Post Production/VFX of Broadcast Television: Empire Visual Effects

About

After receiving the backing of the Buffalo Billion program, Empire Visual Effects was founded in 2013 in Tri-Main Center Buffalo, NY as a post-production film studio. It is the first domestic business-to-business visual effects back-end factory (Post New York Alliance, 2015). It is a partner of Daemen College’s International Center for Excellence in Animation who received $2 million in Buffalo Billion funds to build out its space and equipment (Buffalo Business First, 2017). Gathering around Post New York Alliance, Empire Visual Effects is mainly formed by four partners: Benjamin Porcari (founder of IBC Digital, Inc.), Pete Conlin (managing partner of Sixteen19), Marcelo Gandola (managing partner of Empire Visual Effects is mainly formed by four partners: Benjamin Porcari (founder of IBC Digital, Inc.), Pete Conlin (managing partner of Sixteen19), Marcelo Gandola (managing partner of Self Evident films), and Jonathan Hoffman (managing partner of Sixteen19).

Business and Revenue Model

Empire Visual Effects was described as a company in “service industry” by one of its partner, Benjamin Porcari. It provides visual effects for films, TV series, and animations for production companies like Warner Bros. Television, DC Comics, ABC Studio and so on. It not only provides visual effects, but also committed to ensuring low cost, high efficiency, and multi innovation in the process of making a project on-site. It envisions itself as a company that helps filmmakers achieve the high levels of creativity, efficiency, innovation, and cooperation they need.

When talking about its revenue model, Ben mentioned the bankrupt of Digital Domain. He said that most VFX companies operate under fixed bid revenue model which leads to difficulty in this industry. After receiving the request of making visual effects for a project, a fixed bid will be submitted to the client. How much is the price depends on the number of episode and the length of each episode that needs visual effects. It will get paid before starting the project. That is to say, no matter how much profit a project has after the broadcast, even if there are trillions of profits, it has nothing to do with the visual effects company. However, visual effects often cost more than predicted, especially when there’s a project that requires more VFX people than a VFX company owns, it hires people. Furthermore, each visual effects shot is unique. It requires changing the setup on-site like the camera position, the lighting, actions and things in front of greenscreen if the visual effects are needed to change. Therefore, to the VFX company, the cost is increasing and the profits remain the same. It is a time-consuming and expensive process (Squires, 2012). Given such an industry phenomenon, it is very common that several visual effects companies working on the same project, and each of them works on different parts of the project. This way will lower the cost.

What Empire Visual Effects does in case of being overwhelmed is working with other VFX companies and sending visual effects supervisors to shooting sites. It has its crews, but it also hires professionals. The VFX supervisor will ensure that each shot is available to make the visual effects that the studio wants so that it will not get back and start over again after handing their footage to VFX companies.

Status and Future

Poster of Chinese Film, League of Gods, one of the projects that Empire Visual Effects has worked on.

Empire Visual Effects is committed to training students in the field of Visual Effects in Western New York, rather than relying on overseas vendors (New York State Government, 2014). As evolving itself, over 150 working opportunities for western New York will be provided. However, Ben admitted that the road of visual effects is not easy. It still lacks crews from western New York, and there’s huge market overseas like China, Vietnam, India, and Korea, where VFX companies will give lower bids. Those competitors are becoming stronger and competitive, so Empire Visual effects is required to be incredibly efficient, and qualified.

Reference

Failes, I. (2016, October 31). The Future of VFX: 5 Major Trends Happening Right Now. Retrieved September 27, 2017, from https://www.av3software.com/blog/the-future-of-vfx-major-trends/

Empire Visual Effects – Post New York Alliance. (n.d.). Retrieved September 28, 2017, from https://memberspostnewyork.site-ym.com/members/?id=33552046

Governor Cuomo Announces Empire Visual Effects and Daemen College to Bring Visual Effects/Post-Production Hub and 150 New Jobs to Buffalo. (2014, September 28). Retrieved September 27, 2017, from http://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-cuomo-announces-empire-visual-effects-and-daemen-college-bring-visual-effectspost

IBC Digital Profile. (n.d.). Retrieved September 27, 2017, from http://www.ibcdigital.com/profile.php

Miner, D. (2017, September 12). Empire Visual Effects no longer at Tri-Main Center as company ‘evolves’. Buffalo Business First. Retrieved September 27, 2017, from https://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/news/2017/09/12/empire-visual-effects-no-longer-at-tri-main-center.html

Squires, S. (2011, May 09). VFX Business Models. Retrieved September 27, 2017, from http://effectscorner.blogspot.com/2011/05/vfx-business-models.html#.WczZasaZMxg

Squires, S. (2012, July 18). Why do visual effects costs so much? Retrieved September 27, 2017, from http://effectscorner.blogspot.com/2012/07/why-do-visual-effects-costs-so-much.html#.WczbHsaZMxg

Squires, S. (2012, July 18). Why do visual effects costs so much? Retrieved September 27, 2017, from http://effectscorner.blogspot.com/2012/07/why-do-visual-effects-costs-so-much.html#.WczbHsaZMxg