Rising outsourcing order brings jobs at home base

CEBU, Philippines - Cebuano artists need not look far for that greener pasture as Cebu-based outsourcing companies catering to Hollywood movie production are expanding owing to the increasing demand for offshore works outside the United States.

Hirota Paint Industries (HPI), which currently is doing visual effects editing, and other animation solutions for hit movies like G.I. Joe, Ninja Assasin, Australia, among others is expanding its operations in Cebu and will be needing more graphic artists.

In an interview with Reggie Magalso of HPI he said that the company which has been operating in Cebu for over a year now, will be expanding its pool of graphic artists as demand for Hollywood outsourcing have increased.

Currently, the company maintained six graphic artists to do the animation solutions of its clients in Hollywood, Magalso said HPI will be doubling the number of graphic artists in the next few months.

Preferably, the company is looking for talents with fine arts background, and high computer literacy, although HPI will be training its people to achieve the Hollywood standard.

According to Magalso, Cebu has a good pool of talents, which is highly trainable, thus making Cebu operations competitive from other countries, like India and Thailand.

HPI maintains its headquarters in Los Angeles, California, as is now getting increasing number of clients from Hollywood film producers.

Meanwhile, Hollywood outsourcing firm, VersaGrafx Designs Philippines Inc., is going to set up the first Graphic Arts Academy in Cebu to hone local talents, and strengthen the investment-drawer creative industry here.

VersaGrafx Designs Philippines, which has been doing conceptualization and designing jobs for film promotional materials of Hollywood movie production companies, will be setting up a 100-seat Graphic Arts Academy within this year, or early 2010, as Cebu is hit by tremendous exodus of graphic artists, landing high-paying jobs in Canada, Dubai, Singapore and the United States.

In an earlier interview with VersaGrafix creative director Junny D. Mahilum he said that there is a need for Cebu to provide a good pool of talented and world-class graphic artists as this kind of talent is now becoming one of the most in-demand jobs in the world, yet is probably “overlooked” by some educational institutions.

Currently, six-man team of VersaGrafix had been working for several movie post production collaterals, including Brad Pitt’s newest and upcoming movie called “In Glorious Bastards” by Paramount Pictures and Weinstien Studios; Transformer 2; The Punisher, among others.

These Cebuano graphic artists had done the conceptualization designs for Hollywood box-office hits such as Rambo, Spiderman, Jessica Alba’s-The Eye, Legally Blond-2, Iron Man, Saw IV and 200 more hit movies.

The company’s designing process involves a review of cinematographic materials and on-location shoots and still photographs to be used in the conceptualization and design.

Both HPI and VersaGrafix believe that Cebu has the potential to attract the multi-billion-dollar Hollywood outsourcing market especially if the province will produce more talented graphic artists.