On 18 October, the training centre started a course on compositing and special effects. Sponsor is a company from Liège, also a member of the Pôle Image of Liège: WFX. We met with Bernard Devillers, the course coordinator, in order to take a closer look at their situation before they move to the heart of the Longdoz neighbourhood, into the new PIL building.

What motivated WFX to answer the Technifutur call for the set-up of a training course?

Bernard Devillers: At the studio, we are regularly forced to work with external resources to complete our teams. The region lacks qualified technicians who are capable of integrating the production work-flow. So we seek out operators from France, Italy... Besides the labour cost, you also have to take housing and travel costs in charge.

Let's take Largo Winch as an example: we had to find around twenty technicians for a three month period. Among them, three were from Liège, four from Brussels and the rest came from abroad. The average of 35% "locals" is pretty general. With this association with Technifutur, we hope to be able to train operators who would be able to strengthen our teams but also those of other studios.

So the interns would be trained on the tools used by WFX?

B.D.: Among others. It is very beneficial for a technician to be able to work on projects in different studios. He learns other methods, uses other software. By moving around, he has to integrate work-flows with a logic particular to each structure (even if they operate according to generic schemes). So we hope that this training course might serve all concerned companies and that new local talent would be able to stay without needing to go abroad to find new projects and work.

Besides, while the course is indeed coordinated by WFX, we work in association with an operator in professional training: ArtFx (www.artfx.fr/). This school from Montpellier teaches image training courses with a rather efficient methodology since they attain a work placement rate of around 95% as the students leave the school. The Technifutur programme was etched on that of ArtFX and on the work-flows of Mikros and WFX, the latter being frequently used in countries such as the UK and the US.

However, we do wish to partner with companies from the region. We are open to exchanges or collaborations. The presence of a structure such as ArtFx is somewhat a guarantee of the course's neutrality. Our goal is not to condition trainees to the WFX production ways. On the contrary, we want to open up and give all actors the possibility to find something in it, both for the trainees as for the companies.

What profile do the participants have?

B.D.: the only entrance condition for the course was they had to be job-seekers. We received over 60 applications. The selection was done by the Forem, Technifutur, ArtFx and WFX. We eventually selected 12, people coming out of the Arts or computer graphics departments, as well as people with a personality we found interesting. The goal of our course is to offer a complement to the profession, not a foundation. In five months, we have a qualifying training course giving them the chance to find a job at the end of it.

It is important to say that our role is not to take the place of the colleges who work with the students on the longer term. We give our trainees additional knowledge and know-how of tools which will allow them to rapidly integrate production teams.

This is a one-time training course. How do you see the future?

B.D.: this initiative shouldn't be all for naught. We hope to make our approach last while simultaneously provide an answer to the demands of the sector. This course is focused on compositing and special effects because there is a striking lack of qualified personnel in this field. The rest will depend on the specific or more general needs related to the demands of companies and institutions.

We are lucky to dispose of a structure making the set-up of this type of initiative possible. But this will only have sense if other players in the field let us know what they want and expect so we can not only fine-tune the programme of upcoming courses, but also the selection of future trainees. I hereby extend an invitation to anyone interested to contact us in order to come see how the course works and to think together how it can be made even more adequate to the sector.

Additionally, I will also go to Angoulême for the Rencontres Animation Formation (Animation Training Meetings) on 18 and 19 November in order to define the needs of the sector and the initiatives related to training courses even better (see www.magelis.org and here). It would be interesting if the same type of initiative would be organised in Wallonia.