The Vancouver film industry has become a hotbed for visual effects. Thursday, four of the five Emmy nominees for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series were for programs produced here.
“It certainly shows how high the quality of work is here in Vancouver,” said Mark Savela, the visual effects supervisor for Stargate Universe.
“Everybody is super stoked. It’s quite the sci-ficapital. All the major sci-fi shows have really been shot here: the Stargate franchise for 14 years, Battlestar [ Galactica] was shot here, you’ve got V, Fringe. The list of cool science-fiction shows up here is just incredible.”
Stargate Universe received two nominations in the visual effects category, while V and Caprica also received nominations. Another Vancouver-made pilot, Virtuality, was nominated for Outstanding Special Visual Effects For a Miniseries, Movie or Special.
Doing visual effects for a science-fiction series is a very demanding task.
“What we do is break down and design, figure out, shoot and post all the visual effects for each episode, for a 20-episode run,” said Savela.
“For a show like us, Season 1 of Universe, I think we averaged 100 shots per episode. That’s like doing 2,000 shots over the course of 10 months. It’s kind of like doing a mini-feature every couple of weeks.”
Designing visual effects is so complicated and time-consuming, Savela works with a different visual effects crew every other episode. Two entirely different crews are nominated for the award.
“In our first season of Stargate Universe we had basically four vendors we went to,” he said.
“We have an in-house visual effects department, where the artists are here and working. Then there’s Atmosphere Visual Effects, Dark Room Digital, and Image Engine Design. All four groups are represented within the two nominations, which is really nice.”
Image Engine was also nominated for an Academy Award for its work on Neill Blomkamp’s sci-fifilm District 9.
Why is Vancouver so hot in visual effects? Savela thinks it’s the legacy of the long-running Stargate franchise.
“A lot of people have gone through the Stargate franchise here,” said Savela, who started working on Stargate Atlantis six years ago.
“It’s a really close community, in terms of visual effects, and the talent pool is great. It’s a fun place to do work. It makes it better when you’re doing a television series with high stress and tight deadlines. If you’re having fun doing it, there’s something that takes the edge off the stress.”
Savela has one previous Emmy nomination, for Stargate Atlantis in 2008.