Chinese film studio sees its future in 3-D
By Howard W. French | The New York Times
Posted December 5, 2004
SHENZHEN, China -- Seen from outside, there is nary a hint of the Magic Kingdom about this ambitious young animation studio nestled amid magnolias and palms on the campus of Shenzhen University.
A glimpse inside one specially secured building, accessible only with a smart ID card that one swipes through a reader to gain entry and move about inside, soon gives up the game.
The first clues are the Hollywood posters that hang from nearly every wall: Star Wars, Godzilla, The Lost World, The Matrix, End of Days.
Down one hallway, heavily air-conditioned computer rooms hum with the kind of processing power one might find in a high-tech laboratory. The giveaway is the army of artist-students slouched over their flat-screen monitors in one dimly lighted production room after another, drawing thousands of pictures for feature-length films.
Early next year, Global Digital Creations Holdings, a fledgling animation studio that has mostly labored in anonymity, is aiming for the big time with the worldwide release of its first 3-D feature film, Thru the Moebius Strip, a science-fiction adventure about a determined boy's time travel to another galaxy to rescue his stranded father.
France's most famous comics artist, Jean Giraud, whose nom de plume is Moebius, came up with the story, which draws on elements of Jack and the Beanstalk and the breadth of science-fiction history from Jules Verne to The Matrix, and joined with GDC to develop it.
Moebius, who broke new ground in comics art in the '70s with his magazine Métal Hurlant, the precursor to the American publication Heavy Metal, had worked on effects-heavy films like Alien, The Abyss and The Fifth Element.
Frank Foster, former vice president for multimedia at Sony Pictures Imageworks, is also on board as one of the producers, and Glenn Chaika, who was an effects animator on The Little Mermaid and directed Tom Thumb and Thumbelina, is the director.
Dazzling color, three-dimensional imagery and fast-paced drama were on display during a recent screening of several minutes of film at the studio here in what was a mere fishing village on the edge of Hong Kong as recently as 1979.
It has since grown into one of China's biggest, richest and most modern cities, the hottest hot spot of Chinese capitalism.
In manufacturing, this country already rules the textile world, the production of computer parts and countless other items that Americans all but take for granted.
Now, with the sophisticated images coming out of this studio, China seems to be serving notice to the Disneys and Pixars of the world that its day is arriving in the lucrative business of 3-D computer animation.
But GDC executives, who have invested heavily in computer animation, a business notoriously difficult to crack, say that no matter how the global market treats their first feature-length foray into 3-D computer animation, commercial success is not the most important thing.
"This film is more of a calling card for us," said Anthony Neoh, the Hong Kong-based chairman of the company. "Our goal, within five to10 years, is to be much less involved in the production side, and much more on the creative side, in order to really get this industry off the ground in China."
Low costs almost guarantee the Chinese a major impact. Thru the Moebius Strip, for example, required a mere $20 million to make, according to Ellen Xu, a studio manager, and much of that cost included the creation of a studio from scratch.
By comparison, she said, Pixar's films cost an average of $80 million to make, while Final Fantasy, which was a major disappointment at the box office, cost a reported $120 million.
In addition to China, Taiwan, South Korea and the Philippines have been ramping up animation production for several years, while many experts consider India to be the biggest recent comer in the field.
"I have no doubt that the technical skills in China are beginning to rival those of Hollywood or Europe," said John Lent, a professor of communications at Temple University, the editor of the International Journal of Comic Art and the author of Animation in Asia and the Pacific.
By Howard W. French | The New York Times
Posted December 5, 2004
SHENZHEN, China -- Seen from outside, there is nary a hint of the Magic Kingdom about this ambitious young animation studio nestled amid magnolias and palms on the campus of Shenzhen University.
A glimpse inside one specially secured building, accessible only with a smart ID card that one swipes through a reader to gain entry and move about inside, soon gives up the game.
The first clues are the Hollywood posters that hang from nearly every wall: Star Wars, Godzilla, The Lost World, The Matrix, End of Days.
Down one hallway, heavily air-conditioned computer rooms hum with the kind of processing power one might find in a high-tech laboratory. The giveaway is the army of artist-students slouched over their flat-screen monitors in one dimly lighted production room after another, drawing thousands of pictures for feature-length films.
Early next year, Global Digital Creations Holdings, a fledgling animation studio that has mostly labored in anonymity, is aiming for the big time with the worldwide release of its first 3-D feature film, Thru the Moebius Strip, a science-fiction adventure about a determined boy's time travel to another galaxy to rescue his stranded father.
France's most famous comics artist, Jean Giraud, whose nom de plume is Moebius, came up with the story, which draws on elements of Jack and the Beanstalk and the breadth of science-fiction history from Jules Verne to The Matrix, and joined with GDC to develop it.
Moebius, who broke new ground in comics art in the '70s with his magazine Métal Hurlant, the precursor to the American publication Heavy Metal, had worked on effects-heavy films like Alien, The Abyss and The Fifth Element.
Frank Foster, former vice president for multimedia at Sony Pictures Imageworks, is also on board as one of the producers, and Glenn Chaika, who was an effects animator on The Little Mermaid and directed Tom Thumb and Thumbelina, is the director.
Dazzling color, three-dimensional imagery and fast-paced drama were on display during a recent screening of several minutes of film at the studio here in what was a mere fishing village on the edge of Hong Kong as recently as 1979.
It has since grown into one of China's biggest, richest and most modern cities, the hottest hot spot of Chinese capitalism.
In manufacturing, this country already rules the textile world, the production of computer parts and countless other items that Americans all but take for granted.
Now, with the sophisticated images coming out of this studio, China seems to be serving notice to the Disneys and Pixars of the world that its day is arriving in the lucrative business of 3-D computer animation.
But GDC executives, who have invested heavily in computer animation, a business notoriously difficult to crack, say that no matter how the global market treats their first feature-length foray into 3-D computer animation, commercial success is not the most important thing.
"This film is more of a calling card for us," said Anthony Neoh, the Hong Kong-based chairman of the company. "Our goal, within five to10 years, is to be much less involved in the production side, and much more on the creative side, in order to really get this industry off the ground in China."
Low costs almost guarantee the Chinese a major impact. Thru the Moebius Strip, for example, required a mere $20 million to make, according to Ellen Xu, a studio manager, and much of that cost included the creation of a studio from scratch.
By comparison, she said, Pixar's films cost an average of $80 million to make, while Final Fantasy, which was a major disappointment at the box office, cost a reported $120 million.
In addition to China, Taiwan, South Korea and the Philippines have been ramping up animation production for several years, while many experts consider India to be the biggest recent comer in the field.
"I have no doubt that the technical skills in China are beginning to rival those of Hollywood or Europe," said John Lent, a professor of communications at Temple University, the editor of the International Journal of Comic Art and the author of Animation in Asia and the Pacific.