Rhythm & Hues Studios (R&H) was an American visual effects and animation company founded in 1987, that received the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects in 1995 for Babe, in 2007 for The Golden Compass, and in 2012 for Life of Pi. It also received four Scientific and Technical Academy Awards.
The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in early 2013. It was then purchased by an affiliate of Prana Studios, 34x118 Holdings, LLC, but retained the same name.
History 1987 Rhythm & Hues Studios was established in Los Angeles, California in 1987 by former employees of Robert Abel and Associates (John Hughes, Pauline Ts'o, Keith Goldfarb, Cliff Boule, Frank Wuts and Charles Gibson).[Zahed, Ramin. "Beyond Talking Pigs and Chipmunks ". Animation Magazine, April 2, 2012]
In 1999, Rhythm & Hues Studios acquired visual effects house VIFX from 20th Century Fox.
2007 Director Ang Lee approached Rhythm & Hues in August 2009 to discuss a planned film adaptation of the fantasy novel Life of Pi.'Life of Pi's' digital magic . Los Angeles Times, January 18, 2013EXCLUSIVE: Life of Pi's Stunning Effects . The Daily (News Corporation), November 26, 2012 R&H VFX (Visual Effects) Supervisor Bill Westenhofer noted that Lee "knew we had done the lion in the first Narnia movie. He asked, 'Does a digital character look more or less real in 3D?' We looked at each other and thought that was a pretty good question." He also stated that during these meetings, Lee said, "'I look forward to making art with you.' This was really for me one of the most rewarding things I've worked on and the first chance to really combine art with VFX. Every shot was artistic exploration, to make the ocean a character and make it interesting we had to strive to make it as visually stunning as possible.""Life of Pi: a tiger's tale" , Fxguide, November 26, 2012
By 2012, the company had become a global one, with offices and artists in India (the Mumbai suburb of Malad and HITEC City which is a part of Hyderabad), Malaysia (Cyberjaya just outside Kuala Lumpur), Canada (Vancouver), and Taiwan (Kaohsiung).Rhythm & Hues Taps NVIDIA Technology for Life of Pi . Animation World Network, November 26, 2012A First Mate Bares His Fangs: Creating a Tiger for ‘Life of Pi’ . The New York Times, November 16, 2012Rhythm & Hues Makes Skies Soar , Computer Graphics World, November 27, 2012
Rhythm & Hues spent a year on research and development, "building upon its already vast knowledge of CGI animation" to develop the tiger.Vfx team dares to take tiger by the tail . Variety (magazine), December 15, 2012 Artist Abdul Rahman in the Malaysian branch underscored the global nature of the effects process, saying that "the special thing about Life of Pi is that it was the first time we did something called remote rendering, where we engaged our cloud infrastructure in Taiwan called CAVE (Cloud Animation and Visual Effects)"."Local touch to Life Of Pi" , New Straits Times, November 26, 2012
The resulting film, Life of Pi, was released in theaters in November 2012, and was a critical and commercial success. The British Film Institute's Sight & Sound magazine suggested that, "Life of Pi can be seen as the film Rhythm & Hues has been building up to all these years, by taking things they learned from each production from Cats & Dogs to Yogi Bear, integrating their animals in different situations and environments, pushing them to do more, and understanding how all of this can succeed both visually and dramatically."Video essay: The animal menagerie of Rhythm and Hues ". British Film Institute's Sight & Sound magazine, December 21, 2012
2013–2020 On February 11, 2013, Rhythm & Hues Studios filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11, three months after Life of Pi was released. Around 254 people were laid off at that time. This led to a demonstration of nearly 500 VFX artists who protested outside of the 2013 Academy Awards, as Rhythm & Hues was nominated for an Oscar (which it won) for Life of Pi. Inside, during the Oscars, when R&H visual effects supervisor Bill Westenhofer brought up R&H during his acceptance speech for Life of Pi, the microphone was cut off as the music of Jaws slowly took over. This started an uproar among many visual effects industry professionals, changing profile pictures on social media such as Facebook and Twitter to show the green key color, in order to raise awareness of general negative trends in the effects industry. In addition, director Ang Lee was heavily criticized by the community for not acknowledging their work in the effects-laden film in his acceptance speech, despite thanking many other people, and for earlier having complained about the costs of visual effects.
