The work at ABC was exciting, but the lure of computer-controlled cameras and computer-generated imagery proved irresistible and soon brought him to work at the legendary Robert Abel & Associates. Within six months McGovern was working with a group of three others for five months creating a fifty-five second sequence of computer animation for Walt Disney's TRON (1982). This represented his first taste of motion picture work and was his first of many screen credits. This movie was a peek into the future of both the world of computer animation in motion pictures and of his career. He dreamed of telling feature length stories completely with computer animation, but as he and his peers had realized after combining forces to complete 18 minutes of CG for TRON, both the technology and Hollywood were not ready yet.
Telling thirty- and sixty-second stories for television commercials with computer animation was already a reality and was in fact the main fare of Robert Abel & Associates. As the computer technology slowly changed, the imagery and complexity continued to increase. McGovern won five Clios, a Hugo, and a Mobius award pushing the technology with his co-workers at RA&A. One of those Clios was for a ground-breaking commercial for canned food called "Sexy Robot". With this commercial the public saw a computer-generated robotic woman for the first time, during the Super Bowl in 1985. This was a first for commercials and had yet to be done in film. It also was the beginning of McGovern's pursuit of human animation applied to computer-generated characters. "Sexy Robot" motivated the first of four trips to Monte Carlo to speak at Imagina. Other commercials that followed with human motion and awards were Benson & Hedges "Dreams" and Del Monte "Hawaiian Punch - Chain Reaction."
In 1987, McGovern (with a group of former employees of Cranston Csuri and RA&A) founded MetroLight Studios. There he worked for five years as a Visual Effects Supervisor working with directors James Cameron, David Lynch, and Paul Verhoeven. In 1989, he supervised the computer animated work for Carolco Picture's TOTAL RECALL. He won an Academy Award for his work on the Skeleton X-ray sequence in that film, which once again involved human motion and CG characters. The work was recognized for the fluid and realistic motion of the film's nine humans and one dog. McGovern was the first Visual Effects Supervisor with a CG or digital background to have his work recognized with an Academy Award.
In 1992 he founded Sony Pictures ImageWorks with seven others and functioned as both a Senior Visual Effects Supervisor as well as the Senior Vice President of Creative and Technical Affairs. With McGovern at the creative helm the company grew to employ over two hundred fifty people and worked on many successful feature films, including SPEED, The NET, WOLF, IN THE LINE OF FIRE, JAMES and the GIANT PEACH, and JOHNNY MNEMONIC. McGovern also personally supervised LAST ACTION HERO (1993), HIDEAWAY, VIRTUOSITY and MONEY TRAIN (all 1995), THE GHOST & THE DARKNESS (1996) and AS GOOD AS IT GETS (1997).
McGovern left Sony Pictures ImageWorks as his interests turned to developing screenplays, and pursued this both as a director in conjunction with writers as well as a writer / director. He has been approached to direct three feature films and is currently developing another two. In August he completed a nine-minute short based on one of these films. He also served as an independent Visual Effects Supervisor on both STIGMATA in 1998 and SUPERNOVA in 1999 for MGM. Then in 2000, he supervised two films in Europe. He shot DOWN in New York & Amsterdam and posted it in Germany and also shot EQUILIBRIUM in Berlin and posted it in LA for a 2002 release. His latest project was supervising the visual effects for Peter Hyams' SOUND OF THUNDER (2005).
Special Achievement Award for Visual Effects 1990: TOTAL RECALL (w. Rob Bottin, Eric Brevig & Alex Funke)
1 Special Achievement Award