Screen Technology - Turning Ideas Into $$

In the second installment of Film Wellington’s ‘Bright Ideas’ series – looking at commercialisation beyond the screen industry – we talk to three technicians whose ideas are as diverse as their career paths, find out how they have commercialised them, and why you should too.

Commercialisation of ideas is good. It ensures those who work so hard for the love of their craft – often on small budgets – can also create sustainable businesses with their own ideas, generating a separate income stream. Alongside the great film projects we are all so proud of here in NZ, we have the technicians who help create them, building world-class and globally relevant businesses. By balancing their own businesses with project-based work, the boom and bust tendencies of the NZ screen industry could be mitigated.

Currently based in Wellington, after a stint on Avatar at Weta Digital, Sebastian Marino has created a digital pattern-making tool – 77 Pieces. As a technical director, computer graphics (CG) supervisor and lead researcher with A-list studios, including Industrial Light + Magic (ILM), Sony Pictures Imageworks and Weta Digital, his hair, cloth and fur simulations for Star Wars: Attack of the Clones earned him and his colleagues a 2002 Academy Award and sparked an idea.

Whilst at Weta Digital, Sebastian developed pipelines for water, fire and smoke simulations, but was drawn back to soft-materials and cloth. “I realized I was keen to get back into the start-up thing. My earlier start-up company, Makani (see www.makanipower.com), made high-altitude glider planes (for wind generation), that are partially inflated. It was the first time we had tried to transfer film industry technology (cloth simulation) to engineering. I realised at that point there are no engineering or design tools (for soft materials). There is no CAD or computer drafting software for flexible things. So, 77 Pieces is making a digital tool for pattern-makers to make real clothing with.”

“One of the fundamental things with computer generated clothing is getting it to fit right. And, in my opinion, the reason that it often doesn’t fit or look right is there is no concept of pattern-making in CG. You could take the best pattern-maker in the world and sit them beside the CG artist and there is no real-world connection or communication tool to meld the two worlds together accurately. Like the draftsperson’s technical drawing desk which has been translated into the CAD program that designers, architects and engineers use.”

Craig Herring of Rubber Monkey software has created FilmConvert. “I’ve been programming computers for about 25 years. Commercially, I was one of the first guys at Sidhe Interactive, when they started out, before they had the publishing deal, I was working for them out of a lounge in Woburn. I was always sitting in my bedroom on my Amiga 500. [At Rubber Monkey Software] we’ve built a lot of workflow products – trying to figure out how to get this file in this format from there to here in a certain format and it’s been all pretty run-of-the-mill and it’s good as far as money coming in but not particularly exciting. Our current idea is to emulate film for the Red One. Everybody loves the camera, the colours are not so nice though (they are a bit flat), and people shoot their footage and then say ‘oh now we have to spend 12 years in colour grading trying to make it look cool’.

“They want it to look like film, which is our selling point – they want that film look and to have those film colours. So we decided to make Red footage look exactly like film. Having filmmakers come in (to the Rubber Monkey post-production suites) and want their footage to look like film and then going off and spending $100k (of their very limited budget) on film stock instead of shooting on the Red was kind of frustrating as the Red has so much to offer, especially for lower-budget filmmaking. We’ve built the software for Red but we’ve got a pipeline now that can pretty much take any camera and any film stock and make them look identical. We have tools to match two different cameras so you can shoot on your principal camera and then shoot your pick-ups on another and they will look identical which is a problem at the moment – the footage doesn’t sync. That will make their lives a lot easier, and cheaper. We assumed everybody else was having the same problems as us, but nobody was solving them. We were right.”

Kimberley Attewell, of Photo Higher has developed a product out of his love for hobby aircraft. “I started flying remote control helicopters as a hobby in 2002, like all aircraft they do crash and are expensive to repair. So I decided to design a custom camera mount (gimbal) that I could use to take aerial photographs to earn some money to subsidise the hobby. I initially targeted the real-estate agents and then I looked at manufacturing the gimbals. I looked at other manufacturers and I could see that I could design something a lot better than them. And so we started designing and manufacturing gimbals. I love designing and engineering and combining that with my hobby. I can do this every day, all day, until I am old and decrepit!”

