Argon Animation and Laser Animation | Argon Animation Inc

About Argon Animation and Laser Animation

Once upon a time many years ago…

I (Tim Bennett) was about 18 years old and living in Cleveland in the North East of England and was in love with a girl called Helen, who worked in hotel and restaurant management and each month she got a magazine called “Hotel And Caterer” that gave insights into the hotel business including about 20 pages of jobs.

But I was bored. I had been working with a friend making solarium suntanning equipment and one day I picked up one of the magazines and just flipped through it. For some reason one particular advert jumped out at me and for some unknown reason I put pen to paper and wrote to them for a job. The job was located in Covent Garden in London.

For some reason, even though I had absolutely no experience in restaurants other than eating in them, I got a job as Junior Assistant Manager in The Crusting Pipe in Covent Garden.

I moved down to London and stayed in Greenwich in what was possible the worst living conditions I have ever lived in. The unit was disgusting!

After about a year in The Crusting Pipe, I was head hunted by a group called CJ’s Wine Bars and I opened a couple of restaurants for them, one just off Fleet Street and the other in Old Street.

I was then given the opportunity to buy a small night club in the City of York and in 1989 I moved to York To run and operate a club called “Fazers” which was a “new style” (at the time) laser disco bar – except the laser was broken. At this time in my life I had never actually seen a laser and had no idea what one was.

A short time later two things happened which were the catalyst to my new life in show biz! The first thing was that I met and fell in love with a Spanish girl called Pilar. Yes me Helen and I had split a long time before, don’t worry! The second thing that happened was that one of my friends who had a club in Leeds asked me if he could rent my laser for 300 pounds a night for a month. (Do the math!)

So I went and got my 100mw ALC gas laser fixed – I think it cost me about 600 pounds and then rented it to him for a month. Not only was I impressed with the financial side of it, but I fell in love with laser! Wow I had never seen anything like this.

Now this is a story that always leads to another story…

Some time later (Pilar and I were going strong), I closed the bar due to poor turnover and recession in England, but I managed to keep the laser and did the odd gig in small clubs to make ends meet. At this stage I didn’t know anything about lasers and was pushing buttons and having fun.

I went to see a London based laser company for a demo. One of my other friends wanted to buy a laser so I went to have a look. They mentioned to me that they had this big project in Seville (Expo 92) but that they were having problems getting crew together because it was a one year project and all their staff were married, had mortgages, etc etc!

Pilar had just announced to me that she was going back to Spain and “hasta la vista baby!”

Hmmmmm…..

Girlfriend in Spain….potential project for one year in Spain….
I said “I will go!”

This was in October 1991 and I spent the next few months working my ass off with Laser Creations (Thanks Marlyn and Chris – you changed my life!) and in March of 1992 I went to Sevilla, Spain to start the Expo 92 celebrations!

This was the start of my laser show production life and I just loved it. This was a way for me to be famous without me actually being famous! My work could be famous!

Over the years I worked on some great projects from England to Spain to UAE to Argentina and loads and loads of other places and finally arriving in Brunei to help celebrate the 50th birthday celebration ceremonies for His Majesty The Sultan of Brunei in 1996.

Two years later I was still in Brunei but things were going a bit wrong for the Royal family and the project was closed down.

Not to worry as we picked up a project in The Philippines to mark the 100 year Philippine independence celebrations and I moved to The Philippines in 1998.

I am still there!

Once the Expo celebrations finished a year later I decided to stay in The Philippines. The business opportunities here were excellent for someone who was prepared to work hard and for about a year I struggled to get a business together in the show production world here until I teamed up with another Brit who was already here offering interior themed construction and we formed a company called Argon Attraction Inc offering laser show services to local companies at a local price.

We were the only ones here doing this so we virtually had an untapped market. Business slowly grew until we were given the 2.0 Millennium celebration show at Fort Bonifacio to mark the 1999/2000 Millennium handover.

The show was an amazing success and I thought I had finally made it and success was upon me! At last after all these years!

And then my partner ran off with all my money, equipment and put me into a position of bankruptcy!

Damn!

I was completely broke! I had lost everything- except my burning passion for what I was doing, some really great friends and a well established client base!

And with these three things and virtually no money (I borrow 3,000$) I started a new company called Argon Animation in 2001 and I am still up and running all this time later and my client base is huge and mainly the large corporations in The Philippines, although I do sometimes provide services for some international projects.

Argon Animation Inc is still the only registered company in The Philippines exclusively providing professional level laser lighting special effects. We were the first company in The Philippines providing laser on a commercial basis to the Philippines and we are still the number 1 company doing so.

No other group in The Philippines has provided laser to so many different shows and to so many different clients and we have well over 600 shows in the last few years.

Argon Animation Inc is run by myself (Tim Bennett) and Rian Cahiga who has been my partner for the last three years.

Rian is in charge of arranging all the shows and without her love and care the shows would not be the success they are. Her present position in the company is “Director of WOW!” and her primary objective is to make you go “WOW!”

Rian and I work on a mobile basis so that we can move around the Philippines as needed by our clients and we do not have expensive offices that increase our charges to you.

Argon Animation "Argonette" Dancers

We provide both green and color lasers and mirrors as well as our famous band of dancers called the Argonettes who provide spectacular choreographed shows timed to perfection with the music and lasers.

We are the best. We love what we do and we are trained laser professionals (I was trained in England by Laser Creations Intl.) We are not a lighting company that provides cheap Chinese imported lasers and know nothing about laser (including how to spell it!), but rather we use the best English and American technology for the best quality shows and reliability.

We cost more than our copy-cat lighting companies, but then we are the only professional laser company.

If you want the best – then say “Argon Animation.”

We want your show to be a success and are here to serve your needs in making your show or event a really special event that will not be forgotten by your audience.

You can contact Argon Animation Inc by email or phone as follows: