Centro in 'Magic' projects link-up
IN what could only be called 'Star Wars meets Chek Lap Kok,' Centro Digital Pictures, Hong Kong's own special effects production company, will be teaming up with the king of them all, Industrial Light + Magic (ILM), to see through a number of projects that will involve the highest in special visual effects.
ILM is, of course, responsible for the special effects in films such as the Star Wars series, Terminator 2, The Abyss, The Mask, Forrest Gump and a host of other films.
Centro Digital Pictures is well-known in Hong Kong for the computer-generated model of the new airport at Chek Lap Kok and other advertising gems that have been seen on television. Most recently, Centro worked on making the film The Umbrella Story.
Kevin Towsend, the executive producer of ILM, was in town recently to discuss the co-operation between the two special effects companies.
ILM had been interested in doing business in the Asia/Pacific region but had not yet decided how to make the approach.
In what turned out to be a fortuitous meeting, Mr Towsend found himself sitting next to an associate of John Chu, the director of Centro. She told Mr Towsend about the wonderful work of the 'ILM of Asia'.
Mr Towsend, of course, is always being told about the 'ILM of Somewhere' and tends to take such claims with a grain of salt. When he did get the chance to see the work of Centro, he quickly changed his mind.
'I saw the work and thought it was on par with the work we do,' he said. Mr Towsend is hopeful about the prospects of working with an Asian company. 'I think that there is a lot of untapped creative talent in the region.' At first, the co-operation will be mainly in the making of commercial films for television, something ILM has itself only recently got into. Mr Towsend said ILM has so far had no major problems dealing with various advertising agencies.
'Agencies use us best when they don't come to us with any preconceived notions. I try to take the creative handcuffs off people,' he said.
There is pressure for ILM to produce only the best and most original work. When they work together with an advertising agency, they work best when they are allowed as much freedom as possible.
Nevertheless, it is usually the agency that comes up with an advertising campaign and ILM only creates a short film or video for them.
Mr Towsend said he likes to leave the concepts to the agency and he hopes they will leave the execution of it to his people. When talking to the agency he says: 'It's your job to have the good idea; it's our job to show you how we can put it on film.' ILM, according to Mr Towsend, cannot afford to copy others. 'If you see something and you want a commercial just like it, you are not doing your clients a service,' he said, referring to the desire by some agencies to want to copy something they have already seen.
The atmosphere at ILM is still very much what it was in 1977 when they began to make some of the films they have now become famous for.
'It started out as a group of about 10 guys working in a garage and now we have more than 500 employees, but the feeling is still that of 10 guys in a garage,' Mr Towsend said.
