Cause & f(x)

Has Cause, Needs Effect

For Kai Bovaird, owner of visual effects firm Cause & f(x), landing a gig supervising visual effects for the hit television show Lost wasn't exactly a coup. Sure, he was excited about the work and appreciated the opportunity, but when it came down to it, Bovaird says, "There's really not a lot of people here who have my level of expertise. So the list was very short."

In most other industries, businesses would be thrilled with the lack of competition, but in the case of special effects and computer animation, Bovaird says, for now, at least, more is merrier. "Compared with what local budgets and expectations are for production work, even for things like commercials, our services are on the mid- to high end," says Bovaird, whose rates range from $5,000 to around $90,000, depending on the project. "It's been challenging to convince people out here to spend the money to create these sorts of high-end projects, because they haven't really been exposed to the kind of work we do, because there aren't too many firms out here."

DOUBLE VISION: Photographer Jimmy Forrest applied some special effects of his own to Cause & f(x) founder Kai Bovaird. photo illustration: Jimmy Forrest

In particular, Bovaird hopes to educate local businesses about one of the company's core competencies, computer animation, which is already big business on the Mainland. Nationally, the field of computer animation is highly competitive, and one research firm estimates that, by 2009, it will be a $33 billion industry. Bovaird hopes to capture a small chunk of that market, and he hopes he doesn't have to move back to his hometown of Los Angeles to do it: "I have a vision that we can raise the bar on the quality of production work out here in Hawaii, and offer something that's par for par, or better than the products you'd find on the Mainland."

He's making slow, but steady progress by hosting free training seminars and informational group meetings to demonstrate the power of the technology. The company also does sample projects for potential customers--commercials, for example--that illustrate the difference between low-budget and quality animation.

At least one local business has taken notice. Recently, Cause & f(x) began work on an as-yet-unnamed animated television series, about something similar to Lilo and Stitch, according to Bovaird. At press time, he couldn't disclose much about it, other than that the owners reside on Kauai and haven't inked any television deals yet. Okay, okay ... So it's not exactly on par with Lost, but Bovaird says it's exactly the sort of project he'd like to see more of.

>> ILLUSTRATING THE INDUSTRY

• In 2004, there were 94,000 multi-media artists and animators employed nationwide. • The median annual earnings of salaried multi-media artists and animators are $50,360. Median annual earnings were $67,390 in motion picture and video industries and $46,810 in advertising and related services. • In 2003, computer animation was a $27.7 billion industry in America. It is expected to grow to $32.7 billion by 2009. • More than 1 million animation systems and software packages were sold in 2003. A little over 36 percent of those are used daily in the production of commercial computer animation and visual effects. • The first Oscar for the best feature-length animation film was given out in 2002. Sources: U.S. Dept. of Labor, The Roncarelli Report

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