By Clare Gerber
From crafting rabbit-sized props to launching stunt actors through walls, Ella McInnes has built a career out of creative destruction.
As a senior special effects technician, she’s worked on blockbusters including Mad Max: Furiosa, Thor: Love and Thunder, Peter Rabbit, and Mortal Kombat.
Ella’s journey didn’t follow the conventional route. She began her career as a graphic designer before discovering a love for puppetry with Sydney Inner West-based dinosaur touring company, Erth.
It was there that her passion for building and performing took root, eventually leading her to the niche world of special effects (SFX) – specifically, special effects breakaways.
“Special effects often gets confused with visual effects (VFX),” McInnes explained. “But visual effects do computer-generated stuff like CGI. Special effects do the practical effects.”
Within that, special effects breakaways is a specialised area focused on designing stunt-safe items that look real but are engineered to fall apart.
“We make things that break,” she said. “So if there’s a fight scene and they tumble on to a table, for example, you want that table to look like marble, but it’s actually foam so no one gets hurt.”
Think smashing beer bottles, collapsing furniture, or actors crashing through windows – all in a day’s work.
On her first film job, Ella was the only woman in a 40-person workshop.
“But growing up as a tomboy, I quite like that environment,” she said.
She also acknowledges the physical demands of the job: “It’s a really physical job and you need to be strong.”
Despite the rise of CGI, McInnes believes there will always be a place for practical effects.
“It just looks better,” she said simply.
The workdays are long – often 10-12 hours a day stretching over several months – but Ella wouldn’t have it any other way.
“The other day I threw myself through a brick wall – foam bricks,” she laughed. “I was nervous running at it, but the joy when it breaks … it’s hilarious.
“It’s just having fun all day with your friends, making stuff. What better job can I ask for than that?”
Featured image: Hard at work on dino feet, Erth Studios. Photo: Ella McInnes
