You would sit through a film’s end credits if its score were good, or to satisfy your movie buff’s ideology of finishing a film right down to its last frame.

At a screening of The Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, Steven Ong found himself scrutinising each line of the credits as they ascended at the top of the screen.

“My wife and I almost missed my name in the credits! Luckily, my sister-in-law spotted it, and I managed to snap a picture of it with my camera phone,” says Steven.

Yes, Steven – a Los Angeles-based Singaporean – has lent his expertise to the Hollywood juggernaut. He works as a senior effects technical director for film production studio, Rhythm and Hues, which was responsible for the visual effects in that adventure flick.

He took 11 months to create the shimmering effects for a magical pool in the film known as The Pool of Eternal Life, which is made up of millions of diamonds.

“That was the longest I ever took to do a special effect,” reveals the 33-year-old.

Terminator influence

As a boy, Steven, fascinated by the morphing, liquid-mercury cyborg in Terminator 2, experienced his first digital "epiphany".

After attending an electronics course at Singapore Polytechnic for a year, he hopped over to Film, Sound and Video at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, where he was part of its pioneer batch of graduates in 1996.

At the encouragement of a former lecturer, he applied for — and received – a year long internship at digital media company, Side Effects Software, based in California.

And so began his journey to the West.

“[Side Effects] was a small company. The workplace was jovial and the boss’s office was always open. It also helped that California has a very multicultural character, and that applies not just to work but all aspects of life there,” he says.

“I think the only challenges came from integrating into their daily lifestyle, like going to the supermarket and learning how to convert metric into imperial systems, and getting used to their transport systems.”

Homecoming

He returned to Singapore in 2001, and began freelancing and handling tech-support via email for the company.

But California beckoned again in 2003. Digital Domain, a special effects studio, was hiring a temporary effects artist to work on the effects for the sci-fi film, The Day After Tomorrow. He sent in his portfolio, got the nod, and boarded the plane.

After the film’s completion, a team member at Digital Domain got Steven in touch with Sony Pictures Imageworks, where he eventually ended up working as an effects technical director for three-and-a-half years, weaving the digital wizardry for films like Superman Returns and Spiderman 3.

“I was at the right place at the right time,” he muses, smiling.

In August 2007, he joined his present firm Rhythm and Hues.

“There is a lot of sharing of ideas from people in the industry. If someone came up with a new, effective technique for creating a visual effect, they’d share it,” he adds. “Maybe in Asia, people tend to be more protective of such assets.”

Joined by his wife in 2003, Steven says the flexible work rules in Los Angeles help boost work-life balance.

“We have a 40-hour flexi-work week, so that’s five 8-hour days. But you have flexibility. If you have to leave earlier on a certain day, you can just give them notice and make up the hours the next day, or over the week,” he reveals. “I like to start my day a little earlier so I can end my day earlier and spend more time with my wife.”

What kind of advice would he give to those who want to emulate his path in the digital media industry?

“You need to have a lot of passion. There’s a lot of work involved, and there are times when you find that you’d have to keep changing things or effects because you didn’t get it right. Without passion, it’d be very hard for you to stay the course.”

* This article was written by Lin Weiwen and first published in Singapore Magazine (Oct-Dec 2008 issue).