Films
Lucas in Singapore
For those interested in a film career - creating multimedia animation and digital effects. TIME
Feb 8, 2008

By Kathleen Kingsbury
Singapore - The Force is definitely with Travis Ho. Like millions of computer-science students before him, the 19-year-old Singaporean's lifelong fantasy has been to work for Lucasfilm, the empire launched 30 years ago by George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars.

Ho, however, did not have to journey to a galaxy far, far away; Lucasfilm came looking for him.

Eighteen months ago, the digital-art powerhouse launched its first overseas studio in Singapore.

The 170 employees come from 33 nations, and together they make sure that Luke Skywalker's animated cloak swings naturally in the TV series Clone Wars and that Jackie Chan slides effortlessly down the Eiffel Tower in Rush Hour 3.

Like their colleagues back at Lucasfilm's San Francisco headquarters, the Singapore crew members work in jeans and decorate their cubicles with their favourite Star Wars action figures.

But while years of experience and Yoda-level technical skill are prerequisites for joining Lucasfilm's US team, the developers and animators in Singapore were hired less for their résumés than for their artistic eye.

Students like Ho at Asian universities are its top potential recruits. "Our experiment is to take the most talented, passionate artists we can find and give them the necessary technical know-how," says Gail Currey, vice president and general manager of Lucasfilm Animation.

The company's goal is to turn Singapore into a base for a new style of animation that combines East and West and could serve as a template for other US studios expanding abroad.

Lucasfilm is the first major production studio to set up shop in Asia, but competitors are right behind it.

For years Hollywood has cut costs by outsourcing post-production - the editing, sound mixing and special effects that turn raw film into a blockbuster movie - to overseas firms.

More than 90% of the animation for American films and television shows is processed in Asia, mainly in Japan and South Korea.

Now, however, the US$100b animation industry is rushing to tap the deep pools of young, well-trained artists in countries such as Singapore, China, India, South Korea and the Philippines.

That young Asian talent forms the core of Lucasfilm's Singapore team. Ian Pang, 29 and Singaporean, studied Japanese thinking he would one day have to move to Japan to design video games. "I thought I was going to have to pack my bags; Singapore had no games industry," Pang says.

Instead, he now produces the latest Star Wars handheld game from Lucasfilm's 40,000 sq-ft (3,700 sq m) office space near Singapore's Changi Airport.

Ho, the computer-science student, says he struggled to convince his parents that he could make a living in digital art and gaming.

"Having Lucasfilm here really legitimizes the field as a career choice for Asians," Ho says. Not all of Lucasfilm's talent in Singapore is homegrown.

Canadian Kalene Dunsmoor, 27, was designing motorcycle decals in Toronto when she sent her portfolio on a whim to a Lucasfilm recruiter.

Now she works in Singapore, collaborating with Lucas' iconic special-effects shop Industrial Light & Magic to add computer-generated imagery to films including the Harry Potter and Indiana Jones series.

"They were willing to take a chance even though I didn't have conventional experience," Dunsmoor says. "I was willing to travel far from home for that." (--)

...For now, Lucasfilm's biggest challenge is snatching up the best talent within Singapore's burgeoning digital-arts community before rivals move in.

In November, the studio launched the Jedi Masters Programme, a two-year paid apprenticeship designed to attract Singaporean students like Travis Ho.

Lucasfilm better move fast. Ho, who won't graduate for another two years, has already co-founded a small video-game development firm that has gotten government and foreign contracts.

"It's a small operation," Ho says. "But we're doing pretty innovative stuff for beginners." It's no match for Lucasfilm yet, but who knows? The next George Lucas may be working for him in Singapore.

For full story:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1708826,00.html