Back in 2001 a man was walking down a London street when he became aware of another man. For a moment he felt apprehensive of being mugged. The moment passed, and he safely reached his destination: Peter Jackson's London editing suite. In his pocket, on an iPod, he had couriering the latest 5GB of Lord of the Rings footage sent over the internet from New Zealand to a London office with fibre broadband - a mile from Jackson's address.
Today many movies and TV shows will list several VFX houses in their credits.