Disney Gives ‘The Lone Ranger’ Permission to Say ‘Hi-Yo Silver, Away!’
(latinoreview.com) Disney Gives ‘The Lone Ranger’ Permission to Say ‘Hi-Yo Silver, Away!’ After weeks of drama, intense negotiation, and will-they-won’t-they whispers, “The Lone Ranger” is officially back on at Disney.
From the outside looking in, it doesn’t seem as though Disney really won this financial battle with Gore Verbinski and Jerry Bruckheimer. They wanted that budget of $230 million substantially reduced, but capitulated at last to Verbinski and Bruckheimer’s final tally of $215 million. Verbinski, Bruckheimer and Depp all reduced their fees, shortened the shoot, and trimmed the production budget, but it still seems like an awfully steep price for the studio to pay. I’m not at all sure that includes marketing, after all.
Depp and Armie Hammer remain attached to play Tonto and the Lone Ranger, respectively, and Deadline reports that Ruth Wilson has joined the cast as the female lead. Wilson is a brilliant and lovely actress, yet another British star that hasn’t made the leap across the sea, but certainly deserves to. If you’d like to meet her pre-“Ranger”, you can check her out in “Jane Eyre,” “Small Island” or as a freaky serial killer in “Luther.” You won’t regret it, and you can join me in hoping she plays a female gunslinger, and not just a sassy saloon girl (though she would be awesome) or lost pioneer woman.
Disney is hurrying to get the film into production, and plan on having everything set by next week so that filming can begin in January or February. It’s not known if they plan on keeping that December 12, 2012 release date, but one hopes they realize the delay is a blessing in disguise, and that is an absolutely disastrous release date for them. “The Hobbit” and “World War Z” are winning that weekend. It won’t be “The Lone Ranger.” I’m not good at predicting box office, but it’s just obvious, even from here.
Now, we’ll sit back and watch the wacky Depp costumes float in, and confirmation as to whether there will be werewolves or train explosions. Watching this film may be as much fun – perhaps even more! -- as watching it on the big screen.
Guillermo del Toro & 'Pacific Rim' to Take Over Pinewood Toronto Studios
(hollywoodreporter.com) No second unit means Warner Bros.' monsters vs. mechas action movie will shoot on five of the seven sound stages at the Toronto mega-studio.
TORONTO -- Guillermo del Toro flying solo on Pacific Rim means the Hollywood director is about to take over Pinewood Toronto Studios.
our editor recommends
'Pacific Rim': Idris Elba Joins Guillermo del Toro Project
Charlie Hunnam Lands Lead Role in Guillermo del Toro's 'Pacific Rim'
The mechas vs. monsters movie from Legendary Pictures has scheduled 132 shooting days on five of the seven soundstages at the Toronto mega-studio from October 2011 to May 2012.
It turns out del Toro will not have a second unit on Pacific Rim, as the tentpole picture is known.
So he’ll be constantly shuttling between the five soundstages at Pinewood Toronto so he can shoot the picture with a single vision.
Pacific Rim, which stars Charlie Hunnam, Charlie Day and Idris Elba, is slated for a July 21, 2013 release date by Warner Bros.
The monster movie sees a powerful extraterrestrial force threaten the Earth's existence, with humans uniting to fight them off.
Chris Columbus Direct Subterranean Alien Race For "Road Crews"
(darkhorizons.com) Chris Columbus ("Percy Jackson," "Mrs. Doubtfire") is negotiating to direct the action comedy "The Secret Lives of Road Crews" at Paramount Pictures says Deadline.
The story follows a clandestine group of road crew workers who are the last line of defense against a subterranean alien race. Kevin Lund and T.J. Scott scripted the feature, with Craig Mazin doing a re-write and writers being sought for another re-write.
Hal Lieberman is producing and was originally attached back when the project was set up at DreamWorks.
Dreamworks Animation Signs "Game Changing" Deal With Netflix
(reuters) Online video rental company Netflix Inc (NFLX.O) said it won pay TV rights to Dreamworks Animation (DWA.O) movies starting in 2013, the first time a major Hollywood studio has chosen an Internet streaming player over a traditional cable channel.
News of the deal drove Netflix's stock up nearly 7 percent to a high of $137.88 in early trade on Nasdaq on Monday.
