The Operators’ creative team were talking recently about ways to promote and showcase their work in a way that set them apart from the traditional show reel approach. Ben Le Tourneau, Director of Motion, came up with an idea.

Instead of doing what everyone else was doing – compiling a montage of client samples – he wanted to make a short film that captured the essence of their unique creative style while showcasing their client work. The extraordinary result – Grey Days.

Grey Days is a ‘morning in the life’ story about a man just trying to get to work. It chronicles the annoying hassles we’ve all faced – from his car not starting, crashing his bike into a passerby on the sidewalk, discovering he has no cash for a cab ride after he’s already hailed it.

And all along his journey, he’s peppered with advertisements and promos wherever he looks; from his cell phone and iPad, to the billboards, magazines and newspapers that all come to life with moving imagery.

As you watch Grey Days, you realize the creative sophistication required to bring such imagery to life – and the challenges of some very complex VFX.

“What started off as a little idea – which was to create somewhat of a gorilla film around the streets of London – soon evolved into quite an epic project. We brought on board photographer/director Stuart McClymont to help us evolve this idea into a reality. And that’s how it all started!

Because if its increasing complexity, Grey Days ended up having to be very well organized. There were a ton of locations we wanted to film on the main character’s journey, and as this was a strictly self promotion piece, our budget was uber tight. We were adamant that we wanted to shoot this with a documentary feel so there was very little effort in prepping the locations for post production help.

“We tried a few different camera solutions, however we finally decided on the Canon 5D as it could deliver a high quality HD image, while still being lightweight and mobile enough to strap to the actors head.  We used Final Cut Pro 7 for the edit; Color for the grading; mocha Pro for Planar Tracking, roto, inserting, warping and removal and stabilizing; Adobe After Effects for all the VFX compositing; Adobe Photoshop for retouching and prepping the artwork and PFHoe for 3Dtracking.  All up it cost us three staff months to create the piece,” explains Ben Le Tourneau.

There were many different areas in some shots actually tracked. Sometimes some shots had four or five different tracking areas – all-in-all, around 70 areas/shots.

“This project could have never been achievable without mocha pro. Since we could prep each area within a shot, tracking such loose camera work, was an amazing challenge. We encountered everything possible that should have caused the tracker to fail, but it made it through the more challenging shots. Also the latest Shape export and tracking export works beautifully, which made the workflow between mocha pro and After Effects seamless,” explains Le Tourneau.

The Operator crew didn’t just use mocha for the tracker, though there were a ton of shots that needed to be stabilised,  rotoscoped and cleaned up – all of which was tackled a lot quicker in mocha Pro. “Even the ability to render out some of the insertions was a true gem; take for example ‘ether’,” says Ben. “Also, where we found serious lens distortion, the lens collaboration tool really helped bed the artwork in beautifully without having to manually animate/warp the artwork each time.”

Most shots would have failed using conventional tracking techniques, however tracking the newspapers and magazines were very challenging. “But what we found was, as long as you track from the right frame and animate and nurse the spline/tracking areas, a close and create a natural effect is achieved. ‘Adjust track’ was also very helpful,” he explains.

With purse strings pulling ever tighter, and the ever expanding delivery platform opportunities like web, D,O,O,H iPads, The Operator crew wanted to show that high-end VFX work can be done without the hero suite costs. “Our ability to do VFX within a reasonable budget is something I feel really strongly about,” says Ben. “As desktops keep getting stronger, more opportunities are now materialising that used to be totally unobtainable.”

The Operators VFX house is finding that in the commercial field, photography is evolving from a static print-based medium to incorporate motion and become animated stills. It is with the convergence of these disciplines that they are focusing on the ability to facilitate still-to-motion campaigns, or ‘Image Motion.’  “For every still brief we work on, we can employ static and moving components to create a complimentary motion campaign for digital billboards, viral advertising and ISO. This Image Motion product pushes the boundaries of the digital medium and broadens the scope of the photographic/static output.”

