Australian INfront

Based in Melbourne, Iloura is one of Australia's top production companies. Their work in film, television, commercials and design is highly regarded and has seen them take out many Australian and International awards.

They have worked from clients ranging from Vodaphone, Heinz, Target, Cadbury Schweppes, Ebay and Honda to more niche clients such as Open Univeristy, SBS & Sustainability Victoria.

Iloura will be represted by Director of Design, Stephen Van Elst.

http://www.iloura.com.au

What do you think it is that makes Iloura stand out from other VFX studios?

Over the last 5 years lloura has grown from a boutique VFX and animation studio into a sophisticated world class VFX animation and broadcast design studio.

We stand out in Melbourne because we are the biggest, and in my opinion the best! I think broadly speaking it is the quality of our work that makes us stand out.  We look to challenge ourselves whilst being mindful not to overextend so we can always deliver beautiful work each and every time.

 You've had the experience of working on some big projects. Is there any that stand out as being more rewarding or enjoyable?

I have a few favourites! Some of these the team would agree with, but as is the nature of team work everyone has different experiences and favourite projects.

Some standouts for me are Charlotte’s Web, Where the Wild Things Are, Drumstick Summer Parade, SBS Idents, The Pacific and Don’t be Afraid of the Dark.

As Executive Producer, the projects I appreciate are ones where the team’s talent can shine, either creatively or technically. I also like those with appropriate budgets!

For example, Don’t Be Afraid of The Dark was a big win for us as it is the first feature project where the team have been charged with designing and animating make believe “creatures”. A lot of our feature work prior to this has been photo real character work, like the great work they did on Wilbur the pig for Charlotte’s Web.

Where the Wild Things are was great for another reason. While the project as a whole was brave and creative, our team were commended for their technical problem solving ability. So much so that the pipeline they set up in the early R&D process was used the whole way through.

Drumstick Summer Parade was an amazing experience as an advertising agency came to us to creatively nut out the concept before they spoke to any live action directors. One of our senior animators ended up directing this spot and it gives me great pleasure when the talent here is recognised and employed to such good end. ‘Drumstick’ is an example of a very well realised spot.

The Making of footage for The Pacific is quite an eye-opener. How many VFX elements would you say were required in one of the major scene?

Hard question! But it is safe to say around 30 different VFX elements are in that scene.
 
Is your process the same for all your jobs, or does it depend on the project or client?

It definitely depends on the project and the experience of the client. Every job can require a different pipeline, set up and staff configuration. There is an element of reinventing the wheel each time we start a job but past experiences make that process significantly easier.

What areas of your work do you see expanding in the future?

We are committed to both the film and TVC sector and our broadcast design team is in great demand. Head of Design Stephen Van Elst is speaking at Semi Permanent this week.

We have just completed our first stereoscopic 3D animated cinema commercial and are currently working on the 3D/Stereoscopic feature Sanctum. We will continue to seek exciting projects across the various disciplines but at this stage my key task is to solidify the business, the staff and it’s reputation.

What is your studio setup like?

We have about 50 full time staff in an old TV studio space. They sit in sections, film, TVC, design, but it is open plan so they can all see and learn from each others project, and so they all have fun fighting over the air conditioning remote!

VFX Studio Iloura were represented by their director of design Stephen Van Elst.

Starting as a graphic designer, then dabbling with print making, sculpture and painting, Stephen learnt that his true joy came from motion and multi media design – the process of creating something that didn’t exist before, “taking a blank slate of film and manipulating to shoe things that weren’t there before”.

He aimed to work at Iloura as he believes them to be the best VFX studio in, if not the world, then at least the country. It was clear when Stephen was showing Iloura’s work that he has a lot of pride and joy in his role their. He admires the diverse range of skill sets within the Iloura team and although a large studio Stephen stated that “everyone gets to be a part of a working solution, everyone gets to see what’s going on.”

Another more humorous insight he gave was that the office “smells like men”, with over 70 employees and only 4 women I guess it can’t be avoided. The studio space has everyone “arms reach of each other” which allows impromptu meetings and the ability to work together seamlessly.

Having worked alongside big names such as Guillermo del Toro, James Cameron and Steven Spielberg, Stephen was questioned about what it likes working with Hollywood type clients.

He responded that “they bring a lot to the table. You think it’s perfect, then they suggest something that you resist initially because you think it’s already perfect. But you do their suggestion and it actually improves things”. Specifically about Guillermo and working on his film “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark“ Stephen remarks that he’s been fantastic to collaborate with and always very complimentary. Iloura have directed a lot of the monster scenes for the film, spending the last 2-3months working on the designs.

Another upcoming project “The Killer Elite” featuring Robert De Niro and backed by Iloura Bosses Omnilab Media has had the Iloura crew on set in Melbourne supervising the action and planning for their involvement.

Creating extensive 3d block animations although timely are required in Iloura’s process to plan out the required final features and to give the director an idea of what to shoot when he arrives at set. Stephen shows us the sketches, animations and planning that shows the large amount of work involved before production even begins on a VFX project. The case study he uses is a Drumstick ice cream ad featuring a parade of cute characters interacting with their human crowd.

One frustrating thing with putting all that work in, Van Elst admits, is that some commercials only play for 2 weeks – a car model relaunch campaign that cost a pretty penny is used as an example. Stephen also shows us some pre and post VFX film from Iloura’s first Hollywood film “Charlotte’s Web”. It was fascinating to see layer upon layer of rain, shadows, splashes, incidental movement finally the pig added to an otherwise blank backdrop of a muddy paddock. Iloura were relatively untested before doing Charlotte’s Web so they were over the moon when it received such positive industry recognition and even bagged them some awards.

As with Louise Bannister from Frankie, Stephen also noted the challenge of creating fresh ideas. The situation in particular – the 10 TV spots for SBS’ “Six Billion Stories”. Although a joy to work on and one of Stephen’s proudest moments. The ability to turnover a whole spot every 10 days, whilst also creating 10 unique and individual themes did have it’s challenges. It went on to win Iloura the Create Awards Creative of the Year 2009.