F . A . Q .

Who are you?

My name is Christopher Gwynne

What have you done before?

I've been in Los Angeles since 1991 working in feature film fx production as well as bouncing over to the motion graphics and commercial side of the CG and post production industry with a brief stint in episodic animated TV series work. I've also been asked by Alias to teach their software and 3d production techniques at both SGI's campus and at the Alias Wavefront school in Santa Monica, California.

Where have you worked?

I've been a designer/animator at Imaginary Forces, Buck, Stardust, Digital Kitchen, Logan, and Prologue Films. I've also run as a CG Supervisor the CG departments for Image Works (prior to Sony Imageworks), Curious Pictures (NYC) and Click 3x (LA). In addition I have raised capital with business partners and started two companies, the first DirectNet was the first ISP and digital content creator in Los Angeles launched at the same time as Earthlink (but with vastly less funding) and the second, Light Intertainment which we grew to over 30 employees and serviced accounts for Disney, MGM, Paramount (Star Trek), and Universal.

Why did you leave your own company Light Intertainment?

It was still early in the evolution of the interactive and Internet content business models and I had been wanting to take the company back towards my core interests and skills: Hollywood feature visual effects. But when Matt and Trey from SouthPark asked me to figure out how to get their show on the air and calculate the production matrix and CG workflow I jumped at the chance and spent the next year building the factory and putting show on air.

What happened next?

Good question, I loved working there but I'm a builder not a janitor, after I had built the workflow, hired and trained the artists and it was up and running smoothly on it's own, I was offered a directing opportunity in NY and the chance to produce/supervise another animated TV series for HBO. I did that for another year and a half but missed working amongst the ground breaking projects and artists in Los Angeles so I returned once again.

What are Matt and Trey like?

They really are that funny, there should be a movie just about working with them. Ask me some other time about their band.

Why did you start a company in Asia?

Well after returning to LA and supervising at various top level FX studios I would often manage or put together the inhouse A-team and be tasked to find a decent but cost effective outsource solution. Frequently I would have to send tests to Asian studios to evaluate them as outsourcing partners. Inevitably the results were disappointing and we would continue the work in house. But after working on Matrix several Playstation spots and Hellboy back to back I decided to take a much needed vacation and visit South East Asia. I had grown up in both Tokyo and Central America (Guatemala, Venezuela) so being in both an Asian and 3rd world environment were not foreign to me. But on that last vacation to Thailand I saw on TV the production quality that was beginning to become available and knew first hand of the talent pool that I could draw upon so we bid on a Unilever spot and cut the vacation short when it awarded.

Once again I built a team to handle that kind of work and set about to learn the intricacies of managing talent in Asia. Many producers in the region were emphatic that the Hollywood skills and resources I could bring would be much desired should we set up shop in Bangkok but more interestingly, many of the producers and my supervisor friends back in LA expressed an immediate interest in what we could now offer them as well.

Why you?

Well I had experience in launching two companies before, I had alot of experience handling Hollywood clients and understood the quality and deadline issues and as there was a global search for cost effective post-production solutions I knew my growing up in Tokyo and Central America would give me a leg up in starting a new venture in South East Asia.

Why Thailand?

I scouted around in India and China as well as North East and farther southeast Asia and kept finding limitations everywhere I went. I hate to use stereotypes but I have found that there is often a cultural disconnect with client service or an education/creative thinking issue in many of the countries I have visited in the region. Granted these are really blanket statements but in the end I also discovered that with India's fast growing middle class, the labor rates were no longer as cost effective and with China it was a real burden to find and train quality talent and in addition the growth in Shanghai and Beijing as well as the oncoming Olympics was forcing labor rates up too. But when I was visiting Thailand I saw a culture that was proud of how it had never been conquered by the imperial growth of the 1800's western empires and had internalized this pride into a creative expression of its national strengths, a stark contrast to all the neighboring countries that had foreign cultures force fed to them as in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Japan and India. Thailand nurtured it's creative acumen as apparent in the strength of it's fashion and craft industries as well as emerging design fields. I noticed that alot of Northeast Asia (where most of the Asia's financed are) was coming to Bangkok to produce commercials or do post on their features and as such a significant post-production industry was growing. That meant that there was a decent talent pool available.

But I have heard that Thailand perhaps does not have the same work ethic as China?

This is a difficult question to address as there are actually alot of complex issues to explore within this meme. Historically South East Asians have a reputation of being relaxed and less goal oriented (but very team and family oriented) and ofcourse no one can rival the productive almost robotic workforce of China, but on the other hand I think in China rote memorization and repetition but not thinking outside the box is entrenched. Great if you need to build the same thing over and over, but less than ideal for making a new and unique one-off.

On the other hand Thailand has had a much longer exposure to the West and global business practices. I think you can clearly see the difference between some graduating classes coming out of the universities in the last 5 years. It's been a quick transition where five years ago English skills were decent but writing skills marginal to now where a recent grad will easily be fluent in the latest trends, techniques and most importantly global business expectations. As a funny anecdote, I had a recent young Thai ask me in the LA hipster slang "What's crack-a-lackin'? " and had to pick up my jaw in amusement.