Watch Grey Days on motion.tv

Credits:

A Film by:
The Operators

Directed by:
Stuart McClymont

Prosthetics:
Bill Turpin

Sound:
Tom Lowe

Music by:
Madness ‘Grey Days’

Cast:
Adam Morris, Sally Deane, Kai Bastard, Ben Le Tourneau, Scott Freeman, James O’Neill, Joey Grange

Under the direction of Creative Director/VFX Supervisor John Bair and VFX Producer Vivian Connolly, the Phosphene visual-effects team completed more than 80 complex shots for “Young Adult,” a dark new comedy-drama, starring Academy-Award® winning actress Charlize Theron (“Monster,” “The Road”), Golden Globe nominee Patrick Wilson (“Angels in America,”  “Morning Glory”) and Patton Oswalt (“Ratatouille,” “The King of Queens”).

The film reunites the Academy Award® nominated director of “Juno” Jason Reitman (“Up in the Air,” “Thank You for Smoking”) and Academy Award® winning screenwriter Diablo Cody. Distributed worldwide by Paramount Pictures for Mandate Pictures, “Young Adult” began a limited release December 9, 2011 and a wide release December 16.

Independent design and visual-effects company Phosphene is the only VFX vendor on this film.  “The most complex VFX sequence in the film involves Patton Oswalt’s leg. In an intimate scene with Charlize Theron, his severely deformed limb, the result of a brutal high school beating, is exposed. Because of the sensitive nature of the reveal, the leg absolutely had to feel 100% real.” explained Phosphene’s Vivian Connolly.

During production, John Bair and Phosphene’s Lead Digital Artist Aaron Raff were on set to place tracking markers on Patton’s leg.  Raff explained the process: “We began design tests early on to determine the look of the leg. Extensive medical research allowed us to make sure the deformity was as medically accurate as possible. In post, we stabilized and isolated Patton’s leg movement and began applying medically appropriate scarring and texture to the skin. Using warping tools, we redefined the outline of the leg to properly portray the loss of muscle and bone density, maintaining the disfigured shape from every angle as both the actor and the hand held camera moved freely throughout the scene. Because the shot was close-up and intimate, the leg had to move realistically as Patton rolled around on the bed. Since we shrunk the limb quite a bit, we also had to recreate everything that was under his leg as he moved on the bed’s surface including ruffled blankets and other items.”

“Young Adult’s” Post-Production Supervisor Luca Borghese said: “The effect that Phosphene created is a classic example of an unsung hero. The work is so good that the audience immediately accepts Matt’s (Patton Oswalt) injury as real, rather than an exceptional piece of digital artistry.”

One very lengthy sequence shot in a sports bar, a pivotal scene between the Charlize Theron and Patrick Wilson characters, needed to feel absolutely true.  The scene is massive, a technical gorilla, requiring a great deal of green screen replacement. Green screens outside the panoramic windows and a half dozen television monitors needed to be composited and required heavy rotoscoping and tracking.

“We decided the best approach was to use the Flame for this scene because it was over 50 shots that had to be turned around quite quickly and continuity was of the utmost importance.  Under the circumstances, being able to pull quick keys and have quick reviews for continuity checks made the process much easier,” explained Phosphene’s John Bair.

In yet another sequence, Theron drives her car hard into a parking spot and has a comical fender bender which required a lot of cleanup and rig removal to make it feel authentic.

Of their collaboration with the Mercury Productions  team Vivian Connolly stated:  “The film provided us with an amazing opportunity to work directly with Jason Reitman and his editor Dana Glauberman who  had collaborated on  “Thank You For Smoking,” “Juno” and “Up in the Air.”  They both had a remarkably clear vision about what they wanted, which meant we could really jump right into getting the execution of their vision just right. Jason was very involved with the visual effects, and always focused on staying with the realism and truth of the scene, which applied to VFX as much as to any other aspect of the film.”

