November « 2011 « I Design Your Eyes

Zoic Studios riding VFX boom

Posted by Dang in I Design Your Eyes on November 7, 2011

“Interviews with principals at Zoic Studios, a visual effects studio in Gastown. Principals Patrick Mooney, and Barbara Dawson talk about the boom in VFX work that’s under way in British Columbia.”

Watch Video from The Vancouver Sun:
Zoic Studios Ride VFX Boom

Share/Save

Once Upon a Time, Sun, Vancouver, VFX-heavy feature films, Zoic Studios

No Comments

Zoic sees Vancouver as ideal satellite hub for booming VFX sector

Posted by Dang in I Design Your Eyes on November 7, 2011

Tax, talent and time zone.

A competitive advantage in all three has allowed British Columbia to mature into a North America hub for film and television production during the past 40 years.

Now, thanks to technology, Hollywood North is evolving into a world leader in the industry’s hottest sector: visual effects.

Visual effects, or VFX, aren’t exclusive to science fiction and fantasy; even conventional television dramas rely on them as a cost-effective alternative to set building and location shooting, and they’re also used to enhance special effects and physical stunts such as a car crash.

Eric Roth, a California-based spokesman for the VFX artists community, describes visual effects as the entertainment industry’s “new superstar.”

“When people plunk down $12 for their movie tickets, they’re looking to see great effects, whether in 2D, 3D, in Imax or as a download. From Hollywood to Bollywood, visual effects is now the key to the entertainment industry’s bottom line,” Roth, executive director of the Visual Effects Society, said in an email.

Hollywood Reporter recently estimated that VFX now accounts for more than 2,200 jobs in Vancouver — with hundreds more coming in the months ahead.

The list of VFX and digital animation companies that have set up shop here, or plan to open in the near future, reads like a who’s who of the entertainment industry, not including homegrown pioneers like Image Engine and Rainmaker Entertainment.

Your cost of shooting in a green room — essentially, an empty room with green walls where VFX artists superimpose a background after the actors have been filmed in it — could be one-fifth the expense of a physical set.

Los Angeles-based Zoic Studios was one of the first arrivals, adding a Vancouver operation in 2005 in the Sun Tower on Pender. They moved last December, over the course of a weekend amid a hectic production deadline, to expanded facilities in Gastown.