While people complain about Hollywood VFX studios crumbling under mismanagement, unrealistic deadlines, and tight budgets, studios elsewhere seem to be thriving. Case in point comes from a new announcement out of Canada’s STarz Animation Toronto which has just announced a few new hires, bringing the numbers of 100. They’re working on three new projects for both TV and film, and wrapped up work last year on the currently playing Gnomeo & Juliet.
“It was an easy decision for me and my colleagues to join the Starz team and help develop a new VFX division,” says award-winning Visual Effects Producer/Supervisor Bret Culp, who led VFX for films like Silent Hill and such TV projects as “The Tudors.” “Right out of the gate, this new unit is one of the strongest I’ve ever worked with, both because of the talent we’ve assembled and the great resources and inspiring environment that a place like Starz Animation provides.”
Get all the details after the break.
STARZ ANIMATION TORONTO’S NEW VISUAL EFFECTS GROUP ATTRACTS MANY TOP FILM AND TV PRODUCERSAddition of Seasoned Talent Makes Canada’s Leading Digital Studio a Major Draw for New Visual Effects Projects
Toronto, Ont. – February 15, 2011 – Building on its success as Canada’s leading production studio for digital animation, Starz Animation Toronto has recently opened a visual effects and creature animation wing to leverage its strong reputation for quality and reliability into the live action market. Bolstered by a team of VFX leadership and artists who’d found earlier success at the former C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures in Toronto, the Starz Animation Toronto VFX crew, already topping 100, has in short order attracted a trio of high-profile projects, with more in the pipeline, according to Head of Studio David Steinberg.
Leading the company’s upcoming VFX slate:
- “Camelot,” an Irish-Canadian co-production starring Joseph Fiennes, Eva Green and Jamie Campbell Bower, being produced for the Toronto studio’s parent company Starz Entertainment and Oscar®-winner Graham King’s GK-tv, whose first foray into TV is this epic retelling of the King Arthur legend. Starz Animation Toronto is delivering all 600 shots for this ambitious project, set to air on Starz starting April 1.
- Robosapien: Rebooted, a theatrical live-action family film from Avi Arad Productions (Arad’s credits include X-Men, Spider Man, and Iron Man) for which Starz Animation Toronto is animating the title character.
- Dolphin Tale, a fall 2011 release from Alcon Films and Warner Bros., starring Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd. Starz Animation Toronto has been chosen to provide all the VFX for this stereoscopic film inspired by a true story of a dolphin rescued off the Florida coast.
“We’re already known as the guys who can deliver quality performance animation consistently and affordably, as proven these past few years on films like (Tim Burton’s) 9 and our latest, Gnomeo and Juliet,” Steinberg says. “The opportunity hit us like a two-by-four to bring that same ‘wow factor’ to the great big world of VFX. We knew we could leverage our pipeline and infrastructure, but the clincher was when we met seasoned supervisors like Bret Culp and Terry Bradley—these guys have 40 years of feature and TV VFX experience between them – and the incredible team of talent they helped us wrangle, who are already producing mind-blowing shots for our clients.”
“It was an easy decision for me and my colleagues to join the Starz team and help develop a new VFX division,” says award-winning Visual Effects Producer/Supervisor Bret Culp, who led VFX for films like Silent Hill and such TV projects as “The Tudors.” “Right out of the gate, this new unit is one of the strongest I’ve ever worked with, both because of the talent we’ve assembled and the great resources and inspiring environment that a place like Starz Animation provides.”
Its recent expansion into visual effects is but the latest successful undertaking for Starz Animation Toronto. The studio last year built a full stereoscopic 3-D unit to produce the animation for the new Touchstone Pictures and Rocket Pictures release, Gnomeo & Juliet. Its work can also be seen in the award-winning animated feature 9, from Focus Features, and TV holiday special, “Yes, Virginia,” for Macy’s, the Ebeling Group and JWT.
About Starz Animation Toronto
Starz Animation Toronto, a unit of Starz,, LLC, is one of Canada’s leading high-quality digital animation studios, providing world-class computer-animated content for feature films, DVDs, television series, commercials, visual effects and shorts for studios and independent producers, as well as proprietary productions. Starz, LLC, is a controlled subsidiary that operates Starz Entertainment (www.starz.com) and Starz Media (www.starzmedia.com). Starz, LLC, is a controlled subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation attributed to the Liberty Starz tracking stock group.
What I find funny is that the comments below the article are inaccurate. The studio is usually around 200+ and it’s something like 200 right now. I wonder where anyone gets the idea it’s 100??!! You can’t slag a story for accuracy by using inaccuracies.
In reality, the studio isn’t far away from it’s typical headcount. I’ve worked there in the past and it’s one of the better employers in the industry. It had 300 because they had Gnomeo going through. I’d go back in a heartbeat if they need me. I enjoyed my time there and the people I worked with.
They pay overtime and don’t crunch anywhere near as often as Sony, MPC and other studios I’ve worked at. I’m not bitter but it appears a few people commenting here are.
haha well all my friends at Starz either want out or are getting let go because there isn’t enough work. On top of that I have heard of some pretty shitty hours over there.
@ LOL Starz
Have you read VFXsoldier.com The author of the site might tend to defer your answer.
Total spin….more layoffs then hirees.
Spin-doctoring comes to mind.
Indeed. I’m getting resumes from people from Starz who are looking for work starting next month. A few small studios collapsing in the US doesn’t mean the whole industry is collapsing, larger studios are doing fine in the US, as well as London, and Vancouver, etc.
I won’t say the same for Toronto’s vfx/animation market. Especially when you had other large companies like core shutting its doors last year…
I have to agree..
How does a firm drop from 300 employees down to 100.. Doesn’t that say something about the management?
@ goldfarb In all fairness, the only addition was the assumption that the studio is thriving, which I agree is quite inaccurate. Considering Starz employed over 300 people this time last year; topping 100 people at the moment is hardly thriving.
just post the press release and skip the inaccurate additions…