Rhythm & Hues Doing Superman F/X: MOD EDIT: (R&H will be ONE of the many vendors)

[Nathan]

one of many studios it sounds like.

Sony has the majority of the effects, but smaller chunks are being farmed out to a bunch of places.

here's a little blurb about The Orphanage getting some as well...
http://www.bluetights.net/news.php?id=36

[Manwich]

You know i have noticed this many times....that new movies have many different VFX companies doing the visuals?

I think i must of noticed it during the specials on I,Robot DVD Digital Domain, Weta Digital and another company (sorry ive forgotten) were responsible for many VFX shots. even though DD gets the final VFX credits.

I realise that if a lot of VFX shots need to be done it can be done in less time with multiple companies doing each shot but doesn't that possibly allow for a discontinuity between stuff??

I always assume that 1 company takes on the responsibility of all VFX shots on the movie, maybe its me being a naive, but if the movie takes an award for VFX who gets the credits??

any thoughts?

Manwich

[MartinGFoster]

I always assume that 1 company takes on the responsibility of all VFX shots on the movie, maybe its me being a naive, but if the movie takes an award for VFX who gets the credits??
Manwich

It is very rare for one company to do all of the visual effects for live action films. Fully animated films are different because the schedule is longer.

It's beneficial to farm VFX out to multiple companies for several reasons. You can get it done quicker and most films for short schedules and fixed screening dates. Different VFX companies have different strengths and specialities. A studio can even get houses to bid against eachother even after the official award is done. It's gives the client / studio more leverage.

On SuperMan Returns, I believe that Sony got the character stuff. R&H got the water effects / environments. Maybe the Orphanage or somebody else will get the hard-surface digital sets / mattes / environments. It's a huge movie.

Usually there is no overlap between the work of different studios to keep things cleaner.

[worker_bee]

On SuperMan Returns, I believe that Sony got the character stuff. R&H got the water effects / environments. Maybe the Orphanage or somebody else will get the hard-surface digital sets / mattes / environments. It's a huge movie.
.


You mean with all the work Sony did on the Spiderman movies in terms of the NYC stuff, they got no environments on Superman?

[MartinGFoster]

You mean with all the work Sony did on the Spiderman movies in terms of the NYC stuff, they got no environments on Superman?

to be honest, I really don't know exactly Sony is doing beyond the SuperMan stunt double. They probably bid on every part of the show but don't necessarily get it. I think they were bidding on the water stuff but they didn't get it. There may be multiple packages of environments on the show. I'm not sure. It's not my department.

However, they are really, really, really busy with their own films AND live-action vfx so they may just not have the staff to do every show that comes their way. Sony is not hurting for projects, in fact many folks are moving from the Bay area to work there. ILM is actually hurting for work at the moment, from what I hear.

[Manwich]

So who gets the final credits for special effects? or do you have to break it down every time?

what if there is an effects award given for superman is it broken down by scene?

"and now accepting the award for best water effects and environments in superman"?

who gets the final overall credits for the work?

thanx

Manwich

[patric]

About ILM... I heard they are letting people go, and that the company might be sold.. just a rumor but still interesting if it turns out to be true. Any one else care to comment on this?

Patric

[MartinGFoster]

So who gets the final credits for special effects? or do you have to break it down every time?

what if there is an effects award given for superman is it broken down by scene?

"and now accepting the award for best water effects and environments in superman"?

who gets the final overall credits for the work?

Manwich

All the companies who work on the movie get credits. The number of individuals that get credited within a company can vary. So then the FX facility has to decide who is more deserving if they can only put 5 names out of 20 people who worked on it, for example.

Generally the end credits don't go into exactly what each FX facility did. Sometimes they do, though, but not in a lot of detail.

If a film gets a VFX oscar, I think all the VFX companies involved get a statue. Anybody know for sure?

Patric - I haven't heard anything about ILM being sold. I just heard they are moving from Marin County to a brand new campus in San Francisco's Presidio and shrinking in size.

[BillSpradlin]

The game studio and ILM are moving into the same facilities at the Presidio in San Fran. From what I hear it's really nice, compared to what ILM used to be in =)

[MarkusM]

There's usually, almost always, a VFX Supervisor, sometimes a VFX producer as well, from the production company that takes on an overall responsibility for all the VFX on the show. That person is the clear receiver of the award nomination. Then there are also VFX Sups from each facility and I believe they are nominated as well based on the amount of effects they contributed to the show, but also at the discreation of the production company.

