillips and his team at The Mill did.

Prior to taking on his executive role at The Mill in 2019, Dan Phillips served as the Global Head of Innovation for the Academy Award winning visual effects and production company MPC, where he was similarly responsible for identifying, developing and implementing innovative practices that utilized technology. At MPC, Phillips created a new framework for the way MPC worked with their clients on a global scale to utilize innovative tech, specifically in the advertising sphere.

As someone who has remained at the helm of technological innovation for the past decade, it’s not surprising that Dan Phillips has been widely recognized for his accomplished work. Over the years, he has been honored with some of the industry’s highest accolades, including the Gold and Silver Creative Circle Awards in Innovation and New Tech, the Silver Shot Award for Best Use of Emerging Tech, the Bronze Shot Award in the Interactive Campaign category, the Silver British Arrow in the VR/360 category, and countless others.

Executive Producer Dan Phillips at the 2017 Engineering Awards — Photographer unknown

While the awards Dan Phillips has won over the years are an indication of his recognition in the industry, he doesn’t do his job for the praise, he does it for the love of technology and the love of the challenge of pushing the boundaries of creativity and technology.

“The creativity that goes into each project is incredible. The problem-solving and collaboration and artistry. I love it when clients come to us with challenges that they don’t know whether or not they can be done technologically, or where a creative idea within a campaign exists but there is no notion of how it can be executed,” he explains. “I like to help solve business and advertising challenges before clients know that they have those challenges to solve. In other words, I like to find new ways to harness the latest advances in technology so that companies can reach audiences in new and unexpected ways.”

As technology continues to evolve with no end in sight, it is crucial for brands and artists alike to work with people who are capable of incorporating new technological innovations into entertainment and advertising; and people like The Mill’s Executive Producer of Emerging Technology Dan Phillips are a shining example of how professionals can utilize technology to empower people and companies to achieve the unimaginable.

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Portia Leigh

Portia is a journalist & poet from Los Angeles. You can find her work through №3 Magazine, ElephantJournal.com, Gypsyrich.com, Stillstoked.com and more.