By Tara DiLullo
January 25, 2006
The Rapidly Growing World of Indie Previs
Halon received a huge boost when it was hired by its first outside client: Ghost Rider. The job allowed Halon to get started with hardware and software and without having to borrow money. © Sony Pictures.
Halon Ent.
Although incorporated in 2003 by Daniel Gregoire (previs supervisor of JAK Films on Star Wars: Episode II and III) to handle small freelance previs and vfx projects, Halon took off in the summer of 2004 when he got traded from Revenge of the Sith to Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds. “It became too problematic to keep track of time and hours at JAK Films, so I suggested that it would be easier if my company took over,” Gregoire says. The extensive previs on War of the Worlds, as previously reported, was integral to the planning of the sci-fi remake, given the protracted production schedule and logistical challenges.
However, near the end of War of the Worlds, Halon received its first outside client: Ghost Rider, starring Nicolas Cage and based on the Marvel comic. For that project, Halon dispatched four staffers to Melbourne, Australia. They worked on it for three months, allowing Halon to get started on the ground with hardware and software and without having to borrow money.
Halon is completely funded by Gregoire and the projects themselves. He wishes to avoid investors and debt, and has been able to maintain technical relationships with vendors that worked on Star Wars, particularly AMD, which helped with infrastructure and computers. Halon relies mostly on Maya, After Effects and Photoshop among its small staff. Within the last year, Halon has been extremely busy, working on three sequels — X-Men 3, Spider-Man 3 and Evan Almighty — along with Disney’s Eight Below.
“Our biggest challenge is offering as flexible a package as possible to directors that are unpredictable,” Gregoire explains. “To be perfectly honest, we’ve had to take a step back since Star Wars for two reasons. Because we don’t have the resources of the Ranch or the budget to go after things. And Star Wars doesn’t buy us a whole lot of respect outside of San Francisco. And so a lot of companies that would’ve gladly given us stuff or worked with us exclusively, are not available. Hollywood is a different animal. Relationships are different; demands are different. As we build up clientele, it’s almost like beginning from scratch again because it’s all about who you know. Getting as strong a start as we did was either dumb luck or simply being at the right place at the right time. Competition in the previs industry is mounting fast. There are several companies that have started in the last year to six months and are in direct competition with us by people I don’t know and by people I know intimately.
“[Previs] is the big buzz phrase now. People think they need previs... So I think you’re seeing a lot of companies spring up, and a culling back of those — who knows which ones or when? Or maybe even smaller teams of specifically talented people. But I think one of the biggest problems right now is that film productions and studios think they need previs, but they don’t know what to do with it. There are two areas of direction: Previs has been a stronghold of the visual effects industry for a while… what’s happening now is that previs is transcending that and becoming more of the realm of the director and the producer and bridging the gaps between visual effects and production, so that the production people actually feel as though they are a part of this process. I think it’s taking more hold now. You still see a lot of visual effects-oriented previs that is run through the visual effects department, but we’re trying to sell ourselves more as a tool for the director and the production by providing the technical assistance and the technical data for the top level of the food chain.”