“Our gimbals are sold all around the world and are in high demand at the moment due to the high quality; they work well and allow people to get very smooth HD video/film. Over time we have created a well-known brand name in the market place known for its high quality. We also now manufacture our own fully autonomous helicopter and have three different versions for different applications. We successfully applied through Grow Wellington for a TechNZ research and development grant, for the Icarus 2S Industrial fully autonomous helicopter. This machine can carry a 2kg payload for 3-4 hours and has a range of 60km. We are now in the final stages of development and are planning to test fly this in the next couple of weeks.”

Despite the enthusiasm and passion, there can be issues with technicians running businesses. As Michael E. Gerber says in the E Myth “that Fatal Assumption is: if you understand the technical work of a business, you understand a business that does that technical work”. The issues of planning, advice, making sure there is a market for the product and access to business support are all hugely relevant but are difficult to initiate when you’re starting out. It takes planning and experience, and assembling the right people.

Of Photo Higher, Kimberley says, “we are operating in an area not a lot of people have ever encountered which has been very difficult for us. So when I would try and find a business mentor it was always difficult because I was in a very technical area of expertise. Also even today it is a big battle trying to get people to stop thinking these machine are toys.”

Craig Herring of Rubber Monkey says “we assumed we could do it ourselves when we should have got an expert in to do it straight away. Instead of jumping in and starting to build something we should have gone through some solid research. That would have helped when we started putting together the first prototype we could have gone about it in a more intelligent way. Getting the expert really pays off. The tech research was important. We took our idea to Grow Wellington initially. These guys were very interested in our product and they were able to advocate on our behalf when taking the idea to TechNZ (regional office), who were very receptive. TechNZ funding covered the cost of bringing in expert advice and allowed us to take the project through to completion.”

Of this Sebastian says, “The next thing I did after registering the website was go to Creative HQ (the business incubator within Grow Wellington) in Wellington. I had heard about them and coming from the US, and in particular Silicon Valley, the notion of a business incubator was not new to me. One of the reasons I was drawn to it as a new person to NZ (at the time I had only been here for a year), I didn’t feel I had the connections to raise funds in NZ. There is a cost associated with going into a business incubator, but for me it was more than worth it. Creative HQ was super helpful and they exceeded my expectation for the help and support I got. The difference between an idea and a company is a company. If you have an idea, then stop working on it and build the company around it. If you don’t, you’ll still be some person tinkering in your garage.”

So as well as the idea, it’s about the team of people you surround yourself with in order to execute. An idea is nothing without the right execution.

Craig says, “We just sort of jumped in boots and all and launched ourselves into it – ‘let’s see if we can figure this out’ – and thought it would take about three months to build this thing. We sort of got 80% of the way there really quickly, which was frustrating, because the last 20% took most of the time. It turned out we didn’t really know enough about the problem to figure out those last steps. Our biggest problem was not knowing the fundamentals of colour science – how film is actually processed and the stages that everything goes through between being shot on set to the final product – Lance (Lones) spent years looking at blue people on Avatar (and all the other big Weta films) – so he knows all about colour. He had the answers to things we had assumed we knew (but didn’t). He put that together. Even so, it’s taken him a good six months.”

Sebastian’s eight years in Silicon Valley among other business startups cemented his knowledge of the business pipeline: “The first steps were identifying what product it was we wanted to do and then finding out that there was a market for it (we want the stuff we make to get used, to solve problems), establishing business relationships, accountancy, legal, etc – all of the advisors you’ll need. Because as an entrepreneur you’re not an expert in these things, nor should you be. The entrepreneur is good at something and their role is having a vision for that and then to see that through. You have to find people to help you and be scrupulous about that. Trust them and use that team to execute this vision that you have. We have a network of advisors – friends, colleagues. Some of it formal, some of it informal.”