Netflix did not disclose the financial terms of the deal.
However, Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg told The New York Times that the deal, worth $30 million per picture to Dreamworks over a number of years, was "game-changing" and represented a bet that viewers would soon no longer make distinctions between content streamed on the Internet or through cable.
The New Hires Of Pixar
(blog.joshallan.com) Edwin Catmull is a thin man in his mid-sixties, with a Ph.D., wire-rim glasses, and graying beard. In interviews he comes across as soft-spoken, almost pensive, although one can read years of wisdom behind a kind expression. He is earnest and straightforward, talks patiently, and, in most every way, resembles your favorite college professor.
But Dr. Catmull is not a professor.
He is the President of two of the most powerful and well-respected companies in the world: Disney Animation Studios and Pixar, the company who literally created computer-generated animation.
On September 1, 2008, the Harvard Business Review published an article written by Dr. Catmull entitled How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity. In this article, Catmull states some seemingly backward approaches to bringing in new talent to an organization:
“Successful organizations face two challenges when bringing in new people with fresh perspectives. One is well-known—the not-invented-here syndrome. The other—the awe-of-the-institution syndrome (an issue with young new hires)—is often overlooked.
The bigger issue for us has been getting young new hires to have the confidence to speak up. To try to remedy this, I make it a practice to speak at the orientation sessions for new hires, where I talk about the mistakes we’ve made and the lessons we’ve learned. My intent is to persuade them that we haven’t gotten it all figured out and that we want everyone to question why we’re doing something that doesn’t seem to make sense to them. We do not want people to assume that because we are successful, everything we do is right.”
How many companies do you know who practice this philosophy? Where the President of the company, first of all, shows up at new employee orientations? And then he doesn’t just make an appearance or sit in the back, but stands up and tells stories about company screw-ups, to help reinforce a culture that respects ALL ideas, even if they come from a first-day-on-the-job newbie?
The list of organizations coming to my mind isn’t very long.
I watched the documentary film The Pixar Story this weekend (and highly recommend it). As you’re surely aware, there’s a certain magic about Pixar. What you may not know is that most of the fairy dust resides within their unique culture—and this is something they’ve fought very hard to protect.
There are so many things we can learn from an organization like Pixar, but for today that’s all I want to say: great company culture may emerge through serendipity, but it doesn’t stay great by accident. People—real people who care enough to put some skin in the game—have to get involved, stand up, get a little dirty. People like Ed need to do some “crazy” things.
Don’t kid yourself that a great workplace “just happens.” Like growing a garden, it requires a lot of work and a bit of mess. It takes time and effort—and this means having people who have enough time built in to their jobs to actually focus on it. There’s simply no other way to build an amazing work environment.
How many Dr. Catmull’s does your company have?
Are you one?
How 'Total Recall' Saved Toronto's Film Industry
(thestar.com) On an isolated soundstage in Toronto’s Port Lands, designers have created a dark, futuristic vision.
The bones of New Asia are being created out of brick, steel and Styrofoam in one of the most elaborate set designs ever constructed in the city.
In fact, Total Recall, a remake of the 1990 sci-fi action film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, is set to be the most expensive movie in Toronto history. With a budget estimated at anywhere from $130 million to as much as $200 million, once marketing costs are added, the production is a behemoth.
It is also a watershed moment for Toronto moviemaking. As the cast, including Colin Farrell, Jessica Biel and Kate Beckinsale, wrapped the shoot here Thursday after more than six months of production and filming, it may well be remembered as the movie that saved the Toronto film industry.
If you had trouble getting a carpenter to build your deck this summer, blame Total Recall. If you had trouble getting to work on Lake Shore Blvd., you can blame Total Recall too. The shoot blocked off traffic for four days.
From the money that Farrell has dropped at yoga classes, to Biel’s penchant for fine dining in the city with on-and-off-again boyfriend Justin Timberlake, the production, directly and indirectly, has had an enormous impact.
Either way, it was hard to escape the movie’s deep economic gravity.
“This has been a total game changer,” says Paul Bronfman, chair of Pinewood Toronto Studios, in an interview. “We have come through some dark days to get here.”
Because of Total Recall, the city is on track to hit close to a billion dollars in production value this year, a record.
