You might assume that FMX — Europe’s biggest conference on digital entertainment — may hold little interest for you, especially with the cost of travel these days. But you are likely wrong.

Don’t go because it’s all in English, or for the wonderful presentations, or even the mind boggling array of master classes and other learning opportunities. Don’t go for the massive industry recruitment events. Don’t even go for the wild, sponsored, hair-come-down parties (well maybe for the parties) Go because solid American talent is in high demand.

For me the most compelling reason to go ‘ the one that justifies the expense and the time ‘ is the opportunity to network like a crazy person. I’m not talking about networking with people you’ll probably never deal with again. I’m talking people you want to know, that will open opportunities you never considered before. In addition to a large cadre of American film makers you’ll find truly talented ones from all corners of the globe. When I first started to attend FMX I was astounded by the talent and skill of film makers in countries I never even thought about. Now I know people in places like Bulgaria, Lithuania, Macedonia, and Serbia. I especially know and have friends in Prague. I can’t emphasize enough that coming to FMX will open new pathways to opportunity and friendship that you will never find back home. With the internet and cheap international calling connections are easy to maintain. With highspeed infrastructure you can easily set up video conferencing to stay on top of your production from the US or anyplace else. Why do you think that Rhythm & Hues and Imageworks have developed extensive facilities in India and elsewhere?

You’ll find sophisticated Asian and Eastern European connections that can help you get your film made. Some of them can help you find financial assistance you never even knew existed. In my own case I’ve met the CEO’s of many studios across the globe that can handle almost any part of film making and save you tons of cash. I don’t like the idea of out sourcing any more than you do, but when you want to get your film made, and it costs too much, FMX could save your butt.

If you’re a little more advanced in your career with more resources you’ll find all the significant Western Europe resources at your finger tips. Have an espresso with the head of a Studio…make connections.

If you’re a film student who’s running out of money and blew out your credit card on this trip…think about applying to one of the world’s best film schools, the Film Academy Baden-Wuerttemberg, where you’ll find the cutting edge Institute for Animation, Visual Effects and Digital Postproduction. The cost of going to this prestigious school is zip. Sure you have to be an outstanding candidate to get in, but if you don’t believe in yourself, FMX is not for you anyway.

Every year I meet new, fascinating, and influential Hollywood connections at FMX. You’ll find hundreds of smart fellow Americans in the crowd. That’s another thing. FMX feels friendly all around. German Gemà¼tlichkeit is the real deal. Hard to reach American film people let their hair down, love it here. An executive you might have difficulty getting in to see back in Hollywood might well have a beer with you. Another point — the beer is important here in Germany, but Stuttgart is famous for its fine local wines and they’ve been making them for more than a thousand years. (Listed below are just a few of the Hollywood people you’ll likely see presenting, and walking around at FMX.)

Over the last year I’ve seen news trend developing throughout the entertainment industry that are clearly reflected in the talks at FMX. One is the internationalization of Hollywood. I’m not sure how I feel about it, but that’s a moot point, It’s happening. Major studios are building facilities where labor is more affordable and people are available. A studio in Bulgaria can pay a quarter or less than we pay in Hollywood for a well trained VFX Animator. That animator will still be making what is considered there, a very high salary. I’ve actually met Americans how have gone overseas to work for far less money because it affords them a better standard of living. If you’re interested you can meet all sorts of outsourcing resources at FMX..

The second trend is pipeline evolution. I’ll admit up front that I am biased. As a founder of the 5D Conference on immersive narrative media design, I feel it’s time to recognize that everything is changing rapidly in narrative media, from theater to film to games. Everything is getting more complex and technology is often seen as the 800 pound gorilla in the room that people are trying to ignore. The trend I see is that art and technology are evolving from near opposites, to part of the same continuum. Art is inspiring technology and technology is providing artists with new tools. New tools allow artists to stretch their creativity beyond earlier bounds. From now on, designing new media is going to require minds open to new ways of working and technology in service of design..

Key to the new design pipeline is the immersive/collaborative work environment. The new tools that Scott Singer will be talking about will allow writers, designers, graphic artists and animators to provide near instant feedback not only among themselves but to film makers, helping directors to refine their vision on the fly. This changes everything. .

Production Designer Alex McDowell is spear heading an international movement to help Art Director, Production Designers, TDs, Animators, Writer, Producers and Directors all function more effectively in immersive technology enhanced collaborative work environments that provide instant feedback loops and real-time mid-course correction. These environments will streamline the production process in the ways we need to stay within budget while producing cutting edge narrative media.

The 5D conference scheduled for October at the UC Long Beach Art Museum will pick up this topic and beat it around with some of the most innovative and forward looking thinkers in America. The idea is that the new technology will be designed to make transition to immersive design environments as intuitive as possible, keeping all that technological stuff as transparent as possible. The 5D conference is affiliated with FMX in an international effort to prepare traditional artists and designers for the changes that are upon us.

In addition to exceptional speakers from all over the world, here are some special people you might find interesting, in no particular order:

Glenn Entis – Academy Award Winner, Entis is a pioneer in most forms of digital entertainment. A cofounder of Pacific Data Images (PDI) with Carl Rhosendahl and Richard Chuang he wrote some of the first and best 3D software early in the game. Being blessed with both technical and artistic vision he is now SVP, Chief Visual and Technical Officer, Worldwide Studios, Electronic Arts

Paul Debevec ‘ Academy Award winning director of graphics research at USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies (USC ICT,) and a research associate professor at USC’s Department of Computer Science. Paul will give two very important talks, one on a newly invented hologram like 3D live display system —it’s eerie. And an extremely important talk on capturing and lighting super-realistic facial performances. Paul is a great speaker who is always extremely well prepared with plenty of visuals. Somehow he makes very complex subjects understandable even to me.

