Meet the King’s20 Founder: Elvis Leon, Co-Founder, Creature Pictures

Each week, we’re catching up with one of the founders on the King’s20 Accelerator, part of the Entrepreneurship Institute, about the story behind their venture. 

This week we spoke to Elvis Leon, who co-founded Creature Pictures along with Simon Legrand– a start-up that's bridging the gap between traditional film production processes with emerging and cutting edge technology.

What’s the story behind Creature Pictures?

Creature Pictures happened through a chance encounter. The two co-founders met whilst queuing at a coffee shop. Through casual conversation, Simon and Elvis discussed the individual film projects that they were working on. Both realised that they had complementary skill-sets and a vision to create ground-breaking film and TV projects. Elvis is an award-winning producer and director who makes films about war, crime, and other social issue topics. Simon is a visual-effects supervisor who has worked on top tier productions such as Star Wars, Avatar, and Marvel’s Avengers. Now working together, the team at Creature Pictures is ready to partner with relevant media and tech companies to develop high concept film and video game projects. 

What does Creature Pictures do?

We are in the business of producing story-driven film and video projects. Our passion and drive have led to the creation and distribution of eye-catching advertisements, films, and documentaries. What makes us stand out above some of our competitors is the ability to integrate the latest technology and hardware into our production pipeline. This has given us the flexibility to work in different creative fields such as in the Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and video game industries.

Why you’ll succeed…

Our extensive knowledge of traditional and emerging technologies places us in an area to innovate next-gen content. We have extensive knowledge of using top-level motion and facial capture solutions. This experience combined with our drive to innovate in the VR, AR and film space, gives us an edge in a fast-changing industry. Also, our previous projects have been accepted to international film festivals around the world and this has established a tight group of community partners that support our vision. While accolades and our network does not guarantee success, it is a brilliant start to our new journey at Creature Pictures.

Mistakes you’ve made along the way?`

Creature Pictures was born out of the ashes of a previous venture. Leaving a venture that you spent four years building was a tough decision to make. You constantly contemplate the choices made along the way and wonder if we could have pressed through the storm. But ultimately, disagreements amongst co-founders about goals and the future of the company led to us falling out. Also, we never had a proper conversation about the ethos of the company and this caused us to deviate from accomplishing the original aims of the company. This created the need for Creature Pictures to form to re-capture the essence of our vision from four years ago.

Goals for the future?

We would like to develop and distribute our own feature films and series projects. For many years now, we have been supporting the vision of others, but it is now our time to steer the ship. Creature Pictures aims to become a complete production company and facility, merging traditional film-making with innovative digital tools. Our method will bring post-production and visual effects practices into the production stage. This new direction will streamline the post-production phase for a quicker turnaround of the final video project. 

Why is the King’s20 Accelerator important to you?

The accelerator has provided structure and a clear path forward. The support we have received has been exceptional and the King’s20 staff have gone above and beyond to adapt during the coronavirus lockdown measures. Additionally, working in an environment with 20 other ventures keeps us motivated and challenged. The talent that we’re surrounded by inspires us daily, and the friendships gained are invaluable. It is an honour to be a part of the King’s College community and we hope to build on these partnerships in the years to come. Hopefully, we’ll all be able to reunite in person soon and not on Zoom! 

Do you have any advice for fellow entrepreneurs?

Do not be afraid to pivot direction or abandon an idea if it’s not working. Abandoning can also mean to shelf the project, not necessarily end it. On our journey here, we had to shelf and abandon countless film ideas. Sometimes the right team is not present, or it does not fit into the current trends. It is difficult to detect when or if things will ever go your way. It’s impossible to know. What we do have control over is the ability to listen to our gut instinct. When you stop listening to your inner voice, this can lead to problems, both physical and mental. If you are not mentally fit, this will degrade everything else in your life, and is this project worth it? Only you can decide.

Creature Pictures are looking for funding to develop and complete a few of their in-house RnD and film projects. Their documentary film, Kidnapping Express, is in post-production and requires finishing funds. They plan to use 3D animation and motion capture to recreate the scene of a crime. In addition, they are developing a sci-fi action comedy film and an adult audience animated series. Their team is also passionate about developing hardware and tech to support next-level ideas. They are designing a prototype for a facial camera setup that will transform the head-mounted display and head-mounted camera field. Do get in touch if you'd like to get involved with Creature Pictures.

W: Creature-pictures.com

Email: [email protected]

Instagram: @Creature_Pictures

Twitter: @CreaturePix