"THIS is big time movie making," says Mr Brian Johnson, who is supervising the spending of $5 million (£3.2 million) on special effects, for the science fiction comedy Spacetruckers. Later this year, Mr Johnson plans to spend £2 million setting up Ireland's first motion picture computer graphics works, using the most up to date technology available.
While the principal filming of Spacetruckers - which has a total budget of $24 million - ended last October, work on the film's visual special effects will continue at a 22,000 sq ft warehouse in Dublin's Sandyford Industrial Estate, until the end of next week.
The film will open in cinemas here next October. Special effects is a key growth sector in the film business and only very recently has Ireland's booming film industry become involved.
For Spacetruckers an entire special effects studio has been built in the old Chadwick's premises in Sandyford. There are 30 employees. When Mr Johnson's new operation starts later in the year, this is expected to increase. He has been offered a site in Wicklow for the new special effects facility. It is intended to train as many Irish people to work in the company as possible. The latest computer technology, along with camera cranes, motion control rigs and all the paraphernalia of big budget filmmaking have been installed.
Ireland is considered an attractive place to locate a special effects company because the Section 35 tax provision for filmmaking, has drawn big budget producers here. However, the recent capping of Section 35 is a "handicap", Mr Johnson says. "The big pictures may not come."
In the January budget, the Minister for Finance, Mr Quinn, announced a cap of $12 million on the amount of money that can be raised through Section 35. There has been a question mark over a forthcoming $47 million film The Heir Apparent, starring Richard Harris. It is not known how much of the film will be produced here this year.
The special effects budget for The Heir Apparent is around $10 million. Mr Johnson, who has been lined up to do the work from his Sandyford base, has said he will be bitterly disappointed if the movie now goes to England. "These movies involve a large crew and an enormous amount of money for the local economy - through per diems, wages and hotels," said Mr Johnson.
In Spacetruckers, the Dublin Civic Offices at Wood Quay have been turned into a 200 story building, using computer graphics. In American terms, Spacetruckers would be considered a low budget science fiction film but it is nevertheless a costly business.
A simple computer generated shot could cost between £7,000 and £8,000 to do. In Spacetruckers for instance, a man is punched and loses blood and a tooth in zero gravity.
A more complicated shot, where one spaceship swallows another, would involve scale models and computer graphics and could cost up to £30,000. The film also features genetically engineered "square pigs for a square meal".
Spacetruckers was directed by Mr Stewart Gordon and written by Mr Ted Mann, whose previous credits include NYPD Blue. Mr Johnson and his team have been working on Spacetruckers since last February. Unlike most types of filmmaking, special effects are chiefly created indoors and are not weather dependent. Crews can work all year round.
Mr Johnson's next project is a South African movie, called Deep River, which will be shot shortly.
Mr Johnson's previous work is a catalogue of high profile science fiction films: 2001, A Space Odyssey, Alien, The Empire Strikes Back and The Neverending Story.
Some of the workstations and engines" for his new computer graphics operation will be based in England.
The price of a fully fledged computer animation facility is enormous. Producer Mr George Lucas's Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) in San Francisco responsible for the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park - is spending $200 million on upgrading its operation.
