“Operation Protect The Heroes”: Producer Austin Sepulveda Teams With Voltage Pictures To Produce Face Shields

As the nation continues to see the shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), producer Austin Sepulveda (Looks That Kill) and Voltage Pictures have taken action with “Operation Protect the Heroes”, which is an initiative to produce 3D printed face shields for underserved local hospitals and essential workers.

 

The initiative has received support from Susan Downey and Robert Downey Jr.’s Random Act Funding, which is serving as the operation’s anchor funder and Kent Seton of the Edward Charles Foundation, which is serving as the project’s fiscal sponsor.

 

“I saw the great work that American High was doing with 3D printed face shields in upstate New York and knew that with their help this was something that we could mimic in Los Angeles,” said Sepulveda. “What I was not prepared for was the overwhelming outpouring of support that would follow. We have a dedicated volunteer core led by Russ Taylor and Paul Barney and have turned Brian Bohner’s Fat Eye Studios into an assembly hub for the face shields. The partnership with Voltage Pictures has been incredible from day one and I am excited to continue to supply PPE to those in need.”

 

 “I read about Jeremy Garelick and American High doing masks in NY so Jonathan (Jonathan Deckter, Voltage President and COO) and I teamed with Austin to do this in LA,” said Nicolas Chartier CEO of Voltage Pictures.  “Cedars Sinai offices are in our building and we see nurses and doctors hard at work every day. We really appreciate the support we’ve received so far and encourage as many people as much as they can to help us scale the production even further. Also, hospitals need blood, please consider donating your blood, it’s free!”

 

“Operation Protect the Heroes” has teamed with Asya Nur Celik and Burak Celik’s 3D Collaborative and the Southern California Institute of Architecture to assemble a collection of 75 at-home 3D printers to print urgently needed face shields. 4500 face shields have been printed to date. The team has also engaged R&D Design and Associates out of New York to assist in scaling the production to more than 2000 shields per week and is also working with an LA-based production facility Fat Eye Studios to centralize operations.

 

The face shields utilize a design created by 3D Printing Design Group Budmen, which has been certified by the National Institute of Health and is the Office of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s approved design.

 

The initiative is also seeking further donations in order to produce face shields to underserved local hospitals including the USC Keck School line of hospitals.