Mr. Thierry Nguyen, co-founder of Bad Clay Studio, discussed at the discussion about Vietnam's VFX industry on the afternoon of April 8 - Photo: TTD
On the afternoon of April 8, at the Ho Chi Minh City International Film Festival (HIFF) 2024, a discussion took place on global market opportunities for the VFX (visual effects) and animation industry in Vietnam.
Insiders are optimistic that Vietnam's VFX and animation industry is collaborating strongly with foreign countries, but they also wish to work on their own country's film projects.
Vietnamese people doing special effects for Hollywood and Netflix are just hired workers.
Bad Clay is a studio with more than 50 employees working on the special effects for the series Parasyte: The Grey, which is causing a stir on Netflix.
Before Parasyte: The Grey , Bad Clay had participated in the special effects for many famous films such as Sweet Home, Strange Lawyer Woo Young Woo, Detective Pikachu, The Moon, Trang Ti's Adventure, Parallel, MV Skyler, Hai Phuong, Mat Biec, Hon papa da con gai, Em va Trinh...
The credit of more than 50 Vietnamese personnel doing special effects for the series Parasite that is causing a stir on Netflix - Photo: Bad Clay
Mr. Thierry Nguyen (also vice president of VAVA - Vietnam VFX and Animation Association) shared: "With international or Hollywood, Netflix products, we are just a hired unit, a vender (supplier), selling brainpower.
Therefore, we still prefer to do Vietnamese projects when we can contribute vision and creativity.
The Parasyte project has a lot of effects, I wish Vietnamese films had such great effects, so that Vietnamese people can tell their own stories and not just work for hire anymore."
Mr. Ming Pao - a Vietnamese-American who does special effects for Marvel, X-Men and many other Hollywood films - also agrees that with large projects involving thousands of people, his role is very small and it is difficult to contribute more because there are many veterans.
He said: "I was asked why you had to go to China to make Monkey King after you had already made Avengers .
I do it from the heart, doing what I enjoy. Financially, I am confident that I am enough. Working at Marvel studio, I will learn from the veterans, but in a place that is too big, we will be very small, the opportunity to contribute will not be much."
Mr. Ming Pan introduces Marvel film projects that he has participated in as special effects, the most famous of which is probably Avengers: Infinity War - Photo: MI LY
Mr. Ming Pan is the creative director - VFX producer of Mixel Media, supervising the effects of the Marvel series and many other famous American films. He has participated in the effects for Marvel or superhero and mutant films such as:
Avengers: Infinity War, Guardian of the Galaxy Vol.2, Doctor Strange, X-Men: Days of Future Past...;
The Secret life of Walter Mitty, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, Snow White and the Huntsman...; Chinese Monkey King movie 2020...
Netflix's Parasyte: The Grey - Photo: Netflix
Brain drain?
According to VAVA statistics, the Vietnamese VFX and animation ecosystem currently has 102 studios across the country, including 24 in the North, 10 in the Central region and 68 in the South.
In particular, from 2021 to 2023, Vietnam has 21 new 3D-VFX studios. The quality of the industry in Vietnam is increasing day by day.
According to 2023 figures, more than 60% of 3D-VFX studios in Vietnam are collaborating with foreign companies. VAVA sees "a brain drain abroad".
For example, more than 30% work with Asian clients (Korea, Thailand, Japan, etc.), with Korea accounting for the majority. The remaining 31% work with European clients.
The good news is that companies in Vietnam such as Synapse, West World, Stone-V, Opim Digital... are growing strongly, becoming large branches with 100-150 employees.
Behind the scenes of Avatar movie special effectsSource
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