S4 VFX, a division of S4 Studios LLC, has announced new working relationships with Los Angeles-based trailer company Flyer Ent. and SSI Advanced Post, a post-production services facility.
According to S4 vfx director/designer Geoffrey Kater, this is the first in a series of similar relationships that will solidify and augment the core business of S4 VFX, a division of S4 Studios formed by Kater in January of this year to create and produce 3D animation and graphics for movie advertising in trailers and TV spots. S4 VFX has recently completed projects for FANTASTIC FOUR, KING KONG, THE OMEN, MI:3 and SCARY MOVIE 4.
Four year-old Flyer Ent. is a movie ad agency that functions both as creator and producer of trailers and TV spots for theatrical and DVD releases. SSI Advanced Post creates sound, final assembly and online for trailers, and began life 36 years ago as Sound Services Inc. In recent years, the company has branched out from sound mixing and editorial into picture editorial and telecine, and is opening a Digital Intermediary suite to meet the trailer industrys growing need for HD capability.
The relationship we have with both SSI and Flyer has benefits for everyone, Kater explained. We will continue to act as Flyer Ents high-end CGI house, while SSI will sub out all their MPAA fixes to us. It allows us to get involved with a project at the conceptual and production end, as well as giving us the opportunity to work out the kinks at the end for MPAA Standards and Practices. It will also allow us to not only do conceptual and storyboard, but to also design and produce the actual visual effects and do other image processing. This is a model we want to pursue with S4s other clients as well.
It was never cost-effective for us to get into the high end 3D graphics end, added Tom Hughes of SSI. We were farming things out to different companies, but when Flyer Ent. introduced us to S4 VFX, we knew we had finally found a company of veterans that we could rely upon to do work that would satisfy the very stringent requirements of both the studios and the MPAA, and turn it around almost immediately, which is key in the fast paced business of motion picture advertising.
Geoffs 3D animation experience is something weve come to rely on, whether its to fix or enhance a shot that isnt working editorially, or to create a motion graphic design that gives a totally unique look to our movie advertising, or creating a beautiful DVD box reveal that is both eye-catching and perfectly in context with the tone of the movie, added Flyer Ents Tom Merchant. He has real animation chops, works out problems and provides solutions, and he does it quickly, creatively, efficiently and enthusiastically.
S4 Studios (www.s4studios.com) is a multidisciplinary production company specializing in design, content development, 3D animation, 2D animation, visual effects and live-action production for television, feature films, commercials and trailers and home video. Since its founding in 1999 by Dale Hendrickson, Geoffrey Kater and Larry Le Francis, the studio has built a client roster that includes Cartoon Network, Rhythm & Hues commercials, Flyer Ent., The Cimarron Group, Walt Disney Television Animation, Viacom, Warner Bros and Winner & Associates. Kater is also the author of DESIGN FIRST FOR 3D ARTISTS, published in 2005 by Wordware Publishing.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
