Rod M. Janusch

Rod M. Janusch is a practical visual effects technician and current employee at Kerner Optical, where he is working as a visual effects gaffter on 's. He previously worked at Industrial Light & Magic, from which Kerner Optical spawned.

After initially working with ILM on the films Always and Joe Versus the Volcano, Janusch freelanced as a rigging grip on such films as Mrs. Doubtfire, Nine Months, and Metro. He worked with electrician Tom Cloutier on these films; Janusch and Cloutier later became co-workers first at ILM and then at Kerner Optical, collaborating on many films together. In addition, Janusch worked for Sony Pictures Imageworks on the films Phenomenon (which featured Brent Spiner) and Patch Adams (featuring Bob Gunton and Harve Presnell).

Janusch was part of ILM's practical visual effects crew on the such films as Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, Galaxy Quest, Planet of the Apes (which featured Erick Avari, Freda Foh Shen, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, and David Warner), Pearl Harbor (also with Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, as well as Pat Healy, Glenn Morshower, Randy Oglesby, Leland Orser, Steve Rankin, Raphael Sbarge, and Michael Shamus Wiles), Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, Hulk (starring Eric Bana), Twisted (starring Ashley Judd), and the first two Pirates of the Caribbean films (both featuring Lee Arenberg). Following his work on the second Pirates movie, Janusch took work outside of ILM, including a stint as a best boy rigging gaffer on the 2006 film The Pursuit of Happyness. Fellow ILM employee Ian Chriss joined Janusch for this project.

After ILM's former physical production company began working independently as Kerner Optical, Janusch continued working with the newly-formed Kerner. His work for this company has thus far included Evan Almighty (which starred Jimmy Bennett), National Treasure: Book of Secrets (which featured Bruce Greenwood), and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (which featured Alan Dale and Pasha Lychnikoff). He was also a gaffer on the upcoming thriller Eagle Eye, which was executive produced by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, the writers and two of the executive producers of Star Trek.