Sharon Callahan ‘ Another very special lighting person. Sharon is Director of Photography at PIXAR and helped make my first book on 3D animation a worldwide best seller. She’ll be talking about how she achieved those amazingly lush colors in the Disney PIXAR film: Rattatouli. She’ll also be on a panel with Alex McDowell. Sharon is a wonderful very visual speaker and she’ll have you feeling her passion for the work she does.

Carlos Baena ‘ Is a very talented animator whose career I’ve followed for several years. He’s a academy award nominated six year veteran of ILM. Baena will be speaking at the Virtual Humans Forum that I host. He’ll be examining differences in the animation of photo real virtual humans, and his realistic but highly stylize ones at PIXAR.

Chris Watts ‘ Inventor of the Digital Intermediate process, and Award winning VFX supervisor on 300, Chris will be examining the overlapping roles of the visual effects supervisor, the cinematographer, and the production designer, on today’s digital-intensive productions. He will also then join Alex McDowell, Sharon Callahan, Alex Laurant and Sven Martin an important panel discussion of how these roll are rapidly evolving.
Debbie Denise – Debbie is Executive VP, Production Infrastructure and Executive Producer at Sony Pictures Imageworks. I’d hate to have to put all that on my business card. She will be presenting in tandum with:

Jenny Fulle – Jenny is EVP and Executive Producer at Imageworks as well.
There is a growing trend for big VFX studios to reach out and build production facilities outside Hollywood. Debbie and Jenny will be talking with us about how Imageworks is building a network of production satellites as far away as India, and how they’re integrating those pipelines with their main facilities. Expect a well prepared and highly visual presentation from two experts.

Alex McDowell -Alex McDowell is probably hottest Production Designer in film these days. His range is remarkable when you consider he designed everything from The Crow, through, Fight Club and then on to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to Bee Movie, plus dozens of others including the soon to be released Zack Snyder film:”Watchman.” He’s currently working with DreamWorks developing a terrific new venue that I can’t talk about. All I can tell you is that it will be a major new venue with fabulous characters. With Alex involve it will be a winner. He’s also the founder and leader of The Matter Group, a team of hotshot new-media consultants that can deploy to various companies and projects as needed. Alex refers to it as “The swat team of new media design.” Their combined experience can save companies millions. Look for Watchman soon to be released. Alex designed the film based on the Alan Moore graphic novel, illustrated by Dave Gibbons. I’ve seen the amazing sets. The films look will be faithful to the novel yet with Alex’s special touch, and is going to blow your socks off.

David Sproxton ‘ Is a world class raconteur. I can listen to him for hours. As head of Aardman Studios, he’s been responsible for some of the world’s most beloved stop motion and digital films including: the Wallace and Gromit series, Creature Comforts, Chicken Little, Flushed Away, Shaun the Sheep and dozens of other enchanting animated features and shorts. David will be joined by Head of CG Alan Short, and Director Louis Cook to discuss how they made their multi award winning animated film The Pearce Sisters. I don’t know Louis personally but Alan Short is a very entertaining guy.

Dave Hanson ‘ Heads Hanson Robotics and is going to help lead us all into the future. He’s a visionary who’s now famous “Zeno” robot has charmed people around the globe. Zeno’s brain is a variant of the academy award winning Massive Software, the intelligent crowd simulation system developed by Stephen Regelous for Lord of the Rings.

Alex Laurant ‘ is one of those valuable people with the soul of an artist and a fascination for technology. Currently an Art Director at LucasArts, He started working on big effects films at ILM. He’s gone from a top position in film VFX to a top position in game design. He confessed to me he’s not even a big gamer, but he loves how games are going and sees art as one crucial area for the development process to take the next step. “I moved away from pixel polishing when I became fascinated with the idea birthing process. I’ve found that by using visuals as a story creation tool, it’s possible to have art drive and inspire the entire development process.”

I’m pleased to say that I’m seeing a trend to having the artistry drive the technology rather than the other way round, but more
about Alex.

As part of the VFX team at ILM he was nominated for the VES Best Visual Effects Art Direction Award for his work on Minority Report. Alex’s deep understanding of architecture, art and technology make him well prepared to design the new media experiences. After ILM, Laurant spent two years at Electronic Arts in the UK as an art director. Now he’s back in the Lucas Fold. “It’s like coming full circle because Lucas Arts is housed on the same campus as ILM, in San Francisco.”

At FMX he’ll be talking about the coming evolution of games into more immersive experiences with an interactive movie like feel. He’ll discuss in depth what it is like for someone making the crossover, comparing and contrasting visual design issues between games and film with plenty of visual examples. I’m planning on attending his presentation. Perhaps we’ll meet all meet there.

Scott Singer – Dreamwork’s Scott Singer is known not only for his creative hair, but also as a forward looking VFX supervisor. He’s been involved with many DreamWork’s productions and was VFX Sup on Madagascar. But Scott is looking ahead towards building a core technical foundation with tools to help artist achieve more than they ever thought possible. Scott heavily into developing both Previz and stereo vision, towards immersive experiences that will help filmmakers expand their creative vision on the fly.