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The Secret of the Magic GourdiQ helps Centro make fairytale come trueQuantel – technology for your business

The Secret of the Magic Gourd“For many years it has been my desire to make a film that could use special effects to createsomething wonderful for children in mainland China.”The words of John Chu, chief executive ofCentro Digital Pictures in Hong Kong, who was so committed to telling the gentle tale of theMagic Gourd using digital technology that he made his directorial debut on the film. It blendsbeautifully shot live action with CGI elements – and it all came together thanks to Centro’sQuantel iQ system.MoralityCentro Digital Pictures has been Hong Kong’sleading post production facility for more thantwo decades. From the start, John Chu hassought to drive forward the local industry,launching the effects-based movie productionbusiness in Hong Kong by acting as coproducerto get a new sort of film ontoChinese screens.The Secret of the Magic Gourd is anothermajor step forward, and again comes from thevision of John Chu himself, who wanted tocreate a new style of movie for Chinesechildren. “I travelled regularly into China tofind the right story,” he explained, “until I foundthis book, written in the 1950s by ZhangTianyi. The author is regarded as China’sHans Christian Andersen, and the story ismuch loved.”It is very much a morality tale concerning ayoung boy who is very lazy – “he gets aheadache whenever he looks at maths,” isChu’s summary – and who comes across amagic gourd which can give him whatever hewishes. As ever, you must be careful what youwish for, and the conclusion of the story isthat it is much better to work hard forsomething yourself.Having found the perfect story, Chu and hiscolleagues spent four years developing theartistic treatment. “A lot of people in Chinahad read the story in their childhood, so wehad to be faithful to the original,” he said,adding “but we needed to make it modern andcontemporary for today’s audience.”Armed with a screenplay and a treatment,John Chu set out to find a co-productionpartner, and went straight to the top inanimated family entertainment: Walt DisneyPictures. “They had been looking for projectsin China, so this was a good meeting,” Churecalled. “We are proud to have created thefirst Disney-branded co-production outsideof Hollywood.“They brought in a lot of valuable commentsduring the scripting stage and along the wayinto post, but provided we did not change thestory they trusted us to get on with it,” headded. “The entire production, animation andpost production of the film was handled inhouseby Centro.”Front cover: Still from The Magic GourdRight: John Chu, Centro Chief Executive andco-director of the filmFar right: The Magic Gourd

2116-56-530 10-08“We wanted to give life tothe gourd character, to givehim his own specialpersonality so that theaudience thinks of him as areal, living thing.”John ChuThe Secret of the Magic Gourd was released atthe beginning of July 2007, to critical acclaimand excellent response from its audience: itsbox office equalled Pixar Animation’s Cars whichopened in China at the same time last year.So with the movie on general release – andCentro back to its normal routine ofcommercials and effects work – what does JohnChu see as the next step? “This is probably thefirst time that such a new approach has beentaken in a film made specifically for the Chinesemarket with a Chinese theme,” he said. “But Ibelieve it will lead to a trend of high-budgetanimation movies in China. This is the first timethat Walt Disney and the China Film Group havecollaborated on a movie, but I hope that manymore will follow.“The Secret of the Magic Gourd is a landmarkmovie in the way it was created,” he said. “Weworked hard, using all the digital tools that iQgave us, to create something that matched theoriginal book and honoured the heirs of itsauthor: a movie that has dreams, fantasy andambition, with laughs and no violence – a funfamily film.“The Quantel iQ made the post productionprocess more creative and enjoyable,” John Chuconcluded - and the results show in the film.At a glance■■■■■Hong Kong-based Centro DigitalPictures makes first Disneybrandedco-production outsideof HollywoodMovie relies on seamlesslycombining CGI with live action tobring story to lifeProduction driven by Centro ChiefExecutive John Chu, who alsoco-directed the movieiQ central to entire post productionDI process - compositing CGI withlive action; conform; editing;color gradingMovie achieves huge boxoffice success■They all lived happily ever afterquantel.com