Hits help boost Russian f/x boom
Tech opportunities promising for directors, producers
Konstantin Ernst, director general of top broadcaster Channel 1, confirms that the station will soon be opening its own vfx facility, to be led by Anton Nenashev, one of the industry's top TV design players who came from computer outfit Render Club.
The reason is clear to Ernst: undercapacity. "An outfit like Cinemateka (which oversaw this year's B.O. topper "Turkish Gambit") is working 24 hours a day. If they could work 48 hours a day, they would still be at full capacity," Ernst says.
Tech opportunities look promising for directors and producers alike. Helmers looking to create mass battle scenes along the lines of "War and Peace" or fill the square in front of St. Petersburg's Winter Palace with crowds have been able to achieve their ambitious plans: Djanik Faisiyev's "Gambit" for Channel 1 had huge conflict scenes and entire towns virtually replicated by Cinemateka.
Cinemateka founder Petr Khazizov, a former commercials director, says that since his facility's service starts well before post-production with editing capabilities, it will still take time to convince helmers to consult at the earliest planning stages. This was brought home last year by Vladimir Khotinenko's submarine drama "72 Meters," for Channel 1. Khotinenko initially wanted to leave digital imaging until filming was completed but came round to CG opportunities when he saw underwater submarine shots and digital seagulls viewed from a variety of angles.
"All the same, the result didn't reach the level we wanted, but his next work looks like it will be more than we want," one vfx specialist at Cinemateka jokes -- witnessed by Khotinenko's new TV series, "Death of the Empire," lavishly set during WWI and the 1917 Revolution, with everything from 3-D animated tanks to stunts too elaborate for humans to perform.
Producers are indeed waking up. "It allows us to make large-scale and visual films at an affordable rate. Proper advance planning of effects on the pre-production level is possible only with the appearance of such specialists," says Elena Brodskaya of production company Central Partnership.
Central Partnership's "Wolfhound," currently in post-production, is due to have 80% of the $10 million film digitally treated. That's being done by Vladimir Leschinsky's Dr. Picture (also out of Render Club), the current main competition to Cinemateka.
The change in a year is striking. Leschinsky supervised vfx for Timur Bekmambetov's hit "Night Watch" last year, but for that he coordinated everything through an unorthodox approach -- working with more than 20 smaller studios around Russia and Ukraine, and uniting results on a central server.
The field could also well prove the first in which Russia offers competitive international deals. For Michael Schlicht, topper at "Night Watch" and "Gambit" distrib Gemini Film, the potential is considerable. "I recommend players look into post-production opportunities, because of advances in computer software, and evaluate development. Russia has a tradition of software ingenuity."
And prices, he adds, are persuasive.