That’s compared with $726 million in 2010. The peak year, according to Toronto Film and Television Office figures, was 2001, when production hit $928 million, before a soaring Canadian dollar and SARS crippled the once high-flying industry. (Adjusted for inflation, 2001’s figures equal $1.135 billion in today’s dollars.)
Peter Finestone, the city’s film commissioner, calls Total Recall the first big “tentpole” to hit the city.
“This was equivalent to the big top, or the whole circus moving to town and taking over,” says Finestone. “This movie has had an enormous impact to everyone, from people who put the cones on the street to protect parking spaces, to lighting, to sound and camera people to guys who run the catering trucks.”
Monty Montgomerie, business manager for IATSE local 873, which represents film industry workers, says the movie will have paid its members a significant $25 million in wages alone since production first started in March — that’s equivalent to the entire budget of some Hollywood movies.
During peak production, the project employed up to 600 workers from one local. There were more than 300 carpenters on set — more than most housing developments — on some days.
“These are good quality, well-paying jobs,” said Montgomerie. “This has had a massive impact.”
Full article: http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1057854--how-total-recall-saved-toronto-s-film-industry
"Blade Runner" Sequel Moves Forward
(darkhorizons.com) "Contagion" and "The Bourne Ultimatum" scribe Scott Burns has reportedly entered active talks to write the "Blade Runner" project at Alcon and Warner Brothers reports Twitchfilm.
Ridley Scott is committed to both direct and produce this new installment in the franchise which is expected to be set in the same universe as that seen in Scott's 1982 seminal sci-fi classic.
World Designed For "Fantastic Voyage"
(comingsoon.net) The other project, the Isaac Asimov adaptation, Fantastic Voyage, also appears to still be on the table, despite rumors last month that Levy might pass.
"'Fantastic Voyage' I've been working on with Jim Cameron for the last seven months," he said, "We've got a script and a world design that we love. It'll be an underwater, 3D action sci-fi extravaganza."
Netflix and DreamWorks Animation Announce Deal
(Netflix, DreamWorks Animation) Netflix and DreamWorks Animation have announced a multi-year agreement, which means DreamWorks Animation titles will no longer be available on HBO:
Netflix, Inc. and DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. today announced a new multi-year licensing agreement that will make Netflix the exclusive subscription television service for first-run feature films and select television specials from DreamWorks Animation, the award-winning creators of such beloved franchises as "Shrek," "Madagascar," "Kung Fu Panda" and "How to Train Your Dragon."
Beginning with its 2013 feature films, new DreamWorks Animation titles will be made available for Netflix members to watch instantly in the pay TV window on multiple platforms, including television, tablet, computer, and mobile phones. Under the agreement, certain critically lauded and commercially successful DreamWorks Animation catalogue titles – including "Kung Fu Panda," "Madagascar 2," "Chicken Run" and "Antz," among others – will also be made available to Netflix members over time.
Avatar-Class 3D Comes to Alaska Studio
(Alaska Journal of Commerce) Anchorage-based Evergreen Films has earned the first certification for 3D production from Cameron Pace Group, which was co-founded by “Avatar” director James Cameron. In collaboration with BBC Earth and Reliance Pictures, “Walking with Dinosaurs 3D” will be shot and produced in Alaska and is set for a major worldwide release in 2013.
The biggest movie yet filmed in Alaska has gotten a boost from the biggest director in Hollywood.
“Walking with Dinosaurs 3D” producer Evergreen Films is the first studio to win certification from Cameron Pace Group for creation of 3D content and will be using the same technology from blockbusters “Avatar,” “Transformers” and “Pirates of the Caribbean.”
CPG was co-founded by James Cameron, the director of the two highest grossing films of all time — “Avatar” ($2.8 billion) and “Titanic” ($1.8 billion) — and Vince Pace, who worked with Cameron on “Titanic” and “The Abyss.”
Of the 50 or so 3D films released in the last few years, CPG has contributed to about 30 that have generated some $7.5 billion in gross box office worldwide.
Among films using CPG technology, the “Dark of the Moon” installment of the “Transformers” series grossed $1.1 billion last summer and “On Stranger Tides” posted just more than $1 billion for the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise.
Expectations for “Walking with Dinosaurs 3D,” set for a so-called tentpole release in 2013, are also high. Twentieth Century Fox won the bidding war for distribution at the American Film Market last November, and according to a report from industry pub Variety, sold out within a week worldwide.
