Meteor Studios
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| Industry | Animation |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2001 |
| Founder |
|
| Defunct | 2007 |
| Headquarters | , Canada |
Key people | Pierre De Lespinois |
Meteor Studios was a Canadian production company based in Montreal that worked in computer animation for many films and TV series. Founded in 2001 by director Pierre De Lespinois and parent company Discovery Communications, the company specialized in creating "realistic CG on TV budgets".[1] In 2002, it won an Emmy Award in association with the Discovery Channel for Walking With Prehistoric Beasts.[2][3]
Background
The company was co-founded in January 2001 by director Pierre De Lespinois, who was based in Los Angeles, California, and Discovery Communications, based in Bethesda, Maryland.[1] De Lespinois, who had created the HDTV series, The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne,[4] became president of Meteor Studios, while continuing to run Evergreen Films, his HD live-action company.[1]
The initial impetus was to set up a facility that could provide a steady supply of cost-effective computer graphics for Discovery programming.[1] Meteor Studios built CG libraries of dinosaurs, ancient architecture, and weather phenomena, to produce visual effects which had proven popular in movies, for television.[1]
The company also saved on costs by using "previsualization" tools to produce test composites in the field after each shot.[5] Rather than waiting until post-production to see how the computer-generated and drawn elements worked together with the actual background and actors, the director was able to assess immediately whether the desired shots had been captured or not, and minimize film crew costs.[5]
The main office was housed in the old Northern Electric Building in Pointe St. Charles near the Lachine Canal in southwestern Montreal, Canada.[6]
Projects
Its highly rated works included When Dinosaurs Roamed America on the Discovery Channel, which had more than 500 scenes integrating CG into live-action HD.[1] In 2002, it shared an Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program One Hour or More with the Discovery Channel for Walking With Prehistoric Beasts.[3]
For the historical action movie 300, Meteor Studios posted 250 shots to portray liquids, including a large amount of spraying blood.[7]
In 2007, Playback reported that Meteor Studios was venturing into 3D VFX for the first time, for Journey to the Center of the Earth to be released the following year.[8]
Bankruptcy
The studios closed in November 2007 and filed for bankruptcy.[9][10] In September 2009, 130 mainly Canadian artists accepted an offer to recoup 70 percent of compensation owed to them by Discovery Trademark Holding Co. Inc. and Evergreen Digital LLC.[9]
Filmography
- Catwoman (2004)
- Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004)
- Exorcist: The Beginning (2004)
- Fantastic Four (2005)
- Final Destination 3 (2006)
- Slither (2006)
- 300 (2006)
- Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008)
Television
- When Dinosaurs Roamed America (2001)
- Valley of the T-Rex (2001)
- Walking With Prehistoric Beasts (2001)[3]
- Engineering the Impossible (2002)
- Chasing Giants: On the Trail of the Giant Squid (2002)
- What Killed the Mega Beasts? (2002)
- Before We Ruled the Earth (2003)
- Extreme Engineering (2003)
- Giant Monsters (2003)
- Dinosaur Planet (2003)
- The Dinosaur Feather Mystery (2004)
- Alien Planet (2005)
- Dino Lab (2006)
- T. rex: New Science, New Beast (2006)
- Baby Mammoth (2007)
References
- ^ a b c d e f Wolff, Ellen (July 2002). "Meteor Studios". Millimeter. Vol. 30, no. 7. pp. 18–22. Retrieved October 28, 2022 – via ProQuest.
- ^ Schneider, Michael (September 22, 2002). "Emmys' new best 'Friends'". Variety. Retrieved October 30, 2022.
- ^ a b c "Dinos and Futurama Rule at Emmy Awards". Animation World Network. September 16, 2002. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
- ^ Kaufman, Debra (January 6, 2010). "CES' 3D focus". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
- ^ a b Whitney, Daisy (June 10, 2002). "Production getting more productive". Electronic Media. Vol. 21, no. 23. Chicago. p. 10. Retrieved October 28, 2022 – via ProQuest.
- ^ Griffin, John (July 9, 2005). "Meteor streaks into effects orbit". The Gazette. Montreal, Quebec. Retrieved October 29, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Davidson, Sean (March 6, 2006). "Meteor hits 300". Playback: Canada's Broadcast and Production Journal. p. 18. Retrieved October 28, 2022 – via ProQuest.
- ^ Stewart, Lianne (April 30, 2007). "How did they do that? Meteor Journeys deep into 3D". Playback: Canada's Broadcast and Production Journal. p. 31. Retrieved October 28, 2022 – via ProQuest.
- ^ a b King, Mike (2009). "Special-effects artists accept pay deal". The Gazette. Montreal, Quebec. Retrieved October 28, 2022.
- ^ "Ex-Meteor Studios workers seek pay". Playback Online. July 21, 2008. Retrieved July 6, 2011.
External links
- "Meteor Studios" (2002) on DigitalContentProducer.com (archived)