Latest update December 15th, 2015 10:12 PM
China’s Film VFX Industry
Interviewed by Zhao Xiao
Edited by Chen Xue
Proofread by Hua Yang
A new era of blockbusters is coming and VFX is getting more important than ever. So we invite four professionals to share their experience on China’s film VFX industry: its past, present and future.
Liu Lu, leader of Production Department in Light Chaser Animation (once worked for PIXAR and RHYTHM & HUES); Niu Chuang, senior VFX artist in Oriental Dream Works (once served BASE FX and DOUBLE NEGATIVE, and worked for IN THE HEART OF THE SEA, THOR: THE DARK WORLD, TRANSCENDENCE, GODZILLA, PACIFIC RIM, OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN, LOOPER, etc. ); Luo Kun，a film producer in Post Production Office Group (once worked in Technicolor and BASE FX, and worked in UNTITLED TRANSFORMERS SEQUEL and TRUE DETECTIVE); Li Geng, synthesis department leader of BASE FX (once participated in the making of PACIFIC RIM, I AM NUMBER FOUR, SUPER 8, BOAR DWALK EMPIRE, BLACK SAILS, THE LAST SUPPER, THE FOUR, etc.).
- Characteristics and existing problems of domestic VFX companies
According to Luo Kun, China’s VFX industry has witnessed great developments driven by the booming film industry. However, it will still take some time for the Chinese film industry to accept VFX, especially to increase the involvement of VFX in a film. Currently the domestic talent flows fast, which in the long run can be a good thing. And the talents are getting more competent and more producers from abroad are willing to participate in Chinese projects, which will definitely benefit the exchanges and cooperation.
He also noted that the quoted prices of VFX vary tremendously. For those who didn’t pay attention to the preliminary arrangement at the beginning could easily find themselves in trouble. It could take much more time or money to edit their shootings than they thought. Sometimes the programs are also outsourced, and it is usually much simpler to communicate with the foreign film producers: Firstly, VFX is relatively mature overseas as it has a better mechanism; secondly, foreign film producers know what the professionals want and their division of labor is clear-cut. In general, good producers should be equipped with not only specialized knowledge but also many other skills including accounting, calculating and so on.
Niu Chuang on the other hand offered four features of Chines VFX companies.
First, Chinese companies are always willing to employ art directors with rich overseas experience. With their experience and knowledge, these companies can arrange all the processes before delivery and take control of the whole VFX process.
Second, working overtime is quite common in VFX companies. For companies with good system and management, things are a bit better. But for those that are not so well organized, working overtime happens quite frequently. Even within the same company, it is not the same case for artists and technical advisers of different production process. Generally speaking, employees who work for the last few links tend to work much longer.
Third, the information asymmetry is obvious between local and foreign artists. Many foreign websites are blocked in China so that it is not easy for VFX artists to search materials online and study. However, even if they can retrieve related information, only few of them could understand. Although there are more and more websites translating foreign information about VFX, their ability is still limited. In this way, the information and technology we get is always outdated.
Fourth, for most companies, the equipment is rather poor. Only those big companies are able to purchase high profile equipment, but it does make much sense for them as they lack artists with enough experience and abilities. On the contrary, companies with excellent artists always lack the money to purchase equipment. This is because the lack of quality awareness in market, and there are also some companies think that it is unnecessary to invest on the expensive equipment. But in fact, better equipment such as high profile machines and enough resources can double the work efficiency.
Meanwhile Li Geng considers the management of time as the most common problem in VFX industry. The time for the first few departments is always sufficient. But when it comes to the synthetic phase, time is also very limited and people have to work overtime. This is unavoidable even in some foreign companies including Hollywood. It is caused by many factors such as the duration of the project, changes in customers’ demands, degree of difficulty and so on. But good VFX companies can balance artists’ work and life through advanced management, and they can also make up the overtime by providing vacation with pay when the project is finished.
Another cause is the overdependence of synthetic work. Synthetic work has to solve all the problems because it is the last segment. But if the problems caused by the first few departments are left to the synthetic phase, their own standards will be lowered.
All these problems result in the profitability concerns for VFX artists when they start their own business. The VFX industry is highly competitive and not very profitable due to the low threshold, low demands of customers and a large number of competitors.
II．Cooperation experience with foreign VFX art directors
In Li Geng’s opinion, Chinese art directors should learn the control of the scenes and the ultimate pursuit of details from foreign peers. Foreign art directors know not only technology but also every segment of the filmmaking. And commonly they have learned systematically about the filmmaking theories that help them better understand the demands and feedbacks of the directors. And they can in turn provide some creative ideas and transfer their non-professional and perceptual feelings into technical words to improve efficiency.
Liu Lu also introduces some areas Chinese could learn from the foreign counterparts. First, he believes the combination of project management software and production software is the most important link to maintain the efficiency. But Chinese companies always fail to do that. The extra cost caused by the poor information and ill management can be very high. However, the situation is becoming much better. Second, we can make better use of the computer calculation. Machines lying idle at night could be used to do automatic inspections and testing apart from working in render farm.
III．Expectations of Chinese VFX movies’ development
How China’s VFX movies could survive and develop under such a competitive environment is an extremely urgent problem. Liu Lu believes domestic VFX industry will continue to develop rapidly. On the one hand, it can be much more competitive in the international market after improving its technology; on the other hand, domestic demands for VFX are growing rapidly. However the dilemma for VFX industry is that it still locates in the low-end of film industry and lacks its own intellectual property, which caused the fall of the US VFX industry and is a problem Chinese artists have to face with in the future. Of course the problem in China is not that serious due to our low labor cost and high rate of quantity and price.
However, Niu Chuang is much more optimistic about the future development of the Chines VFX industry. He thinks VFX is only part of the films and its development depends on the film industry. Although the Chinese film market is quite abnormal, it’s still developing rapidly. VFX can serve as a useful tool to the films, and sometimes it is even the shinning part of a film. So if more and more new directors start to respect, understand and appreciate VFX, the two industries will be able to help each other.
It is now a golden time for VFX industry’s development. Throughout the world VFX history, VFX always grows along with the development of film and technology. Although there are still some structural problems, VFX still gains the producers’ and audience’ favor as it can expand the space and scope of films. VFX will be an important segment in the film industry.
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