Glauberman added: “From the very first VFX that Vivian and her crew from Phosphene presented to us on “young Adult,” I was beyond impressed.  Not only is their attention to detail and quick turnaround amazing, but their professionalism and understanding of what the director is looking for makes you feel like you’re in good hands.”

The Phosphene creative team, led by Bair and Connolly, included Lead Digital Artist Aaron Raff; Digital Compositors Scott Winston and Connie Conrad; Flame Artist Peter Amante; and Compositing Intern Andrew Yates.

Representing Mercury Productions LLC were Director Jason Reitman, Writer Diablo Cody, Editor Dana Glauberman and Post- Production Supervisor Luca Borghese.

Phosphene utilized Nuke X, Adobe After Effects CS5, Autodesk® Flame® and PCs running Windows 7 64-bit in the execution of this project.

Deluxe (New York, NY) was responsible for the digital intermediate and lab processing.

ABOUT “YOUNG ADULT”

Academy Award® winner Charlize Theron plays Mavis Gary, a writer of teen literature who returns to her small hometown to reclaim her happily married high school sweetheart (Patrick Wilson). When returning home proves more difficult than she thought, Mavis forms an unusual bond with a former classmate (Patton Oswalt) who hasn’t quite gotten over high school, either.

“Young Adult” reunites Jason Reitman, Academy Award® nominated director of “Juno,” and Academy Award® winning screenwriter, Diablo Cody.    

ABOUT PHOSPHENE

Phosphene is an independent design and visual effects house led by founders/co-owners John Bair and Vivian Connolly who have collaborated on projects since 2005. In 2010, the duo launched Phosphene and immediately hit the ground running with visual effects and title design for Barry Levinson’s “You Don’t Know Jack” (HBO), Phillip Noyce’s  “Salt,” George Nolfi’s “The Adjustment Bureau,” Jodie Foster’s “The Beaver,” Brad Anderson’s “Vanishing on 7th Street”  and, most recently, Brett Ratner’s “Tower Heist.”

Phosphene has just completed work on Stephen Daldry’s “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” with Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock. The company is currently in production on “Europa,” a contemporary space adventure developed by Wayfare Entertainment and Misher Films, with acclaimed Ecuadorian director Sebastian Cordero at the helm, and a cast that includes “District 9′s” Sharlto Copley, Michael Nyquist (“Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”), Anamaria Marinca (“4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”) and Asian superstar Daniel Wu.

For the company’s television clients, in addition to their Emmy-nominated work for Todd Haynes’ HBO miniseries “Mildred Pierce,” Phosphene is busy on season two of CBS’s “Blue Bloods,” ABC’s “Pan Am,” and are currently at work on  season six of NBC’s “30 Rock.” In addition, Phosphene has teamed with HBO to create all visual effects for seasons one and two, and is about to begin work on season three of “Treme.”

Happycamper, the Scandinavian, multi-functional, design driven Motion Design duo was awarded the China Mobile project in August of 2011 and we were very excited to get the opportunity to work with a Chinese agency and client. The idea was to produce three spots, a 60 second and two 30 second variations, for their Wireless City-services.

In mid-November they finished everything and the spots aired on December 1st in China.

Their vision was to create a unique world of happiness and warmth by mixing physical miniatures with CG-characters.

They worked out the concept for all the characters with help from talented artist Vaidas Bagonas. The final models were done by Milford.

The displays play a vital part in all the spots. In order to make them blend in with the very analogue feeling, the happycampers gave them a clay-ish, handmade look.

The Animatic

The Shoot

“In September we went to Bristol, UK for a 5-day shoot at the Bottle Yard. We filmed all the background plates including houses, trees and all other inanimate stuff. It was awesome to see the talented artists of Codsteaks work on creating all the small props. Almost like being a little kid again.

