Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/47583
of artists, and it staffs up as needed for pro- jects."We see more permanent staff hires happening for us as business continues to move north," says Peristere. Fringe is shot in Vancouver and season two of the VFX-inten- sive Falling Skies is slated to move to the city. Film credits include Red Riding Hood, 30 Min- utes or Less and the upcoming Premium Rush. While Zoic has not officially launched any other sister facilities, it has close relationships with studios in Nepal and Korea. Zoic has invested in sending its supervisors out to these facilities and helping their partners un- derstand the company's pipeline and Shot- gun database system, which has proven to be highly successful.This close working rela- tionship has allowed Zoic to succeed in cre- ating a seamless working environment on both sides of the globe, Peristere says. "It's a global business with talent all over the world," he notes. "To stay competitive you have to develop business solutions for your clients that allow you to do your best creative work, and that includes options to use the global marketplace." LUCASFILM ANIMATION When the legendary George Lucas ex- pressed a desire to make episodic TV and develop an animated feature film he also began thinking about expanding the foot- print of Lucasfilm Animation overseas, specifically in Southeast Asia, and Lucasfilm Animation Singapore opened in 2005. After scouting the region the company chalked up a number of advantages to locat- ing in Singapore. "It was a English-speaking nation, and that was less intimidating for a 35-year-old mom-and-pop shop that hadn't strayed from Northern California," says Colum Slevin,VP of studio operations at Lu- casfilm Animation (http://lucasfilm.com/divi- sions/animation/) and Lucasfilm Animation Singapore."It also has a ridiculously strong infrastructure and strong IP protection, and there were great economic aspects to func- tioning there." Although global animation production was not new — "for 50 years overseas stu- dios have been shipping drawings and back- grounds back and forth," he notes — it soon became apparent that the Singapore facility could act as a resource for ILM's growing roster of feature film VFX and LucasArts' videogame slate, too."Global VFX was a rel- atively new concept," Slevin says. "VFX has been such a garage industry, with teams working in close proximity to each other."To take on ILM projects, the new facility would have to have both the talent and the physi- cal bandwidth required for the scope and scale of the productions. "By the end of that first year we decided that Lucasfilm Animation Singapore would be a microcosm of Lucasfilm California, op- erating as a peer of the California studio in the volume and quality of the work they were producing," Slevin explains. Lucasfilm Animation Singapore was built from the ground up and integrated with The Letterman Digital Arts Center in San Fran- cisco, where ILM and LucasArts are located, and Big Rock Ranch in Nicasio, where Lucas- film Animation is headquartered. One of the main challenges was staffing Singapore."There was a good but raw talent pool and no deep indigenous production in- dustry," says Slevin.The company's original plan to grow a talent pool by partnering with select local schools didn't work out. "They had tons of will and passion but no experi- ence or track record with media education," he says. Instead, Lucasfilm's head of training proposed incubating their own training and development program, dubbed the Jedi Mas- ters Program.The scheme, which combines classroom fundamentals on tools and artistic techniques with hands-on project experience and stateside mentors, has proved to be "tremendously successful," Slevin reports. "Many of the people who came onboard in continued on page 42 VES's Jeffrey A. Okun weighs in about VFX expansion POST: To what extent has the VES seen VFX and animation studios opening satellites internationally? JEFFREY OKUN:"We are seeing a trend not only from the majors but the minors as well.When small- to mid-sized companies like Pixel Magic and Zoic are chasing the tax incen- tives in Louisiana and Canada [respectively], it reveals only the tip of the iceberg.We're seeing companies from abroad, such as MPC, opening in Canada; ILM and others opening in Singapore; and Rhythm & Hues in Malaysia; and, of course, everyone is in India.This is now the norm,and it's growing.The industry is a global one without borders.The quality of work varies, but it is fast rising to be equal — for the most part — everywhere, in- cluding Russia, Chile, Spain and elsewhere." POST: How can VFX and animation studios afford not to con- sider expanding abroad these days? OKUN:"The studios really need to answer that question, but this is first and foremost a business.We supply the prod- uct that drives the tent-pole box office.There is a lot of money in making those [films], and it costs a lot of money to do VFX. Everyone is looking to maximize profits, and, in our cases, just make a profit, small or otherwise:No VFX company or artist is getting rich off this. If there is a talent pool, or a tal- ent pool can be created, somewhere where the labor costs are less or there are good financial incentives, you would have to be dense not to mine it for what it can bring to the table." POST: What are some of the pitfalls that facilities need to be aware of when working abroad? OKUN:"Besides the positives of incentives and tax breaks, you also need to take into account local tax laws, which are different if you open a [facility] than if you hire a local [facility]. I know that the migrant VFX worker faces radically different tax implications depending on where they work and for how long.On one show, several individuals had to leave the coun- try fast or go over the working day limit — which would have meant them paying taxes to that country and their home countries.That came as a surprise to them, and it's something that the VES is trying to inform our members about so they don't get caught off guard and without prior preparations, knowledge, representation and just general plans." POST: What has been the work experience of VES mem- bers lately? OKUN: "Our work force is extremely talented and, as such, is in demand around the world.We travel and work out- side of Los Angeles, in particular, and outside the US more often than not.We are creating a homogenized pool of talent that shares pipelines, abilities, software tweaks, creativity, do- ability, professionalism and great attitudes.We go where the work is and have learned to abide by that.Those who haven't, have left the industry. My guesstimate of those adapting versus those leaving is roughly 300:1." — Christine Bunish www.postmagazine.com September 2011 • Post 27 Zoic's Loni Peristere: the studio opened its Vancouver outpost back in 2007.