George Cawood and Mark Hyatt

Culver City, CA, creative studio MAKE + MODEL (www.makeandmodel.tv) represents a line-up of seven directors and visual artists for commercial work, integrating VFX and design work with live-action production. Production is headed up by executive producer Mark Hyatt (pictured above, right), who has produced more than 100 commercials in a 16-year career, including work with David Mamet and Christopher Guest; and the company’s VFX department is run by executive producer George Cawood, a 14-year veteran with work on more than 300 films, TV shows, and commercials to his credit. (Horror buffs note: Cawood was credited with the “creature concept” that informed the parasitic monster featured in 2008’s Splinter.) We asked Hyatt and Cawood five questions.

StudioDaily: What are the biggest challenges/threats facing the industry in the near future?

Mark Hyatt: Two sides of rapid innovation — good with bad. Dramatic and exciting time, but it’s a challenge to see where we’ll be in five years.

George Cawood: Fragmentation of the creative process due to the economic climate, while trying to keep up the same delivery schedules and quality levels. We’re seeing a lot of need to simply cut costs right at the top and less emphasis on investing time to R&D and finding creative solutions first. It generally ends up costing the same or more and can lead to compromises in quality and artist burnout.

SD: What are the industry’s biggest strengths at the moment?

MH: The good side of innovation makes each day more interesting than the last. Amazing time to be working in the communicative arts.

GC: Innovations in technology and a booming talent pool. There are some great new tools and a lot of up-and-coming creative minds figuring out new ways to use them.

SD: What upcoming trends could change the way people in this industry work?

MH: Social media and fragmented personal interests make content and media harder to plan. Wuantity is challenging quality.

GC: The exponential increases in the speed of our communication and data delivery systems. The ability to work remotely and globally anywhere and with anyone continues to amaze. That coupled with trends toward user-generated content and social networking will bring us genius, chaos or both.

SD: What was the project (film, TV or Web) that most impressed you in the last year? Why?

MH: I think the release of Avatar was an amazing event. Changed my view of how a film could be viewed and in many ways produced.

GC: Feature films like Inception and District 9, though a lot of the ideas seen here have also been incubated in advertising and music videos. They were visually stunning, smart, and original.

SD: The top 4 artists in your Ipod?

MH: That’s a hard question – Flaming Lips, Sonic Youth, Damien Rice and Johnny Cash.

GC: It changes constantly, but at the moment: The National, Animal Collective, El Ten Eleven, Great Northern.