On March 29, 2013, an affiliate of Prana Studios, 34x118 Holdings, LLC, won the bidding on Rhythm and Hues in a bankruptcy auction."Two-Day Roller Coaster Ends Delivers L.A. VFX Studio to Indian Owners ". Variety, March 28, 2013. The sale was "valued at about $30 million"."Rhythm & Hues finalizes sale to Prana Studios ". Los Angeles Times, March 29, 2013.
After the bankruptcy and sale, Rhythm and Hues continued to work on film, television, and ride-film projects, winning multiple Emmy Awards and a Visual Effects Society award for their work on Game of Thrones, until it finally shut down in 2020 due to complications from the COVID-19 pandemic. Rotomaker (PXD) 21-12-2012
Selected filmography 2022 RRR
2021 The King's Man
2019 Hellboy The Boys
2018 Lost in Space Carnival Row The Walking Dead (season 8) Slender Man 2.0
2017 Game of Thrones (season 7) The Walking Dead (season 7) Midnight, Texas The Mist
2016 Game of Thrones (season 6) Skull Island: Reign of Kong
2015 Game of Thrones (season 5) Fear the Walking Dead
2014 300: Rise of an Empire Seventh Son Winter's Tale Tammy Into the Storm X-Men: Days of Future Past
2013 Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters Machete Kills R.I.P.D. Grown Ups 2 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
2012 The Bourne Legacy Big Miracle Django Unchained Chronicle Red Dawn The Hunger Games This is 40 Life of Pi Snow White and the Huntsman
2011 Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked Hop Moneyball The Cabin in the Woods Game of Thrones Red Riding Hood Mr. Popper's Penguins X-Men: First Class
2010 The A-Team Marmaduke Charlie St. Cloud Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief The Wolfman Knight and Day Little Fockers Hot Tub Time Machine Yogi Bear
2009 Aliens in the Attic Ghosts of Girlfriends Past Fast & Furious The Time Traveler's Wife Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant State of Play Land of the Lost Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
2008 The Incredible Hulk The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
2007 The Golden Compass Live Free or Die Hard I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising The Kingdom Alvin and the Chipmunks Evan Almighty
2006 Charlotte's Web Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift Happy Feet Night at the Museum Superman Returns X-Men: The Last Stand
2005 The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe Elektra The Longest Yard The Skeleton Key The Ring 2 Serenity Ice Princess
2004 Around the World in 80 Days Garfield: The Movie Friday Night Lights The Flight of the Phoenix The Chronicles of Riddick Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed
2003 The Cat in the Hat Daredevil The Rundown Intolerable Cruelty Elf The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King X2
2002 Men in Black II Scooby-Doo The Ring Solaris Kung POW! Stuart Little 2 The Sum of All Fears
2001 Cats & Dogs Along Came a Spider Behind Enemy Lines One Night at McCool's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Planet of the Apes
2000 How the Grinch Stole Christmas Little Nicky X-Men Fantasia 2000 Dracula 2000 Bedazzled Frequency Battlefield Earth The Sixth Day The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas Rugrats in Paris: The Movie Hollow Man
1999 Anna and the King The Green Mile End of Days Mystery Men Summer of Sam The Story of Us Stuart Little
1998 Babe: Pig in the City The Parent Trap Dr. Dolittle The Faculty Soldier Stepmom
1997 Speed 2: Cruise Control Spawn MouseHunt Batman & Robin
1996 Kazaam The Nutty Professor
1995 Babe Batman Forever Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls Waterworld
1994 The Pagemaster The Flintstones
1993 Dennis the Menace Hocus Pocus We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story
1992 Stay Tuned
1991 Rover Dangerfield Flight of the Intruder
1990 The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera Jetsons: The Movie
Awards Academy Award for Best Visual Effects 2012: Won: Life of Pi 2007: Won: The Golden Compass 1995: Won: Babe
BAFTA Award for Best Special Visual Effects 2013: Won: Life of Pi 2007: Won: The Golden Compass, Visual Effects
Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects 2018: Won: Game of Thrones "Beyond the Wall" 2016: Won: Game of Thrones "Battle of the Bastards" 2015: Won: Game of Thrones "The Dance of Dragons"
Visual Effects Society Award for Outstanding Animated Performance 2016: Won: Game of Thrones "Battle of the Bastards; Drogon"
Bibliography Carlson, Wayne. "Chapter 11.6, Production Companies: Rhythm and Hues" in Computer Graphics and Computer Animation: A Retrospective Overview (ebook), Ohio State University Press, 2017: pp. 353-354.
References
External links Filmography