It was a truly terrific crew to work with and the catering made us never wanting to leave!” said Andrés Rosas Hott Founder/Director/Creative Director

Watch the China Mobile spot on motion.tv

CREDITS

HAPPYCAMPER

Director: Andrés Rosas Hott
Director: Robert Rosén

STINK

Executive Producer: Daniel Bergmann
Executive Producer: Desmond Loh
Producer: Giles Johnson
Production Assistant: Ni Ding

OGILVY BEIJING

Associate Creative Director: Yun-Sheng Tu
Group Account Director: Li Yu
Associate Creative Director: Gang Ye
Art Director: Jiafeng Wang
Producer: Jing Li

CODSTEAKS

Art Director: Matt Sanders
Project Manager: Renae Cronin
Managing Director: Sue Lipscombe
Art Dir./H.O.C: Paul Drake
Prop/First Aider: Louise Vergette
DoP: Fred Reed
1st Assistant Director: Toby Sherborne
Music & Music publisher: Sharon Chin from Two AM

MILFORD FILM & ANIMATION

Executive Producer: Johan Gustafsson
Production Manager: Martin Widö
VFX Supervisor: John Roxenhed
Model Supervisor: Jonas Moberg
Light Supervisor: Robert Krupa
Animation Lead Artist: Tim Van Hussen
Lighting Lead Artist: Hannes Drossel

Animators:

Antonio Deiana
Martin Joas
Jonas Forsman
Martin Haglund
Christofer Brandtieng
Onni Pohl

Modeling/Texturing:

Daniel Axelsson
Daniel Bystedt
Gustav Tell
Kristian Mårtensson
Kenneth Nyman

Lighting:

Daniel Holmgren
Stefan Lagerstam
Simon Rainerson
Damir Filipovic

Rigging:

Gabriel Pettersson
Serena Tripepi

Compositing:

Victor Sanchez
Ilia Negrescul
Jonathan Harris
Marcus Krupa
Fredrik Höglin
Samuel Schulthess

Match Moving:

Sebastian Ekman
Ilia Negrescul

Broadcast design & animation studio motion504 recently teamed with NBC-owned network, Chiller, to create a comic-book-influenced promo for the upcoming movie, “Remains,” based on the graphic novel of the same name by Steven Niles. The movie premieres on Chiller on December 16th.

Niles’ “Remains,” Chiller’s first original film, journeys to Reno, Nevada where a horrific blast has turned the locals into the ravenous undead. A group of remaining humans takes refuge in a vacant casino and fights a losing battle against the undead, who grow steadily stronger, smarter and more aggressive by the minute.

“We came to motion504 with a very rough edit and asked them to design a visual treatment for the trailer,” says Brian Everett, Chiller Design Director. “The goal was to connect to the story’s (graphic novel) origins, while at the same time capturing all the visceral action the film has to offer. On a rather tight timeline, they created an animation toolkit that’s slick, textural, and really helps elevate the footage. Being that ‘Remains’ is Chiller’s first original movie, it’s been great to collaborate with the team at motion504 and develop a piece of communication that’s both scary and stunning.”

To stay true to the movie interpretation, motion504 Creative Directors Scott Wenner and Amy Schmitt hand-sketched detailed frames from the film itself. As they were illustrating, motion504President / Creative Director Andrew Reynolds began creating animatics and tests, building the sequence simultaneously to accommodate the short timeline. After refining the edit, the three then animated the scenes, giving life to the piece by adding movement and distortions to the environments and zombie characters.

To stay true to the movie interpretation, motion504 Creative Directors Scott Wenner and Amy Schmitt hand-sketched detailed frames from the film itself. As they were illustrating, motion504President / Creative Director Andrew Reynolds began creating animatics and tests, building the sequence simultaneously to accommodate the short timeline. After refining the edit, the three then animated the scenes, giving life to the piece by adding movement and distortions to the environments and zombie characters.

With the short turnaround time, motion504′s hands-on approach worked well, with Reynolds posing as a zombie for a number of the shots, and Schmitt and Wenner using their own hands for reference to create elements.

