Another Filipino We Should Be Proud Of
PINOYS ABROAD
Cham's Lucky Numbers
Posted: 6:43 AM (Manila Time) | Apr. 25, 2004
By Ruel S. De Vera
Inquirer News Service
Math and imagination
DIFFERENT kinds of magic happen behind the silver screen in Hollywood. Yet one of the most potent guilds of screen sorcerers does not use incantations like Harry Potter's "Wingardium Leviosa." Instead, the group mixes imagination and mathematics to make the impossible happen. They make people fly in thin air and make fictional creatures snort and slither about. They are the visual effects engineers.
And thus Chamberlain "Cham" Fong is a magician in his own right, with evocative equations at his command. The 29-year-old software engineer is quick to deflect any kind of praise, but the fact is that he works for Digital Domain, the big Hollywood effects house. It is the same Digital Domain that James Cameron (yes, that James Cameron) and two others founded in 1994, eventually doing effects for such blockbusters as "Titanic" and "Apollo 13." Definitely a cool place to work.
Yet even as Fong now walks through Digital Domain's hallways, he still remembers how art sparked all this. "Deep down inside, I feel that I'm an artist trapped in an engineer's body," he says. Though he wanted to be an artist first, he says he has grown proud of being an engineer. "I've learned to love it.
"I'm just a small piece and I'm in the back where it's unglamorous. I don't mingle with the stars," he says of his work in Hollywood in his very measured, deliberate manner. "But for an effects movie to be successful, even if the work we do is just one minute out of the entire film, it's a key ingredient."
Pre production
Fong is the second of four children of businessman Carlos and Lily Fong. "I always loved movies," he recalls. "But I was more of a comics person. I loved comics and cartoon strips. I even made my own comics when I was younger. That kept me busy throughout elementary school. Then I'd distribute it among my friends."
He loved drawing but realized his limitations and strengths very early on. "I discovered that my art skills are not as good as my math and science skills," he remembers. He finished high school at St. Jude Catholic School in San Miguel, Manila before majoring in Physics and Computer Engineering at the Ateneo. But Fong could only stay there for two years as his family migrated to the US in 1993.
After a brief foray working, he returned to academics-very successfully. At San Francisco State University, Fong graduated with a degree in mathematics, summa cum laude. From San Francisco, he took the subway and attended the University of California at Berkeley, where he earned a degree in Electrical Engineering, and followed it up with a master's degree in the same discipline in 2000.
Via video games
As he specialized in microprocessors and hardware, Fong attended a presentation by Industrial Light and Magic (ILM, the effects house spawned by George Lucas) in grad school about the making of the movie "Mission to Mars." Fong looked at how the effects were done and realized he knew what the ILM people were talking about. "I can do that," he remembers telling himself. "What they're doing is cool." He attended a conference on computers graphics and effects, shopping around his resume. Digital Domain was one of the companies at the conference. "After I distributed my resume, I didn't hear from most of the companies," he says with a laugh. Though he had never heard of the effects industry until he was in college, Fong now wanted to work in it.
Though he didn't get the ride to Hollywood-at least, not yet-Fong made an entrance instead into the video game industry. "I wound up programming games for PlayStation and XBox," he explains. At video developer Blue Shift, Fong worked as a general animator on a game called "World Series Baseball." He enjoyed his stint at Blue Shift but didn't particularly like baseball. After less than a year at Blue Shift, Fong finally got the call. Digital Domain wanted him. "I was surprised to hear from them because it had been such a long time and my resume was already really out of date."
A trip to Venice
Fong then began work at Digital Domain's Venice, California headquarters in early 2002. "I saw 'Titanic' and I knew about Digital Domain," he says. As part of the technical staff, Fong writes "custom software and plug-ins for the animators to use." Thus, he plays a part in providing the means for those eye-popping visual effects and computer-generated images (CGI) that eventually appear in the big movies, essentially coaxing miracles from machines.
In case you're wondering, Fong made contributions to the movie "Daredevil" (yes, that Daredevil). Digital Domain shared the effects chores in that movie with Rhythm & Hues, but Fong got to help out by, in his words, "integrating" the effects in the scene where Daredevil (Ben Affleck) uses the vibration in the rain to catch a glimpse of Elektra (Jennifer Garner). "It's a little bit mushy but I liked the effect," he says. Fong even snuck into a moviehouse to see how the audience reacted to that scene. "I didn't even look at the movie because I had seen it 50 times already." But he says that it's truly gratifying to see your work appear on the big screen at last.
He also had a few more tricks up his sleeve. Fong used a mathematical formula for Computational Fluid Dynamics to help create realistic waves for the currently-showing P.J. Hogan adaptation of "Peter Pan," a movie in which Digital Domain did the effects work together with ILM and Sony Pictures Imageworks.
Impressive wave
More of his work will be on display when Roland Emmerich's disaster movie "The Day After Tomorrow" unspools in cinemas later this year, though one can already see the fruits of Fong's work in that impressive wave in the trailer. Fong also had a hand in some TV commercials, including a Nike football ad and a robotic spot for the Adidas A3 shoe.
Post production
Though he spends most of his time slaving away-crunching numbers, so to speak-in front of a computer monitor, being part of the Hollywood food chain does have its joys. "There are some perks like you get to hear industry rumors," he says with a smile. "You even get to read scripts before the movies are shot."
Fong obviously loves his effects as his favorite movies ("The Empire Strikes Back," "Total Recall" and "Back to the Future") are sci-fi flicks. A confessed disorganized person who's a techie by heart, Fong now lives near the beach in Los Angeles where, in his spare time, he bikes, plays computer games and reads books. "Grand Theft Auto" is his all-time favorite game. Definitely a cool life to live.
In the country recently for a vacation, Fong says he still treasures his Filipino roots, adding that he prefers to come back every three years at least. "This is where I grew up, so this is still home."
When it comes to work, however, Fong seems to have found his niche. He sees himself staying in Digital Domain for a while. In fact, he's currently working on a top-secret movie. "But it's interesting and I'd like to see it to its fruition."
Possibilities still await him. "I'm happy with the effects industry but sometimes I do miss the videogame industry," he says. He might go back to videogames someday. "I see a convergence, where we will have movies that can have arbitrary camera angles, for example. I can foresee that happening." He also doesn't plan to move away from the technical side of movies, entrusting the business decisions to those in the know. "I want to work with equations and algorithms."
And the numbers have all added up for him. Now he loves working in the industry, especially when he sees the effects come to life, when CGI and animation inject reality into the fictional and give movies their wings. "It gives me a kick and a reason to get up in the morning," Fong says with a smile. "It's like there's new meaning to life."
All this sounds strange when one considers that this isn't really what he wanted to do. "I really wanted to be a cartoonist when I was younger, so I look at myself as a failed cartoonist," says Cham Fong, a mathematical magician in the movies. "I wouldn't say I got what I wanted but I got something else. Life is all about second choices."
