AMHERST - Hampshire College student James Burakoff, decked out
in a suit and fedora, was scanning the room, looking for people to talk
to about a summer internship in computer animation.
I'm here to see if some local companies might take me on, he said.
Burakoff was one of nearly 200 Hollywood hopefuls who attended the
''Valleywood'' conference held March 23 at Franklin Patterson Hall at
Hampshire College.
The event featured some of the hottest local
talents in film, video, documentary, animation, and screenwriting. Its
aim, according to organizer Amy Zuckerman of the group Hidden-Tech, was
to build a network of local people who are working, or would like to
work, in the entertainment business.
''I figured if I wanted to
know how to get into film ... there must be other people with the same
questions,'' Zuckerman told those assembled at the event.
Many
of those who attended are hoping to carve out a niche for themselves in
the increasingly high-tech world of animation, special effects, sound,
and editing that has taken hold of the movie industry.
This aspect of the industry could be ripe for growth in the Pioneer Valley, said Zuckerman.
Unlike other areas of movie-making, she said, high tech offers the
possibility of attracting venture capital, partnering with local
academic institutions, and creating new local jobs.
Terrence
Masson, a computer animation specialist based in Williamstown who
developed the computer technique used in the show ''South Park'' - the
characters, though computer-generated, appear to be made out of
construction paper - said he believes that little by little, Hollywood
studios are becoming comfortable with the idea of hiring people in
''remote'' locations such as western Massachusetts to perform technical
work.
''A lot of people from California wish they could come
here to live and work,'' said Masson, one of the conference presenters.
''It's a lot easier now with secure FTP sites and e-mail.''
Zuckerman said that based on the strong response to this first
Valleywood conference, she has a sense that the region could be poised
to develop its own ''mini film industry.''
She said that
including faculty members in the film departments of local colleges -
Pixar animator Chris Perry at Hampshire, for example - at least 50
people established in the Hollywood industry are living and working in
the region.
Raf Anzovin, the 22-year-old wunderkind whose
three-dimensional computer-animation work is used in major motion
pictures, says he's been able to get contracts from around the country
without leaving his Amherst studio.
''I visited Hollywood and didn't like it,'' said Anzovin.
Anzovin Studio, which Anzovin runs with his father, Steve Anzovin,
employs eight animators, many of whom he harvested from local
universities and colleges.
Currently, they're hard at work on a
3-D computer-animated movie called ''GI Joe: Valor vs. Venom,'' due out
in the fall on Cartoon Network.
Anzovin, who worked on the
upcoming animated film ''Robots'' for Blue Sky, the New Hampshire-based
animation studio responsible for ''Ice Age,'' said that at this point
only one other local company - Kleiser-Walczak of North Adams - does
what his studio does.
Most computer-animation shops are
clustered in the San Francisco Bay area - home of Pixar and Industrial
Light & Magic - but Anzovin said the trend could be shifting as
larger studios find they can cut costs by outsourcing parts of their
work to smaller, leaner ''boutique'' studios.
For the GI Joe
movie, for example, Anzovin Studio is being subcontracted to create the
''motion'' - that is, the work of making the animated characters move
around in the movie - from the Dallas-based Reel FX Creative Studios.
''You will increasingly find studios like ours all over,'' said Steve Anzovin.
Rikk Desgres, owner of Pinehurst Pictures and Sound in Northampton,
said he prefers the high quality of life offered in Northampton, which
is close to his hometown of Holyoke. When asked what he's giving up by
not living in Los Angeles, he quipped, ''High blood pressure?''
A veteran editor who has worked on such documentaries as the
Emmy-winning Ken Burns production ''Baseball,'' Desgres said he's been
able to get his name out through word of mouth.
He said while he might be getting bigger projects if he lived in New York City or Los Angeles, he's happy to stay where he is.
''You have to enjoy yourself,'' he said.
Desgres said these days, plenty of film and TV work is being done
outside the major centers of New York and Los Angeles. When working
with Ken Burns, for example, he moved to New Hampshire for a while.
New advances in high technology have made it possible to do the work
outside the confines of the Hollywood studio environment, said Desgres.
Editing software that used to cost tens of thousands of dollars can now
be had for $1,000 or less, he said.
''When I started I was cutting 16 millimeter film by hand,'' said Desgres. ''These days you go to your computer.''
Both Desgres and Anzovin agreed that technical skill is only one part of the game - talent and ability still count.
But, said Degres, ''People will discover their talent because they have these tools.''
Sunshine DeWitt can be reached at sdewitt@gazettenet.com.
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