If it is imagery, then it is up SimEx's alley. Heather Kenyon interviews specialty venue film veteran Allen Yamashita about SimEx, a company that provides digital image "solutions" for a number of outlets.
Located in the heart of Santa Monica, SimEx Digital Studios consists of 20 artists who provide imagery for the television, feature, interactive and specialty venue industries. Led by veteran filmmakers Allen Yamashita and Nick Bates, SimEx envisions innovative and cost-effective answers to a range of media questions. Yamashita believes that the small size of the company allows it to be flexible so they can concentrate on the challenging projects that they prefer to tackle. And, while too small in size to handle all the effects for an entire feature, they often receive that one sequence that no one else can figure out. Launched in 1994 by Yamashita, SimEx specializes in high-end computer animation, graphics and digital imagery. Recently, the SimEx team has completed commercials for such high-profile clients as Coca-Cola, Dunlop, Kellogg's, McDonald's, Sony, Lockheed-Martin and Panasonic. SimEx also has an ongoing relationship with Rhythm & Hues, and have together recently completed spots for Repairnow.com and General Mills. The SimEx team also collaborates with international marketing and communications company Pittard Sullivan with recent credits including projects for PBS "Nature," The Travel Channel, King World, and Sat.1. SimEx feature film credits include: Event Horizon for Paramount, Rocket Man for Disney, and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation for New Line Cinema. They are currently at work on a new feature for Disney Pictures.
Yamashita received his training under director and visual effects maestro Douglas Trumbull, where he served as Trumbull's assistant during the completion of Blade Runner and the production of Brainstorm. Prior to working with Trumbull, Yamashita spent a two-year apprenticeship under the late director Robert Aldrich (The Dirty Dozen, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?). An authority in the specialty-venue film industry, Yamashita's credits include: The Way Things Work for the Sony Metreon Center, Impact! for a consortium of science centers and museums throughout the world, Pilot for Ogden Entertainment, Mars for NHK Broadcasting, Days of Thunder for Paramount Parks, Terabyss/Rockers Adventure for the Saison Group, and Seatrek for Ontario Place.
Unlike most companies in this arena, SimEx started in specialty venue films and then moved into special effects as opportunities presented themselves. Yamashita presents SimEx as a creative production company. Whether the client has an empty building, a show in mind, or just a concept, if that, SimEx is "happy to provide services in whatever category, whether it is executing their idea or one of our own. We actually work more in the latter." In fact, they are often contacted solely for the creative development of a project.
Heather Kenyon: What was it like working with Douglas Trumbull and what do you think the most important lesson was that you learned from him?
Allen Yamashita: Many people don't know that Douglas was one of the first people to propose viable technologies for location-based entertainment. In the late 1970s he constructed one of the first working entertainment motion simulators. He also developed high-frame-rate film/projection techniques (Showscan) that yielded startlingly clear high-resolution images that were also capable of being projected very large. Doug directed and I produced the first large-scale flight simulation attraction, Tour of the Universe in Toronto, which employed a Showscan picture, digital soundtrack, and 40 seat 6-DOF motion base in 1985.
To answer your question, he is one of the greatest entertainment designers of our time. He is that rare combination of artist and scientist embodied in one person. Doug was the only guy I've ever met that could design a shot and conceive the equipment that was required to achieve it. He taught me many important things -- most of which he probably isn't aware of.
HK:
How and why did you move from specialty venue films to special effects?AY: When I went to work for Doug, I knew absolutely nothing about special effects at all. I think that was one of the reasons he hired me. I did not become intrinsically interested in visual effects then, nor am I especially interested now. What I was, and am now, interested in is making and experiencing stories. Specialty venue films by their very nature, allow a large amount of freedom, freedom which didn't exist for me in other more structured media. With a good client, a large component of specialty filmmaking is experimentation -- both in terms of the subject of the piece and the manner in which the audience experiences it. I have Doug to thank for providing me with the opportunity to work in specialty films.HK: You do television, features, interactive and specialty venue industry work. How do the specialty venue films fit into SimEx's overall company vision as these areas seem very different from one another?AY: A creative services company is different than other companies. Our company is made up of a group of people with a range of talents, visions and abilities. Yes, we have a lot of machines. However, the technical infrastructure isn't our company -- the talent is. Our diversity of work is a mandate of our business plan. Different projects with different scopes and scales keep it interesting.Our ability to produce specialty venue films from a blank sheet of paper to finished product has prompted clients from other media to give us different opportunities. Currently, we are producing an eight-minute specialty venue film for several museums which involves live-action and computer graphics. We are also producing a computer graphic and cel character animation television commercial and the opening to a feature, which includes live-action, computer graphics and cel animation. So, we are simultaneously shooting actors and sets on stage, building computer graphics environments, and animation characters in CGI and cel. One project feeds the other. Everyone gets exposed to different media. People stay challenged.
HK: Do you think working on specialty venue films enhances your work in the arenas of television and feature films? If so, how?
AY: The kinds of specialty films that I'm involved in are very detail oriented. You get to look at the work for a relatively long period of time. When it comes to dealing with shots which last for three or four seconds as in a movie, you're not bothered by complexity.
HK: Could you explain the type of work you do for specialty venue films?AY:
That's changing. As you know, I've done a few motion-base films. In the past, everyone has always asked for spaceships and submarines. We are now working on a motion-base piece that is set in 16th century Japan involving trade, and will be done in CGI in a style inspired by Momoyama painting of that period.HK: Is there a lot of work in this area or is it a small niche?AY: In the world scale of things, the specialty venue film business barely registers. Even including Imax, it doesn't register. However, this is changing as the need to draw people out of the house and away from cable and the 'net forces exhibitors to provide more compelling, immersive entertainment.
HK:
Can you discuss your relationship with Rhythm & Hues? Do you do certain tasks for them on a regular basis? With Pittard Sullivan?
AY: We are pleased and honored to have an active working relationship with Rhythm & Hues. They are one of the best production houses on the planet, and we look forward to doing more work together in the future. Ditto for Pittard Sullivan. We enjoy the kind of work that comes to us from a company with 300 designers on staff!HK:
Do you think that such a range of projects and strategic relationships are necessary to make it in today's competitive marketplace?AY: No. Conventional business wisdom tells you to identify your specific market target and focus. That said, we are a creative group that needs constant maintenance and regular exercise.As far as strategic relationships go, the key word is strategic. Our relationships with other companies work because there is a mutual need, and a level of comfort with regard to quality and professionalism. If these ingredients are there, it works. But you can't force it.Heather Kenyon is editor-in-chief of Animation World Magazine.