I grew up in Tokyo in the late seventies and early eighties right as Japan was transitioning from a nation that copied products to one that had grown to understand the market enough to actually start innovating. I see Thailand as being at that same crossroads now and is no longer just blindly ingesting western products like Harry Potter and Hip Hop but beginning to ascend to the level of innovating and creating unique products of their own. If I look outside my window, there are 27 different construction cranes across a 180 degree landscape, this place is growing fast but yet keeping its unique identity without becoming a bland facsimile of the west.

So what can you do for us?

We have assembled a team to handle all the 2d you would want to outsource and I've personally built and trained my own team to handle overflow work for high-level 3d work as well.

What about quality or deadlines?

See below for some of the work we've done, these were of the highest quality demanding projects. Typically we'll do it until you completely approve it.

As for deadlines, on a longer term project we did for a feature studio in LA, we were able to staff appropriately so that we consistently remained ahead of schedule during the course of the aggressive 4 month project. In the end a logistical decision was made by the production company and some shots were pulled from other vendors and given to us as we had the manpower to address them in time for the final deadline. Fortunately this led to further collaboration with all of the artists at all the studios involved so everybody benefited. But in short we have the flexibility to bring in additional artists at local Asian rates to get work done fast.

How do you do it?

Simple, Asian talent, trained and managed by Los Angeles lead artists, an LA supervisor and an LA producer setup as uniquely required by each project.

Your reel is impressive but surely not all that work was done by Rooster Creative as a company?

Yes obviously we are still a young company and I have had to use my personal reel to get us off the ground. At the end of the day you are getting a Supervisor (and many other leads) with many years of Hollywood experience who has put together teams for SouthPark and Star Trek, worked on A level projects like Matrix and Superman and has had experience training CG workflows and teaching at both SGI's campus and Alias/Wavefront's schools. And I'm willing to live here where there is far more cost effective labor.

But to answer your question more specifically as a company here in Bangkok, our team has already produced 80 roto/rig/wire removal shots for Sony's Hollowman 2, done articulated roto and matchmove for Cafe FX and The syndicate on Lincoln car commercials as well as the smash hit feature Ironman produced high level 3d animation for Lost in Space / J. Walter Thompson on the Sony Bravia campaign, and handled high-level overflow 3d animation and fluid dynamics simulations for Digital Domain on in short we set out to do in Bangkok everything that we could do in LA and we have succeeded in attaining that goal but at a far better price point.

Sounds convincing but you know how it is, to consider your company I need to show my producer/director/supervisor that you can handle our exact particular needs, will you do a test for us?

Absolutely! We want your business and are confident that we can satisfy your cost, quality and deadline issues. Let us prove it to you.

And if I can make it out to Bangkok on this production?

Come meet our team and check in on your work, we'll also gladly show you around town. Bangkok is a vibrant city with lots of exciting things to see and do. The food is absolutely fantastic and the Thais are extremely gracious and endearing. I strongly recommend you do come out for a visit. We can also assist you with any regional travel or tourism plans or questions, just feel free to ask. If you are flying from LA or NYC I strongly urge you to fly direct (it's a long one), and currently only Thai Air has direct flights, but the service and food are excellent and they even have a class of seating that's between economy and business that's still cheap but has nice seats, very worthwhile.

Are you just loving it there?

Well we're not actually anywhere near a beach so it's not surf paradise and beer bars as many think and the 3rd world aspect is frustrating as a get things done business owner type, but yes this is a fascinating place to be as the global economy expands, pacific markets grow and Asia is developing it's place in the world. Thailand has a unique and graceful charm amidst the chaos of fast expansion and the collision of east meeting west. But all that gives us inspiration to feed on and the marriage of Hollywood level work and tropical Asia sometimes really is as nice as it sounds.

Ok what's the next step for us then?

Tell us what your production needs and concerns are, if you have a project or even are just bidding on a project and want to get numbers to put in your spreadsheet let us know. We can review storyboards or plates and get back to you asap after an initial discussion outlining the job goals with either director, supervisor or producer. We can also furnish you with more detailed examples of what we've already done that might be similar to your job. But most importantly we are very flexible and eager to accommodate your particular needs, just let us know what they are. If you want us to match or beat another bid or simply mark us up on a line item as you bid against your competitors (this is where you get to focus on your core strengths and outsource the grind to us) we're happy to oblige, that's what we built this for.

Hey what about the time difference?

If you're in LA or NYC, we're basically your night shift and can have a hand-off or conference call every evening and morning. Typically depending on daylight savings time, we are either 14 or 15 hours ahead of LA, 11 or 12 from NYC. If you're in Paris or London, we're only 5-6 hours ahead and only 3 hours behind Sydney and Melbourne. Either way we have alot of experience dealing with the time zones and it's not an issue except in projects where there are alot of iterations with a short turn-around and lots of intra-daily interaction.

Ok let's get started, how do we send and receive plates/work/project files?

It depends on the file sizes, typically we can get going on most work with a decent resolution jpeg sequence which is easy to transfer over the Internet and we will certainly observe any security protocols (and NDA's) you and your clients require. But for bulk files, a firewire drive via FedEx, takes 2 business days typically and is an easy solution at the commencement and conclusion of each project with periodic Internet updates.