The dino epic, scripted as a dramatic offering with character arcs, is a collaboration between Anchorage-based Evergreen, BBC Earth and Reliance Pictures. Variety pegged the deal as the largest ever closed by IM Global, a film financing, sales and distribution company partially owned by Reliance.
NANA Development Corp., an Alaska Native regional corporation, acquired a minority stake in Evergreen Films last year.
“‘Walking with Dinosaurs 3D’ offers us a fantastic opportunity to push our advances in 3D even further,” Cameron said in a release from BBC Worldwide. “We’re inspired by the creative ambition behind the film and the opportunity to work on a feature that brings audiences a real, visceral experience.”
Evergreen Films CEO Mike Devlin, who moved to Alaska in 2005, a couple years after selling his company, Rational Software, to IBM for $2.1 billion, said achieving “Avatar-class” 3D has long been a goal for Evergreen.
“By partnering with Jim Cameron … we get the benefit not only of great technology, but technology developed from a filmmaker’s point of view,” Devlin said. “He’s not just doing technology for technology’s sake. He’s looking at it from the point of view of what does the filmmaker need to have artistic freedom and creative freedom to tell a story, but use 3D in a tool for telling that story.
“Jim is a big advocate of shooting the films in 3D, in using 3D in the storytelling from the very conception of the film. In ‘Walking with Dinosaurs,’ we’re very much thinking that. If it was just the dinosaurs at a distance, you wouldn’t have to worry about the 3D as much.”
The original “Walking with Dinosaurs” was a six-episode documentary series produced by BBC Earth in 1999 that won several Emmys and drew a worldwide audience of 700 million.
Variety reported the presales are expected to cover most, if not all, of the film’s $65 million budget. That’s more than double the estimated $30 million budget for “Big Miracle” starring Drew Barrymore filmed in Alaska that wrapped last year (originally titled “Everybody Loves Whales”).
The script is by John Collee, who wrote “Happy Feet,” which won the 2007 Oscar for best animated feature film of the year. Animal Logic of Sydney, Australia, was the animation studio for “Happy Feet” and is also building the cast for “Walking with Dinosaurs 3D.”
Filming has already begun around Southcentral near Girdwood and on the Kenai Peninsula for the live backgrounds that will provide a prehistoric setting for “Walking with Dinosaurs 3D.” Alaska isn’t just providing the scenery, either.
The film will star dinosaurs that once roamed the North Slope and wintered in Denali National Park more than 70 million years ago. All of the post-production work will also take place in Evergreen’s Anchorage studios.
Evergreen has post-production offices on Hillside, and is renovating the old Crowley building on Sandlewood Place in south Anchorage. The new headquarters for Evergreen will have a “smart” sound stage with a 50-foot by 50-foot green screen and a 24-seat studio for screenings and viewing dailies.
Sound stages and state-of-the-art post-production capability are essential infrastructure if Alaska wants to truly develop its film industry. The new Evergreen headquarters and technology will be available for any company producing a film in Alaska, and represents a new job opportunity for NANA shareholders.
“We’ll have a chance to add more permanent jobs as the industry grows,” said Robin Kornfield, vice president of communications for NANA and the president of its film services subsidiary Piksik. “We’re looking forward to having special technology here in Alaska that anyone can use. NANA is known in Alaska as a support company to oil and mining. We’re taking those capabilities and applying them to a brand new industry. We’re looking forward to providing those same services — catering, security — and opportunities for training and jobs and advancement and education that come through the film business.”
Full Article: http://www.alaskajournal.com/Alaska-Journal-of-Commerce/September-2011/Avatar-class-3D-comes-to-Alaska-studio/
'Star Wars' Mark Hamill Celebrates 60th Birthday
(celebs.gather.com) Star Wars actor Mark Hamill celebrated his 60th birthday on Sunday. That's right, Luke Skywalker is now six decades old, and it is hard for some fans to believe. The actor was not well-known before George Lucas's series of films launched him to stardom.
Since starring in Star Wars, Mark Hamill has gone on to have many other career successes. Did you know that he was supposed to be in TV's Eight is Enough, but got released from the contract to appear as Luke Skywalker instead? Since his big screen stardom, he has lent his voice to cartoons like Batman and The Simpsons.
