Rising Sun Pictures in Adelaide creates special effects for world's top directors; wins export award in 2023, 2024
Some of the global and Australian films and television series that have used Rising Sun Pictures' special effects.
Image courtesy Rising Sun Pictures
Adelaide's Rising Sun Pictures, acknowledged globally as an outstanding visual effects contributor to major film studios such as Disney, Marvel Studios and Warner Bros, won the 2024 South Australian premier’s export award for creative industries for the second year in a row.
Rising Sun Pictures became a global leader in visual effects, using advanced technologies, including machine learning, to enhance content creation. the company was named after an Adelaide eastern suburbs hotel, the Rising Sun Inn, where Emmy Award-winning cinema photographer Tony Clark (later managing director), Wayne Lewis and Gail Fuller, all in their later 20s in pre-Google/Facebook 1995, had a vision that South Australia could be their base for contributing to the coming huge impact of computer graphics in film making.
Rising Sun Pictures, competing with special-effects houses worldwide, saw more potential in combining its Adelaide lifestyle advantages with embracing emerging technologies like virtual and augmented reality. The company also bolstered the education programme it ran with the University of South Australia by adding an undergraduate courses in visual effects skills and expanded its graduate certificate programme. By 2024, more than 208 students have launched their careers in the industry, with more that 70 at Rising Sun Pictures.
The university course graduates joined company's 350 professionals based in South Australia and more than 400 nationally. Rising Sun Prictures president Jennie Zeiher said the company;s growth has been achieved with the support of our South Australian network of government, industry, talent, and partnerships: "The unique access and support we receive here are unmatched anywhere else in the world. This not only benefits Rising Sun Pictures but also places South Australia and our creative industries prominently on the global map.”
Rising Sun Pictures, based in a Pulteney Street, Adelaide city, studio, was sold to Los Angeles-based FuseFX in 2021 but it said the partnership would help it grow on its international success, being part of combined companies with 800 artists in eight locations worldwide. Rising Sun Pictures digital artists had one oft heir busiest years in 2021, working on a range from Hollywood epics such as Marvel film Thor: Love and Thunder to Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis Presley biopic starring Tom Hanks. They had finished working on Netflix series Cowboy Bebop, Marvel film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, horror picture Candyman, Disney film Jungle Cruise, starring Dwayne Johnson, and Tom Hanks sci-fi drama Finch. With Marvel, Disney and Netflix developing many series, Rising Sun Pictures had moved from predominantly a feature house to about 50-50 features and series.
Adelaide technological strength was recruited by Rising Pictures, with researchers from the University of Adelaide’s Australian Institute for Machine Learning joining it to create visual effects for Marvel blockbuster Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. They developed a novel technique using AI (artificial intelligence) to replace the face of stunt performers with key actors' in combat scenes
Rising Sun Pictures had its special visual effects featured in the films of some of the world’s top directors, including Steven Spielberg and James Cameron,and for blockbuster film series such as Harry Potter, Hunger Games and X-Men. Its film portfolio also included Peter Rabbit, The Great Gatsby, Thor: Ragnarok, Gravity, Tomb Raider and Mortal Kombat. Completing its first Chinese film project in 2018, Rising Sun added Captain Marvel to its superhero firm work. It also contributed to television streaming blockbuster Game of Thrones.