Siggraph

Tim Sarnoff, president of Sony Pictures Imageworks, was his usual enthusiastic self when he and other company executives sat down for a chat with industry press today. Tim said he wanted to get us together in one place to discuss the company’s current direction this year, rather than “the usual trying to find each other on the show floor at the last minute” thing that usually happens at these kinds of conclaves. (And he was right–that is how it usually goes down.)

Much of the discussion centered around the company’s global production strategy as it continues building a new facility in New Mexico to go along with a Northern California unit and a facility in India–all designed to compliment the growing Culver City campus for the company.

Despite rumors in the last year that Sony might sell Imageworks and executive changes in the Sony Digital Production Unit that parents Imageworks, it appears very much like full speed ahead with development of those initiatives, and with the company’s large production slate (Disney’s “G-Force,” a 2009 release about, yes, secret agent Guinea Pigs that will be a 3D release, Warner Bros. “Watchmen”, Sony Pictures Animation’s next CG release, “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” Bryan Singer’s “Valkarie,” and Roland Emmerich’s “2012,” among others, are all in various stages of production involving Imageworks).

Of particular emphasis from Sarnoff and fellow executives Debbie Denise and Barry Weiss, though, was the company’s ongoing industry educational efforts through its IPAX program involving 18 animation schools, and more generally, seeing the company, Siggraph, and the industry at large evolve back into the kind of “community of artists and engineers that help and mentor each-other that it used to be,” from Sarnoff’s point of view.

Thus, expansion of the IPAX program and other educational initiatives seemed every bit as important to the company executives as their other initiatives today. They hinted that Imageworks will have a major announcement on Wednesday about a new collaborative effort to expand the IPAX collaboration and offer new mentoring and learning opportunities for young industry professionals.

–MG