And while there are large projects happening, there is still a reasonable income to be made from project-based work in NZ. So are technicians able to do both and why would they?

Sebastian recalls. “When Avatar ended, I thought a lot more about what I wanted to do for myself. And I also thought it would be about another three years before a movie like that came along, so I would have some time to do this (the business) in-between. And if it doesn’t work then there will be another interesting movie and I’ll get to work on it!”

“In hindsight I should have spent more time on Photo Higher (PH) at an earlier stage,” says Kimberley. “From June/July last year I decided to give up my full time business and go contracting for 30-hours per week, which allowed me two full days to spend on PH. As soon as I did this the business started to take off and I only managed two months contracting before I had to move in to PH full-time. Even now it still demands a lot of my time and so I am putting in about 70-80 hours per week.”

They all agree that some sort of medium- to long-term plan is required in order to get things happening for the long term.

Sebastian says of 77 Pieces, “we learnt a lot about our market, our customers and what it is we want to do. Now we have a very clear understanding of how to go about doing that. We’re not just ‘tinkering in the garage’ any longer.”

Kimberley says of this, “you have to be in for the long run, and there are a lot of people around the Wellington region who can help get your idea off the ground. I also think it is really important to put together a detailed business plan so you know what is required. It is no use just to say you have an amazing idea. Your ideas will be a lot more visible if you can prove/demonstrate that they have potential and work”.

And it seems screen technicians are more than up to the task. The most recent statistics show that 80% of New Zealand’s screen production workforce are employed as contractors (according to Statistics NZ), managing their own taxes, GST, accounts and any requisite staff. That’s half the battle won in terms of enabling technicians to think in business terms. It also means they have more flexibility to develop the IP they create.

Sebastian agrees, “Like it or not, every film tech in NZ is now an entrepreneur operating a small business. Those who embrace that reality and act accordingly, diversify, solicit new business, etc, and will be better off in the end. In some circumstances it may be possible to view this as an opportunity for entrepreneurship and transition from traditional work-for-hire into a service business (with more than one client). As an independent contractor it’s also important to understand intellectual property advantage, which may serve to enable such a transition.”

Maria Sun from Baldwins Intellectual Property law says, “As a general rule, if IP is created by an independent contractor, the contractor will own the IP and commercialise it how they wish. This is true even if the idea, invention or development is made within the scope of the contractor’s engagement or on the worksite of the employer. However, contractors do need to read the fine print carefully. Depending on the terms of engagement, all rights in the IP generated by any project could belong to the employer and the contractor may be required to give warranties to this effect in the relevant agreement.

There are also a number of important legal exclusions. The person who has commissioned and paid (or agreed to pay) another person to (a) take a photograph (b) make a computer program (c) paint, draw or create a diagram (d) create a map, chart or plan (e) make an engraving or sculpture (f) create a model (g) film or (h) produce a sound recording will automatically become the owner of any copyright in the commissioned work, unless there is a written agreement to the contrary. The court will look at the realities of the job, rather than titles used in any agreement. Intellectual property and employment law can be complex. If in doubt, get expert advice!”

And what’s next for these fledgling global companies?

Of Photo Higher, “we currently have 25 distributors around the world and are selling our products into every continent. This is a very exciting time for us as we are in such a high growth period. Last year we turned over $125k, and from November 2010 to March 2011 we turned over $450k. At the moment our sales are consistent and increasing, and we are turning over $100-120k per month. We are moving into new premises at the end of this month, which is going to give us a lot more space and allow us to continue to expand as we have new products in development all the time.

Craig says, “There’s a FilmConvert alpha out there that a select few people are using, and we’ve had some really positive feedback from them. We’re trying to determine a price point at the moment and just deciding where to go from here. We’ve built it all for Red but we’ve got a pipeline now that can pretty much take any camera and any film stock and make them look identical. We’ll also do a Windows version to cater to PC people. For the medium-sized project and/or budget we are ideal.”

Sebastian launches 77 Pieces this year to the New Zealand fashion market, and then he’ll take it to the world.