Unfortunately for the birthday boy, he was in a car accident in 1977 after the Star Wars filming was complete, and he has significant facial scarring. While that must have been hard, it hasn't kept him from working or from having a successful personal life. He has been married since 1978, and he has three children. Overall, it has been a great life for Mark Hamill.
Happy birthday to the man who will always be remembered for playing the iconic Luke Skywalker. It has been an amazing six decades.
On the “Danger” of Andy Serkis
(incontention.com) I suppose some might put it down to the fact that I didn’t find the film as spirit-lifting as many critics did, but I have a hard time signing the blogosphere’s imaginary petition for Andy Serkis to get a Best Supporting Actor nomination for “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.”
It’s not that I don’t admire Serkis’s expertise, or accept motion-capture performance as a valid and exciting discipline. Nor am I a physical purist in terms of what constitutes award-level acting. Not two years ago, I happily included James Gandolfini on my hypothetical Oscar ballot for “Where the Wild Things Are,” and I have no beef with the 2001 BAFTA nomination handed to Eddie Murphy in “Shrek.” An actor’s face may be his foremost tool, but if he can affect audiences without it, then more power to him.
I will admit, however, to some uncertainty as to the border between Serkis’s contribution and that of the FX team; whereas I can locate and identify the limitations of Gandolfini’s work, much of the critical praise for Serkis’s Caesar hinges on a undeniable expressiveness that has nonetheless been enhanced beyond the actor’s own means.
Luckily, this winds up as a moot point for me, given that I don’t find either the character or the interpretation of Caesar — however impressive — sufficiently rich or layered to merit consideration as one of the year’s best performances, be it the product of unfathomable technical wizardry or a man in a monkey suit. (Compared to Serkis’s Gollum from the “Lord of the Rings” films, for example, Caesar is a pretty thin creation; meanwhile, the critics marvelling at how the film’s impressive rendition of Caesar dwarfs the film’s human performances are promoting a false dichotomy when the humans in question are as flatly written as James Franco and Freida Pinto. The Golden Gate Bridge out-acted them too.)
An Oscar for motion-capture acting may be an interesting story to chase, but I have yet to see an individual performance that fires my interest in it beyond the theoretical. I rather wish Serkis’s cheerleaders had been as vocal when he delivered a less groundbreaking but considerably more exciting in-the-flesh turn as Ian Dury in “Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll,” but that wouldn’t have afforded them the opportunity to claim high ground in the Brave New World stakes. I can’t help suspecting that many of those pre-emptively bashing the Academy for their conservatism in this matter like the idea of Serkis’s “Apes” performance even more than they like the performance itself.
One word I wouldn’t use to describe Serkis’s work — and not only because I’m not a working actor — is “dangerous”: until someone decides that motion capture technology is a necessary expense for non-fantastical, character-driven drama (hey, check out those digitally rendered scowls in “Winter’s Bone!”), I don’t see how the innovation narrows the scope of an average actor’s career as much as it extends it:
One man who disagrees, however, is veteran critic and performance essayist David Thomson: in a recent essay for The Guardian, he admires the process behind Serkis’s characterization, while also describing it rather vaguely as a “grave warning”:
Serkis has said he finds no difference between performance-capture and acting. We should take this as a grave warning. Pioneers are often innocent opportunists, yet sometimes they sense a new nature in the world. So it’s worth stressing that Serkis can be a brilliant and disturbing actor with no more technology on his side than film, a camera and a good part… We may not see such miniature work again, and no one will dispute the right of a once-harried actor to find comfort and splendour. But the pioneering that Serkis leads is more important, and every bit as dangerous, as far-fetched lab experiments with chimpanzees.
It’s a sketchily thought piece — at no point does Thomson suggest what he thinks the consequences of this imagined danger could be, or how it might pertain to actors less practised in the process than Serkis — and I don’t share his belief that an Oscar nomination for Serkis is anything close to likely. (Thomson has never been the most astute of awards pundits.) Indeed, his own piece rather points to why it isn’t: Thomson may not be an AMPAS voter, but his concern couldn’t be a more textbook illustration of the resistance many industry folk (particularly those of more advanced years) might feel to the idea of out-of-body performance.