Dozens of pencil sketches were scanned and colored in Photoshop. Animation was executed in After Effects, using a wide variety of techniques to give life to each scene.

Watch Remains on motion.tv.

Credits
Project Title: “Remains” promo

Client: Chiller
VP Creative Director, Chiller/Syfy: James Spence
Creative Director, Chiller/Syfy: Shea Pepper
Design Director, Chiller/Syfy: Brian Everett
Writer/Producer/Editor, Chiller/Syfy: Dan Frome
Project Manager, Chiller/Syfy: Bill Ikin

Broadcast Design & Animation Company: motion504/Minneapolis, MN
Creative Directors: Andrew Reynolds & Scott Wenner
Illustrator: Scott Wenner
Animators: Andrew Reynolds, Amy Schmitt & Scott Wenner
Executive Producer: Eric Mueller

Tools: Photoshop (initial coloring), After Effects (animation)

About motion504

motion504 is a broadcast design, effects and animation studio specializing in the art of motion. Featuring the talent of senior-level creative directors, designers and animators, the company works for TV, film, music and advertising clients.

With its open studio space, motion504 is built upon the idea of collaboration through communication, critique and contribution amongst its artists and clients.

Alexandre Bartholo: We Do Video – Tokyo
Erik van der Wilden: nailgun* – NYC
Jamie Monberg: Hornall Anderson – Seattle
Jessie Nagel: Hype – Los Angeles
Joel Pilger: impossible – Denver
Karin Fong: Imaginary Forces – NYC
Mark Tapio Kines: Cassava Films – Los Angeles
Michael Waldron: nailgun* – NYC
Neville Spiteri: Wemo Media – Los Angeles
Patrick Yonally: Impact Entertainment – Los Angeles
William Lebeda: Picture Mill – Los Angeles
The motion advisory board plays an active role in guiding the content and direction of our annual event – motion.

Have you had the pleasure of meeting Brian Bowman yet?

Whenever we meet someone, they’re always introduced by their title. Brian Bowman is the Creative Director at Nice Shoes. Kinda leaves you wanting more, doesn’t it?

So, I’m just going to dwell on one word in Brian’s title. Creative.

Brian Bowman is indeed creative. No questions asked. He is passionate about his work.

So what happens if you take a creative person like Brian, and put him in an environment that nurtures creativity – like the New York-based studio, Nice Shoes? Verses: Found.

Verses: Found
Manhattan. 7 am on a Sunday in September, 2009. Sitting on a park bench in front of a Korean deli, locked out of my building. It was a cool, beautiful morning typical of early September, which made it hard for me to be grumpy about my predicament. The sun was coming up later and lower, an indication of autumn’s approach. A piece of paper blew up against my foot. I picked it up. It was a poem, with no name or signature.

The more I read, the more I wondered about the poem’s anonymous author. Who wrote this and why? I began to conceive of a film that would speculate on the author’s intentions and words. There was an intrinsic tension to the abstract verses; one line implied gratitude while the next deferred it. Visually, what would that look like, what could that be?

Nice Shoes recently produced a series of stereoscopic 3D poetry-based shorts they call “Verses”. Poetry mixed with visual effects is an unusual combination. But that was part of the challenge. The artist – Brian Bowman in this case, took a short poem and interpreted it visually. He based his creation on a poem that he literally found scrawled on a piece of paper that caught on his shoe as he was walking down a street in New York City. Artist unknown.

This is elaine montoya – chief imagination office at the motion group. Come meet Brian Bowman – along with many of the top creative minds in the motion picture, broadcast, and design industries.

