From Friday 28th November, Dublin will host its second Irish Visual Effects + Animation Summit at The Science Gallery on Pearse St, check out Eoghan Cunneen's blog post about the event here.
The event takes place from November 28 - 30 and the line-up includes speakers who have worked on Interstellar and Paddington.
Tickets can be bought here, with special discounts for large groups and students.
One of the organisers, Eoghan Cunneen, gives us the lowdown on this year's event.
Eoghan Cunneen: From Friday 28th November, Dublin will host its second Irish VFX + Animation Summit at The Science Gallery on Pearse St. At the Summit, some 200 students and professionals will get an opportunity to see how the digital content of this year’s biggest films, feature animation and television series was created and to meet and engage with those who created it. The Irish VFX + Animation Summit follows on the tails of the recent release of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences', Oscars, long list of candidates for Best Animated Feature and Best Animated Short where you might be surprised to find two works of animation that were created and produced in Ireland.
At the Summit, some 200 students and professionals will get an opportunity to see how the digital content of this year’s biggest films, feature animation and television series was created and to meet and engage with those who created it. The Irish VFX + Animation Summit follows on the tails of the recent release of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences', Oscars, long list of candidates for Best Animated Feature and Best Animated Short where you might be surprised to find two works of animation that were created and produced in Ireland.
Tomm Moore and Cartoon Saloon enjoyed an incredible week at the recent London Film Festival after their screening of feature Song of the Sea. The film now sits handsomely next to the huge-budget Disney’s Big Hero 6, The Lego Movie and Boxtrolls in the Best Animated Feature category. To put that in perspective, The Lego Movie has grossed close to half a billion dollars worldwide since its release, while Big Hero 6, competing with Interstellar on its opening weekend, has pulled in almost $150 million in just over two weeks of its release (which we’ll screen at the the Irish VFX + Animation Summit this year). Song of the Sea is amongst very good company, but Moore and Cartoon Saloon are not unfamiliar to this level of success. Their previous feature, The Secret of Kells, has given them plenty of practise for this year’s red carpet. Meanwhile in the Best Animated Short category, Alan Holly’s Coda, makes the long list. This is repeat of the achievement of Eoin Duffy's The Missing Scarf last year.
The contribution of Irish production and talent to such acclaimed work is not just apparent at domestic level – it now has wide-spread, international recognition. In 2010, Tallaght native Richie Baneham won a Best Visual Effects Oscar and Best Special Visual Effects BAFTA for his work as the Animation Supervisor on Avatar while he was based in Wellington, New Zealand. Last year, Kilkenny-born and LA-based David O’Reilly was responsible for the design and direction of the ‘Alien Child’ computer character in Spike Jonze’s brilliant Her. To add to that success, in October he picked up a writing credit in this season's South Park.
Continuing on a similar awards trail, Brown Bag Films just spent the weekend in London at the BAFTA Children’s Awards as DocMcStuffins and Bing were nominated in separate categories. If you have young children, London’s iconic toy store, Hamley’s on Regent Street, will have sections of its second floor that will seem very familiar to you. This has been turned into an emporium of Octonauts, Henry Hugglemonster with Doc McStuffins and Bing merchandise. Even the quintessentially British Peter Rabbit has been reborn for the BBC in Smithfield, Dublin 7.
We must also mention the success of Dun Laoghaire-educated Gary Shore’s Dracula: Untold release in early October starring Luke Evans and Sarah Gadon. This has taken over $208 million in the global box office. That’s three times what it cost to produce and will certainly offer him another opportunity to get behind the camera with Universal Pictures again.
If you were previously surprised to see Irish productions in the Oscar long lists, you shouldn’t be. We’re actually pretty good at this film and animation stuff. We’re also pretty good at running the organisations that create this content. Last year at the Irish VFX + Animation Summit we enjoyed the company of Sir William Sargent, a Dubliner who is also CEO of Framestore, recipients of both an Oscar and BAFTA for their extensive VFX work on Gravity in 2014. This year we’ll welcome Darren O’Kelly, Managing Director of The Mill, who recently topped the prestigious Televisual Facilities 50, an award for the best commercials post-production house, for the sixth year running.
Visual effects and animation are under a larger umbrella of film and television production in Ireland. The recently improved Section 481 tax incentive now positions Ireland in a more competitive position to compete for productions that we have previously lost to Northern Ireland and Great Britain. Not that Ireland has been struggling for business. Octagon Films’ Vikings has just wrapped principle photography on series three at Ashford Studios, while Showtime's Penny Dreadful currently occupies Ardmore Studios which is shooting its second season. Both Ashford and Ardmore have publicly stated that they are already at capacity and need to expand their stage real estate. What use is enticing more productions to Ireland if there isn’t any stage space to host them? Further and more high-profile use was made of Irish landscapes earlier this summer when JJ Abrams’ much anticipated Star Wars Episode VII shot and re-shot on Skellig Michael, Co Kerry. This isn’t the first time that Star Wars material was linked to Ireland, the Jedi Archives of Star Wars Episode II were based upon Trinity College Dublin’s Long Room. Perhaps with further investment in our studios we might see a lot more film production in a galaxy very, very close by.
So with all that, what does the Irish VFX + Animation Summit want to achieve? Essentially we think the VFX and animation industries in Ireland should be championed. We think that by increasing the conversation between studios and students we can build a healthier and stronger industry that benefits all parties. When students understand what’s expected of them, then the studios will have access to better talent. Organisations like Animation Ireland and the newly formed VFX Association of Ireland are key to sustaining this engagement and the Irish VFX + Animation Summit wants to contribute. We need to promote our own work but we also need support from our media and IFTA, which still doesn’t recognise VFX and feature animated work at their annual awards.
Finally, it's important to remember that third level animation courses aren't the only route into these industries. We work amongst graduates of animation, fine art and theatre but also mathematics, chemistry, physics and computer science. Eugenie Von Tunzelmann, Interstellar computer graphics supervisor for Double Negative, who’s a guest this year, is a graduate of Oxford’s School of Engineering. The diversity of people’s backgrounds is what makes the environment such a fascinating place to work. If we can the message out there and let more people know that this work is being done in Ireland, then maybe more students will consider this as a legitimate and rewarding career path. To do that, we need to show-off that work and remember that when people talk about film in Ireland, it isn’t just about the Wicklow mountains as a back drop, but there’s now a whole new range of creative contributions to be made and new stories to be told. The Irish VFX and Animation Summit wants to be a part of that evolution.
The Irish VFX + Animation Summit is generously supported by Screen Training Ireland, The Animation Skillnet and Enterprise Ireland.
For further information visit:
Animation Ireland: http://www.animationireland.com/
VFX Ireland: http://www.vfxai.com/