That's my read on the matter at least.

Markus

[malducin]

If a film gets a VFX oscar, I think all the VFX companies involved get a statue. Anybody know for sure?

As far as I understand the Academy rules, no they only give 4 statues (one of the reason they don't wantto "devalue" the Oscar). Hence on a lot of shows only a handful of the studios (with the biggest contributions) get a statue. Show that have more than 4 studios they have to pick and choose who nominated.

About ILM... I heard they are letting people go, and that the company might be sold.. just a rumor but still interesting if it turns out to be true. Any one else care to comment on this?

No ILM is not being sold although rumors were somewhat persistent. Someone from Lucasfilm recently commented on that (might have been the Wired article, or maybe the San Francisco Chronicle one).

They did let people go to reduce their size but that mostly hapenned many months ago.

I just heard they are moving from Marin County to a brand new campus in San Francisco's Presidio and shrinking in size.

I think they started moving during inter but the big move is this Summer.

ILM is actually hurting for work at the moment, from what I hear.

Maybe although there are working on a lot more projects than most people know ;-).

[Joe_H]

ILM is actually hurting for work at the moment, from what I hear.

LOL! Yeah, they're really hurting. They're moving into a beautiful, state of the art facility. They just finished Episode III. They're currently working on War of the Worlds, The Island, Shark Boy & Lava Girl, Jarhead, Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire, and Antartica. They're about to start work on The Poseidon Adventure, and Pirates of the Carribean 2 & 3. If that's hurting for work, I'm sure they're loving every minute of it. With all due respect, it looks like they've got considerably more work than the company you're working for.

Looks like ILM is going as strong as ever. They worked on 12-13 films in 2005, including a number of very big films.

[ThE_JacO]

last time I heard about it PLF was also doing some shots (not just previz work) for superman, so is RSP, Animal Logic, Orphanage and I think another shop as well but not too sure, so I'm not gonna mention it.

the most quoted facility is Sony, but while they maybe will total the relative majority of the shots I don't think they get anywhere close to cover even just 1/3 of the shot count.

this is the case with most of the latest big movies with very, very few exceptions.

even flicks like the LOTR trilogy, that tend to be thought as worked on by just ONE shop, saw some workload split over other shops (although weta unarguably did the large majority of the work by far).

[nickepstein]

i think ilm are actually doing very well for projects at the momemt - downsizing isnt always a bad thing, especially if you can maintain volume of work. most of the london shops have recently, or are in the process of at least slightly downsizing - probably temporarily until the governmant sorts out exactly what they want to do with their tax breaks...

arent ilm also doing the upcoming transformers movie? i know posiedon adventure is a definite...

[malducin]

this is the case with most of the latest big movies with very, very few exceptions.

Well you have both cases. Some movies have one facility be the lead and do the bulk of the FX while farming out a few things to others, which was the case for, say the Spider-Mn movies and the LOTR movies. Even on films where you don't have one doing the bulk you can usually find one that could be considered the lead facility. Then you have those projects like The Core of Sky Captain where basically all the work is split up to a bunch of facilities where no one has a lead.

arent ilm also doing the upcoming transformers movie? i know posiedon adventure is a definite...

My understanding is that it hasn't been officially awarded yet but it's very likely they'll get it. As far as what they are doing also Rent and Herbie are definite. They might be even be working on a big project towards the end of this year but I haven't been able to confirm.

[gundog]

Then you have those projects like The Core of Sky Captain where basically all the work is split up to a bunch of facilities where no one has a lead.


the lead facility was WoT Inc.

[malducin]

the lead facility was WoT Inc.

Well that was an inhouse team, but yes I should have picked a better example (like LXG) or clarified that. Still from the vendors that were contracted not pne could be considered the lead IMHO.

[MartinGFoster]

OK, ILM isn't hurting for work. Many people seem to have said that isn't the case. It's a strategic down-sizing paradigm shift.

Usually, when people get layed off, the reason is that they don't have enough work. However, it may also be because of a planned down-sizing. This seems to be the direction of ILM. That is, to be about the same size as Sony, R&H, DD, et al.

R&H is often quiet between big projects too. It's pretty normal to have quiet spells lasting many weeks or months. We fluctuate between 300 and 700 employees, largely due to freelance / show hires. Last summer was dead but now we are pretty busy and the rest of 2005 and all 2006 looks to be fully booked at our building's capacity.

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