Join Nice Shoes Creative Director Brian Bowman as he describes making the film Found (part of the Verses series) in a discussion about life, happenstance and the cathartic process of filmmaking. Tuesday, October 11, 2011 at motion.

view Brian’s reel on motion.tv »

// feed your brain //

Q. Why should I be at motion?

// THE RIGHT BRAIN //
A 3-minute Short…Everyday
Elastic Spaces
Exploring the Intersection of Advertainment and Storyselling
Failure is Not an Option
Fresh Out of the Starting Gate
Change with a Changing Industry
Getting There: Real Life RPG
HAX Double Vision
If These Walls Could Talk
If You’re Good at Something, Stop Doing It
Industry Timeline: Return of the Swiss Army Knife
Kinda Makes You Think…
Look From a New Angle, Change What You See
Mashup: Transforming Movie Scores
Now THAT’s Creative!
Removing My Cat’s Dingleberry: Notable Achievements
Standing Out from the Crowd
Taking Care of Business. And You.
The Lost Art of Original Music in Advertising
Walking Through Walls
When Time is of the Essence
Verses: Found

\\ THE LEFT BRAIN \\
100m2 in the Palm of Your Hand
3D Broadcast Graphics: After Effects + Cinema 4D
3D Broadcast Graphics: From Sketch to Screen with Cinema 4D
Audio Post-Production Basics for Video Professionals
Beyond Keyframes: // LAB
Creating 3D Titles – Yesterday
Creating Custom Looks…in 20 Minutes!
Creating the TRON Legacy Title Animation Effect
Destruction City Trailer: Adding Effects that Sizzle
Forward into the Past: History in Motion
FOX’s Fringe: 3D Text Effect
HDSLR Editing with Adobe CS5.5 Production Premium
Lean, Mean, After Effects Machine
Lean, Mean, Premiere Machine
Learning C4D: Creative Camera Movement // LAB
Open Workflows with Adobe CS5.5 Production Premium
Planar Tracking for Graphics & Effects
Professional Video: The Adobe Roadmap
Putting it all Together: My Strong Suite
Roto Brush and Warp Stabilizer: Shortcuts to Higher Production Values
Stereo Conversion for Film & Broadcast
Sweetening Your Audio with Adobe Audition
The Edge
The Graphics Factory
The RED Workflow Acceleration Secret: Now You Know
The Reel World: Final Cut Pro to Premiere Pro // LAB
Title Design from Concept to Screen: On Little or No Budget!
Track the Impossible: Using mocha and CameraTracker in After Effects
Upending Identity Crisis
Using Effects in Final Cut Pro X
Using Motion to Create Effects for Final Cut Pro X
Who’d a Thunk It!?!
Vector Art is your BFF: Illustrator and After Effects
What’s new in Adobe CS5.5 Production Premium
You’ve got Flash in my After Effects // LAB

A. To feed my brain.

Membership in ASIFA is open to professional animators, people who work for animation companies and fans who pay an annual fee.

Because DreamWorks Animation buys ASIFA memberships for all its employees, it provides the studio with unfairly large portion of the membership – and as an extension – votes.

In this year’s Awards, DreamWorks Animation’s “How to Train Your Dragon” won 10 awards, while Pixar’s “Toy Story 3,” which went on to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, was completely shut out.

A similar situation occurred two years ago when DreamWorks’ “Kung Fu Panda” won same 10 awards – and Pixar’s acclaimed “Wall-E” went home empty-handed.

Coincidence? Or weighting votes?

ASIFA made changes to the process last year that tightened voting qualifications, but it refused to establish a multi-studio advisory board, leading to Disney/Pixar’s withdrawal.

All mounted a huge outcry in the industry. In the aftermath, ASIFA members made the decision to replace longtime president Antran Manoogian with the well-liked veteran animation executive Frank Gladstone.

Gladstone was quoted as saying he looked forward to “making some significant changes to the status quo.”

Those changes included revising the voting structure of the Annies, and “establishing a representative voice for every animation studio.”

Since last February’s Awards, significant voting-procedure and organizational changes have been made. And because of this, though Disney/Pixar has made no formal announcement, a source with knowledge of the ASIFA process says the studio will once again take part in the organization and its awards show.

