Nowadays it's not necessary to live in Hollywood to work on Hollywood films. Artists can live and work in places like Singapore, Beijing, London or Vancouver and help create Hollywood blockbusters. Courtesy of iStock.

In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy dreams of greener pastures somewhere over the rainbow. But when she reaches the exotic land of Oz, she wants to return home to Kansas. She never wavers from that ultimate goal and must first enlist a few friends to help achieve it. Her goal is clear -- to return home.

Last month I traveled to Singapore and spoke to some animation students who wanted to work in Hollywood. I wondered if their goals were clear. I wondered if they dreamed of having a tiny apartment just below the Hollywood sign or if they dreamed of working on Hollywood-type films. To live in Hollywood is one goal, but it is entirely different than the goal of working on big Hollywood features.

When The Wizard of Oz was made, there were few alternatives for artists who aspired to work on big effects films. Most had to move to Hollywood to work in the industry. But now artists can live and work in places like Singapore, Beijing, London or Vancouver and create the spectacular effects seen in big Hollywood blockbusters.

A few years ago I recruited for Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. The studio was in Van Nuys, about a half hour drive from Hollywood. The original plan was to do all the work at the studio in Van Nuys, but when the deadline was not being met, the producer decided to outsource many of the visual effects shots. More than a dozen companies all around the world worked on that film, from Rising Sun Pictures in Australia to Hybride in Canada.

The visual effects and animation industries are a global business. It's now common that visual effects films are done by multiple vendors. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is a global project with effects being done by Framestore and Motion Picture Company in England, WETA in New Zealand, and KNB Effects Group in California. Some of the companies working on Speed Racer are Sony Pictures Imageworks, Digital Domain, ILM and Café FX in California, and BUF Compagnie in Paris.