Digital age new era for film

ROBERT KITCHIN/Dominion Post

KEYNOTE ADDRESS: Hollywood special effects guru Jeff Okun at the Animfx 2009 conference.

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Hollywood is fast becoming irrelevant to movie making in a digital age, renowned visual effects director Jeffrey Okun says.

The keynote speaker at the Animfx 2009 digital effects conference in Wellington, Mr Okun said big movie studios were only interested in money and were full of executives whose only passion was keeping their jobs.

"They don't even go to movies."

In a new age of film, television and game production, the final product could end up being digital from beginning to end.

Technology allowed productions to be tailored for every different market in the world, and constantly updated to adjust to audience needs.

Mr Okun said the coming digital showcase feature Avatar, a $300 million project by director James Cameron and largely shot and produced in Wellington, would be released in 256 different versions in December.

"That's thanks to digital."

He encouraged New Zealand's digital arts community to "circumvent" the traditional home of the silver screen industry.

The capabilities available to programme and game makers through technology meant Hollywood was no longer a necessary gateway.

"You just circumvent that, you can do it all on a laptop."

New Zealand's talent, which he had worked with during shooting for The Last Samurai and in 39 previous visits from his home in the United States, was fresh enough to carve their own independent niche.

"You haven't been working in the Hollywood trench for the past 100 years. That will make it a lot easier."

Wellington-based Academy Award winning Weta boss Richard Taylor opened the conference talking about some of his own seemingly odd decisions to move into children's television after the blockbuster success of The Lord of the Rings.

But he said with the advances made in digital technology there were other areas that needed quality, thoughtful programming.

Weta's television series Jane and the Dragon, about a medieval girl who wants to be a knight, had struck a chord with young girls in third world countries and encouraged them to challenge expectations and "rise above their station", Mr Taylor said.

Jos Ruffell, business development manager at Wellington-based computer game maker Sidhe, said the fourth annual Animfx conference had its best line up of international experts yet.

Workshops for digital arts and visual effects students gave them an opportunity to see some of the leading edge talent in the industry.

"They are getting their work reviewed by the director of Kung Fu Panda and the like; it doesn't get any better than that."