The 2012 Annie Awards ceremony will take place at UCLA’s Royce Hall on February 4, 2012. Awards will be handed out in 28 categories, including the new categories of Outstanding Editorial in an Animated Feature and Outstanding Editorial in an Animated Television Production.

A “Members Favorite” award has also been established, and is the only award for which all ASIFA members can vote.

Animated films released in the calendar year 2011 are eligible. Entries must be submitted by Friday, October 14. For more information on submitting an award, visit The Annie Awards online.

A true industry veteran, Chase has shot it all. Known as much for his commercial work with comedy, dialogue, sports, celebrities and automotive action as he is for branded content and helming concept-based productions on a massive scale or shooting VFX-heavy projects, the directorʼs lauded talent and experience are appreciated by major agencies and brands worldwide.
 

“Iʼm tremendously excited about having Steve join us,” said R+H Executive Producer Paul Babb. “His directorial style and sense of imagery have always put him at the top of my and many other EPʼs lists Iʼm sure. I canʼt wait to let him loose to play with all the tools that are available to him at R+H.”
The director is equally enthused about his new production roost.
 

“Joining Paul Babb and R+H is a natural fit for me. The scale and polish of their work and the commitment to doing it right is something I’ve always strived for,” said Chase. “They do what I do, and I do what they do. What took me so long? It’s destiny, and I’m honored to have them in my corner.”
Chase comes to Rhythm + Hues from Curious Pictures, and from Canada originally.
 

About Rhythm + Hues
 
R+H is a complete digital studio, with live action and animation directors, vfx, design and post-production services. We draw upon the talent and technical firepower of one of the worldʼs premier effects and animation facilities, Rhythm &Hues Studios, and are dedicated to the highest quality of commercial production and outstanding client support.
Recent commercial projects include Activision, Budweiser, Carrabbaʼs, Chevrolet, Coca-Cola, Crayola, Electronic Arts, Hartford, Kelloggʼs, Mattel, Microsoft X-Box, Nascar, Nasonex, Quaker State, Tide, and Ubisoft. Film Division credits include an Oscar® for Achievement in Visual Effects for Golden Compass in 2008. Recently produced projects include HOP, X-Men: First Class, Mr. Popperʼs Penguins, and Red Riding Hood. Films currently in production include Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, Life of Pi, Everybody Loves Whales, Moneyball, and Snow White and the Huntsman.
 

For more information contact Chad Norton R+H Creative Services Manager.

“Mark has a lot of experience as a producer, he knows the market well, and he is well respected in the Australian film community and internationally,” said Rising Sun Pictures CEO Michael Taylor. “We are very happy to have him help us with this new venture.”
Rising Sun Pictures is seeking to partner with productions companies, both in Australia and internationally, on film projects with a strong visual effects component. It will also develop its own original film projects. “This is a great opportunity for Australian and international producers to partner with a world-class visual effects producer and use its experience to assist in developing, financing and producing films,” Patterson said. Patterson added that he expects the new venture to benefit from the Australian government’s recently expanded tax incentives for film productions.
 

Patterson most recently served as producer on The Dragon Pearl, an Australian/Chinese co-production set for release later this year. Rising Sun Pictures produced visual effects for the film. His other credits include the films Innocence (Paul Cox, director), Human Touch (Paul Cox, director). He served as executive producer for the television documentary The Remarkable Mr. Kaye and produced the feature documentary Kalaupapa Heaven.
Additionally, Patterson formerly served as Head of Development for the South Australian Film Corporation and FilmSouth.
 

About Rising Sun Pictures
Rising Sun Pictures is a passionate team of producers, artists and technicians, known for providing complex digital visual effects and cg character work to feature film clients all around the world. With a capacity to scale to over 750 shots per year, Rising Sun has recently worked on films such as Green Lantern, Terminator Salvation, the Harry Potter series [The Goblet of Fire, The Order of the Phoenix, The Half-Blood Prince, The Deathly Hallows], X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Watchmen.
 

For more information, visit www.rsp.com.au