Jonathan Stone

Jonathan Stone serves as Head of Visual Effects for the Graduate and Undergraduate Programs at Florida State University’s College of Motion Picture Arts, bringing more than three decades of experience across film production, visual effects, executive leadership, and higher education.

Stone joined the College in 2012 and has held several leadership roles, including Assistant Dean and Head of Production for the undergraduate program. He later returned to Head of Visual Effects, bringing that broader leadership experience back to a field that has been central to his career for nearly three decades.

His film career began in 1992. After attending the UCLA Film Extension Program, he transitioned full-time into visual effects in 1998 and spent more than a decade as a VFX Producer with CafeFX and The Syndicate. His credits include Shutter Island, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, and The Aviator. He later produced visual effects at Pixomondo on Sucker Punch, The Green Hornet, and the Academy Award-winning Hugo, before serving as an Executive Producer with Digital Domain Media Group.

At the center of Stone’s approach to leadership and education is a simple belief: it’s about the people. He encourages students to work hard, remain humble, own their mistakes, embrace failure as part of learning, and become not only better filmmakers, but people others genuinely want to work with.

Outside FSU, Stone is the founder of Radiance Media Group, building strategic partnerships that connect clients with trusted visual effects artists and companies.

Before entering the film industry, Stone worked as a commercial fisherman out of Morro Bay, California—an experience that taught him early lessons about hard work, resilience, teamwork, and relying on the people around you.