Reader Mail: Sony Sells Imageworks

Posted by Dominic von Riedemann Nov 6, 2007

I received a note from Don Levy, vice president of marketing and communications at Sony Pictures Digital, in response to my November 1st story about Sony possibly selling half of their animation division, and considerably more of their Imageworks effects house.

"Hi Dominic...Don Levy at Sony Pictures here...just wanted to ring in with a note on your Nov. 1 post. There is one mischaracterization that I'd like to correct.

"Rather than laying off workers between animated projects, as the post suggests, Imageworks operates as a digital production studio for both live action and animated movies, including the movies produced by Sony Pictures Animation.

"As such, Imageworks houses the majority of the production artists and animators. Your post is correct to state that we are able to produce animated features for approximately 2/3 the cost of comparable films, however, this is largely due to our ability to leverage all of the resources at Imageworks and assign artists to either live action visual effects projects or Sony Pictures Animation features."

Thanks for pointing that out, Don. So, instead of dumping CGI animators between projects, Imageworks turns them into FX guys for CGI-heavy blockbuster flicks. Which is why Sony hopes to find a single buyer for both the Imageworks and animation divisions, to make the paperwork a little less intense.

Actually, I read through the New York Times article again and found this line: "Saving money on downsizing and ramping up between animated films means those films can be made at two-thirds the cost of films by rivals like Pixar and DreamWorks Animation, the company says."

So yes, Sony doesn't plan to dump and rehire animators and other FX types between projects. My bad.