The Mill has stepped up its commitment to the American market, officially opening its Chicago studio today to complement ramped up operations in New York City and Los Angeles. Each of the latter two–New York which was launched in 2002, and the L.A. shop, which opened in 2007–is pretty much on par in size, scope, staff and resources with The Mill’s original, ongoing studio in London. And Robin Shenfield, CEO of The Mill, now equally divides his time between the U.S. and U.K., further underscoring that The Mill has fully become a global visual effects and design studio.
While maintaining his CEO role, Shenfield has succeeded Alistair Thompson on an interim basis as managing director of The Mill New York, working with the sr. management team there, including executive creative director Angus Kneale, and head of production Sean Costelloe. Thompson has been promoted to executive VP, international, taking on new, more encompassing responsibilities at The Mill, spanning new business development, sales and serving clients across North America and into the U.K., working closely with the heads of The Mill’s operations–managing director Ben Hampshire in L.A., executive producer Jared Yeater in the Chicago studio, Shenfield in N.Y., and Darren O’Kelly, London’s managing director. Shenfield said his plan is to eventually name a new managing director in N.Y. but there is no pressing timetable for him to make that appointment.
Yeater assumes the Midwest mantle of exec producer and head of The Mill Chicago, coming over from The Mill New York, continuing a company pattern of promoting from within. Thompson, for example, had been sr. producer at The Mill London before taking the helm in N.Y. Hampshire too was at The Mill London before assuming the lead role in Los Angeles. And O’Kelly came up the ranks at The Mill London before taking on managing director duties there. This continuity, said Shenfield–who launched The Mill in the U.K. with chief creative officer Pat Joseph in 1990–has helped to make the creative culture and the approach to the work consistent across all the company’s studios.
The decision to open a Chicago shop was sparked by the same dynamics which led to the formation of the N.Y. and L.A. operations. When The Mill was solely in London, U.S. commercials still represented a significant percentage of the studio’s visual effects work . Shenfield estimated that stateside spots accounted for some 20 percent of The Mill’s business back then. New York agencies, though, expressed a desire to have a Mill operation closer to home. Similarly years later, N.Y. agency clients shooting in L.A.–and the West Coast agency market itself–also wanted a Mill shop in Southern California. And in recent years, Chicago agency business has grown at The Mill, necessitating the creation of a studio cradled in that community’s own backyard. Over the years, that 20 percent stateside share of The Mill’s business has blossomed to an estimated 65 percent, according to Shenfield.
The ensemble of sr. staff talent at The Mill Chicago, includes: head of 2D Randy McEntee, formerly with The Mill NY; Steve Beck, head of 3D, who comes over from The Mill LA; producer Andrew Sommerville, previously with The Mill London; sr. Flame artist Melissa Graff, an alum of The Mill New York; head of design Bowe King, also from The Mill NY; and colorist Sal Malfitano, another Mill NY artisan. The Mill’s Chicago operation includes three Flames, a telecine room, and other compositing/design/CG resources.
At press time, The Mill Chicago was working on eight jobs for Chicago agencies, including Energy BBDO, Havas, Ogilvy, mcgarrybowen, DDB, Y&R, and Leo Burnett. Prior Chicago agency spot credits for The Mill include Hallmark’s “Motherbird” and Nintendo’s “Who will bring the light” for Leo Burnett, Wrigley’s “5 React Gum” for Energy BBDO, State Farm’s “State of Chaos” and Emerson’s “Wolf” for DDB, and Cars.com’s “Wolf” and Sears’ “Matching” for mcgarrybowen.
Chicago quarters
The Mill’s Chicago studio shares premises with editorial house The Whitehouse in the landmark Courthouse Place building. While The Whitehouse has a long and storied history in Chicago (dating back to its predecessor Windy City shop The Lookinglass Company), The Mill and The Whitehouse also share a past. “Our two companies were established a block apart in London more than 20 years ago and their editor/partner in Chicago, Matthew Wood, actually began his career at The Mill in London so we have a terrific history of working alongside each other,” said Shenfield.
The Mill and The Whitehouse are autonomous operations yet can work together as select projects dictate. Those collaborations can be facilitated by the two Chicago entities being in the same building, providing clients an integrated end-to-end solution and seamless workflow spanning visual effects and editorial.
All of The Mill’s offices have connectivity in place, bringing together creative talent and resources that can be marshalled to accommodate projects, sharing work and expertise. That talent base includes some 55 CG artists in London, about the same number in New York and 40 CG artists in L.A. Collectively there are some 14 colorists at The Mill with a great deal of remote color grading going on from office to office. Shenfield noted that this connectivity is essential as agencies increasingly are “looking at doing quite complex projects across lots of media, building digital assets that can be used from project to project, campaign to campaign, creating work deployed across North America and internationally.”
In addition to its core business with VFX studios in the U.S. and U.K., The Mill maintains Beam which provides content distribution via a fast, secure global network to broadcasters, clients and other outlets/screens. Beam also offers other services such as digital asset storage and management. Additionally, The Mill has a small VFX/design division in Singapore that works with agency BBH. And on the longer form front, The Mill operates its Mill Film boutique in London which has been most active in visual effects for TV (including its seventh season of the BBC sci-fi show Doctor Who) and to a lesser extent feature films, the latest high-profile example being Snow White and The Huntsman, marking The Mill’s first involvement in a VFX Oscar-nominated film in about a dozen years. Mill Film created the “mirror man” sequence for the Universal Pictures movie.
VFX marketplace
The Mill’s growth and ambitious expansion stateside would seem to fly in the face of what are challenging financial times for the visual effects industry, underscored by the recent Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing of Rhythm & Hues, which was the lead effects house on this year’s VFX Oscar-winning Life of Pi.
Shenfield noted, though, that The Mill’s core business is rooted in the advertising industry, not feature films, which makes all the difference in the world. Shenfield observed that the ad sector is far more stable than the feature business.
The business of doing visual effects for features has “great volatility,” related Shenfield. “People were surprised when we scaled back our film business back in 2002 after a great five-year run, winning the [VFX] Oscar for Gladiator, doing effects for the first Tomb Raider film, Black Hawk Down for Ridley [Scott], the first couple of Harry Potter movies. Working in features is creatively very stimulating. But so are commercials where business relationships have greater continuity. We’ve grown to being a truly collaborative partner with lots of our agency clients. We’re working together on projects and they look to us to solve problems and meet challenges. They come back to us [with repeat business] and are very supportive people. People who said they would support us when we opened in New York never flinched from doing so. These are people who do what they say.”
Meanwhile, continued Shenfield, all roads in the film business lead to a relatively small number of major feature studios where decisions are heavily influenced by tax breaks as different places such as India, New Zealand, China and Eastern Europe have become highly competitive. And VFX houses vying for this work have to maintain “a standing army” of people to take on huge, complex shots and sequences that need to be done within a tight turnaround time. The VFX business for features, noted Shenfield, is “globally mobile, highly influenced by tax breaks and foreign exchange yet requires effects studios to maintain a fixed infrastructure, heavy investments in technology and people. It’s a difficult business model to work in, extremely volatile,” with challenged margins.
The “fluctuations” in the feature arena are what led The Mill to scale down to a boutique film operation in the U.K. while upping its commitment to and investment in the advertising business. “The ad market is growing,” said Shenfield. “There’s a growing demand for creating moving imagery across all media in advertising. People go right past things that don’t engage them so imagery in ad content has grown in importance. We find the advertising markets in the U.S. and U.K. are growing, with the U.S. proportionally representing a huge share.” This has spurred on the growth of The Mill’s studios in N.Y. and L.A., and the decision to now open in Chicago.
