Animation expert Larry Feign says Hong Kong is growing as an animation feature film hub, winning a number of international awards

New York-born cartoonist and animation artiste Larry Feign built a "North American animation" studio in Hong Kong two years ago, offering a unique combination of Western style creativity with quality Asian production and competitive costs. He has not looked back since.

Mr Feign, whose cartoons were published in a school magazine when he was seven and whose grandfather worked for the renowned Hanna-Barbera animation studio, said his one-stop STVDIO Media is targeted at an international market hungry for a cost effective, creative production services studio.

"We do it all, including planning and pre-production, from concept to finished broadcast-ready tapes," Mr Feign said. Outside of Japan, he believes STVDIO Media is one of a kind offering such services in this part of the world.   

Hong Kong, he said, contributes much to the success of the studio. "I could have set up an animation studio in many Asian countries but it would not be in the way I have done here. Hong Kong is not only the regional headquarters for many broadcasters and ad agencies - many of whom are our clients - but it is also geographically a good hub." 

Reliable and efficient infrastructure

"It is extremely important that the infrastructure is reliable," Mr Feign continued. "In some Asian countries, the phones don't work, the electricity fails half the time, the Internet is through slow modems and customs slows down the sending and receipt of videotapes and computer disks. Hong Kong is so efficient in all these areas. Our clients around the world appreciate the ease of communication with us, and our ability to reliably send materials back and forth. That is why we are in Hong Kong."

Hong Kong, according to Mr Feign, has the potential to become a centre of creative animation production. ''Hong Kong already has a good reputation for creative movie making. There already is a lot of creative talent in Cantopop music. In the field of animation, Hong Kong is showing encouraging signs of developing its own style and creativity."

He mentioned that a Hong Kong animation studio had recently won international awards for an animated feature film. "We've also won awards at the Asia Television Festival and the Banff Television Festival for an animated series. These are both firsts for Hong Kong."

STVDIO Media employs an international staff of artists, animators, musicians and writers from various countries in Europe, North America and Asia. "Often, we bring in contract staff for individual projects. They always enjoy working in Hong Kong, an exciting place for them to work and visit." 

Mr Feign said in the past year STVDIO Media has designed, co-developed and produced The AlphaJets, a new Disney series for the Asian market and several short animations for Cartoon Network Asia. Among his international clients are Yahoo, Hallmark, Coca-Cola and Wall's Ice Cream. 

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