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Rising Sun Pictures has expansion plans

The Rising Sun Pictures team. 

VFX house Rising Sun Pictures (RSP), known for work on films such as Thor: RagnarokGravity and X-Men: Days of Future Past, is about to embark on new projects for Disney and 20th Century Fox, including X-Men: Dark Phoenix.

As a result of what co-founder and MD Tony Clark calls a “considerable uptick” in international production, the company intends to grow its staff numbers by almost a third, and add space and technical resources to its Adelaide studio.

RSP has just finished its first major project for a Chinese film, fantasy-adventure Animal World, and completed visual effects for Tomb Raider and Peter Rabbit.

Late last year, the South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC) launched an uncapped, non-discretionary 10 per cent rebate on post-production, digital and visual effects (PDV) rebate in a bid to attract more large budget and international productions.

Clark says this has been a magnet for high-end VFX work.

“The rebates, alongside RSP’s reputation for producing high-calibre, complex work, create a lot of opportunities,” he said.

“We compete advantageously with VFX vendors throughout the world.”

RSP expects to hire new talent across all departments and levels of experience, with the studio’s staff expected to top 280 before the end of 2018.

The studio has already brought on veteran visual effects supervisor Tom Wood, who earned a 2016 Oscar nomination for his work on Mad Max: Fury Road, and intends to continue to grow its character animation team.

RSP is also bolstering the education program it runs with the University of South Australia. It recently added a new undergraduate courses in visual effects skills and expanded its graduate certificate program.

“Our education program has become integral to what we do,” said Clark.

“It allows us to develop entry level talent who are job-ready. It’s become a very useful tool in identifying and nurturing promising young talent.”

The SAFC’s PDV rebate has also attracted Technicolor to open a $26 million VFX studio in Adelaide.