Australian visual effects companies are currently working on the biggest movies in the world. With the likes of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Terminator Salvation and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince on their slate, Ausfilm talked to Tony Clark, Director of Rising Sun Pictures (RSP) to find out what makes Australian companies so appealing for the blockbusters of the year.
What is unique about Australian visual effects companies that enables them to attract work of this magnitude?
Australian VFX companies have come from a culture of filmmaking - we enjoy making films. Australian filmmakers generally achieve a lot on screen with minimal resources and that culture flows through into the way we work in the visual effects area. There's also a willingness to collaborate that you don't find in other countries - the understanding that one company's win is not another's loss - but a gain for the entire industry and for the project.
Are there any new technological innovations that Rising Sun has created to work with these productions?
RSP has progressively created a complex and multipdisclipinary pipeline which allows the production of large scale digital effects - you'll start seeing this in our work on the upcoming Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince and Terminator Salvation. Through our sister company Rising Sun Research, we also created cineSync which streamlines reviews of visual media over long distances, and in partnership with Internode we built Cinenet, Australia's premier broadband network for the production industry to facilitate collaboration.
What does the Australian Government Post, Digital and Visual Effects (PDV) Incentive mean to your business?
The Australian Government's PDV Incentive encourages films to make substantial commitments of visual effects work up-front, instead of minor awards of packages that grow throughout the production. The up front certainty allows us to plan and execute systematically for the duration of the project rather than always being reactive as the project grows. It allows you to build your business in a sustainable way, instead of rushing to do everything at the last minute.
With Rising Sun working on some of the largest films in the world, how do you ensure that your work is evolving to meet modern standards?
RSP's primary edge is in the quality of its people at all levels - we invest through busy and lean times in the retention and development of a world-class team from the leadership through to junior roles, along with all supporting areas. Additionally, the growth in our technology platform continues to drive forward and enable these teams to execute with less overhead, meaning we can rapidly grow to tackle complex and high quality challenges and deliver globally competitive results.
Are there any new trends occurring in visual effects?
The partnering with offshore studios and the relentless tension between expectation and budget would be front of mind - there are still some great challenges out there to be tackles though which keeps life interesting!
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