Refusing to rest on the laurels strewn on them for their work on films and TV shows like The Incredible Hulk and Stargate: Atlantis, digital producers in Ontario and British Columbia have taken matters into their own hands, forming associations to represent their interests in Canada and abroad.

The Computer Animation Studios of Ontario and the Visual Effects Association of British Columbia are building communities among an eclectic group of artists and technicians while focusing attention on luring producers from L.A. to work-based opportunities in Canada.

Both associations are drawing on strong membership bases – CASO speaks for 26 companies with more than 1,000 employees, while VEA[BC] has 170 digital professionals who work for 27 production facilities and four in-house TV series in Vancouver.

CASO, which formed in 2005, has grown quickly from being a single-issue advocacy group to a more expansive marketing and information-based organization.

‘Initially, there was a mandate to get our voice at the table when issues regarding tax credits were being discussed by the industry at large,’ recalls CASO board member Frank Falcone, president and creative director at Toronto’s Guru Studios. ‘But we’ve evolved to the point where we represent digital screen arts and the people who make their living in those related fields.’

In tandem with media-consulting firm Nordicity, CASO generated a survey of its industry in Ontario, which was released last month at the Ottawa International Animation Festival. The survey estimates that visual effects studios employed 1,600 to 1,900 people in the province in 2007. It calculates that the number of computer animation minutes produced last year in Ontario was between 18,000 and 21,600, and the number of shots with VFX was between 7,400 and 8,900.

The Ontario Computer Animation and Special Effects tax credit, the continued health of which motivated the formation of CASO, remains an important tool for the industry. Over 80% of the companies surveyed by Nordicity use it. CASO estimates that on a $2-million VFX budget for a film or TV production, $400,000 would be handled through OCASE. B.C.’s Digital Animation or Visual Effects tax credit, meanwhile, offers 15% to offset labor costs, slightly less than Ontario’s 20%. Both help to bring Hollywood money to Canada.

Curiously, there is no branch of CASO in Quebec, where artists and employees of several FX companies have recently voiced their wishes for just such an association.

Nonetheless, CASO president Neil Williamson, president of Toronto’s Invisible Pictures, says that fighting for tax incentives ‘wasn’t why I got involved. It was more a matter that we have a strong, collaborative community with a rich history and a highly developed skill set and, in order to compete, we need to market ourselves as a community.’

Apart from the Nordicity survey, CASO has produced a show reel of animation and special effects by its members, worked on marketing initiatives with the Ontario Media Development Corporation, and successfully presented its community to a high-powered group of professionals from major L.A. studios.

Williamson continues: ‘Our goals are, one: international marketing and promotion. And two: the promotion of a collaborative community. This is a multi-vendor world now. If we can get organized, and go to L.A. as a group, that can give us strength. Large visual effects movies are very rarely run by one house. Two to five visual FX companies typically work on such productions. If we can promote a community that works efficiently together, then all the more reason to come here.’

In B.C., Stargate: Atlantis’ visual effects supervisor Mark Savela echoes Williamson’s words. Speaking of the award-winning show he works on, Savela says that ‘depending on how much work we have to do, we employ four or five vendors – Atmosphere [Visual Effects], Image Engine, CIS [Vancouver], Dark Digital and Spin West.’

Ivan Hayden (Supernatural), VEA[BC]’s president, is focused on maintaining an availabilities list for producers, artists and digital professionals to meet and work together.

He’s pleased that in less than a year, ‘we’re becoming the definitive hub for FX-related questions in B.C. Anyone who has a question about visual effects can come to us and we’re here to provide the answers. That applies to a big-budget feature film that’s trying to figure out whether there’s the infrastructure to handle their job, or to a kid coming out of school who wants an internship, or a professional who is looking for a new job.’

www.casont.ca

veabc.com