Lasseter Winery Coming Into its Own
(pressdemocrat.com) Nancy Lasseter was a single mom with a 5-year-old son and was putting herself through school when she met John Lasseter at a computer graphics trade show in San Francisco in 1985.
John, today a two-time Academy Award-winning director and chief creative officer for Walt Disney Animation and Pixar Animation Studios, was at Lucasfilm working on “Young Sherlock Holmes” at the time, while Nancy needed to get back to Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh to finish her degree in design.
By 1986, she was in California full-time, doing interface design with the advanced futures group at Apple Computer, experimenting with some of the first 3-D animation on the Macintosh computer.
The Lasseters share a love of storytelling through animation, and they would soon nurture a mutual interest in wine as well. Nancy joined a tasting group in Cupertino as a way to meet people and she and her now-husband John would often escape up to Wine Country for romantic getaways, including a honeymoon trip through the Alexander Valley, Mendocino and the Napa Valley.
It wasn't until the couple had three more sons and decided to move to Sonoma in 1993 that the wine bug really bit hard — Nancy in particular.
“My cleaning lady, Susan Blue, was there on a Friday and I said, ‘what are you doing this weekend?'” Nancy recalled. “And she said, ‘we're going picking and crushing,' and I went, ‘ah, I've been wanting to do that. Can I come?'”
“We didn't have the concept of people doing this amateurishly, as a hobby,” added John. “It was such a cool concept. Friends get together and form this co-op, make wine together and all share it.”
Nancy remembers the joyful, back-breaking work as if it were yesterday — the shoveling of zinfandel bunches into the back of a truck, the hand pressing, the bees.
“I'll never forget her coming home completely splattered with red wine and the look on her face,” John said. “She was so excited. Wow, okay, I thought, now I want to do this.”
By 1997, they bottled up enough zinfandel and a Bordeaux blend to print out Lasseter Family Winery labels to give out as Christmas gifts and that was that — a new family business was born.
In 2000, they bought 50 bare acres on Dunbar Road in Glen Ellen, planted syrah, grenache and mourvedre and started making wine at friends Tom and Marcy Smothers' winery just up the hill.
They bought an adjoining 35-acre property in 2002 with merlot and cabernet sauvignon grapes and a winery on it, previously used by Carmenet Winery. There, they quickly set about adding malbec and cabernet franc grapes as well.
Full Article: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20110926/LIFESTYLE/110929716/1309/sitemaps
The Smurfs 3D Passes $500 Million Mark At The Worldwide Box Office
(comicbookmovie.com) When it was released opposite Cowboys & Aliens back in July, no one really expected all that much from The Smurfs. Sure, it would likely be moderately successful with the younger crowd, but mediocre reviews and no huge stars in the cast meant that many had little faith in the movie making big money. Well, Deadline now report that it grossed an additional $12.9M over the weekend, bringing the international box office total to $364.4M, and the worldwide total to a whopping half-billion...$502.8M to be precise.
In many ways, this isn't really all that shocking, especially after the way in which The Smurfs 3D ended up giving Jon Favreau's Cowboys & Aliens a real run for its money when they faced off.
Monday 26 September 2011
Friday 23 September 2011
"Star Wars: The Complete Saga" Sales Reach $84 Million Worldwide
(Lucasfilm) Lucasfilm Ltd. and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment have announced that "Star Wars: The Complete Saga" broke the global Blu-ray sales record with one million units sold and $84 million in consumer spend:
Lucasfilm Ltd. and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment announced today that STAR WARS is the bestselling catalog Blu-ray Disc of all time with worldwide sales totaling one million units, including 515,000 units sold in North America in its first week alone. This represents $84 million in worldwide consumer spend including $38 million in North America - unprecedented for a nine-disc Blu-ray collection at a premium price.
The thirteen-month campaign to launch the SAGA Blu-ray and engage consumers around the globe began in August 2010. From Darth Vader at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), a first look at San Diego Comic Con, a first-of-its-kind partnership with eBay, to creating the world�s largest lightsaber in the UK, the power of the Force continued to resonate around the world as fans came out in droves to have fun with that galaxy far, far away.
"Once again our fan�s enthusiasm to celebrate Stars Wars continues to amaze us,� said Kayleen Walters, Senior Director, Marketing, Lucasfilm. �Our goal was to deliver a premium product that they could enjoy with their family and friends and we are thrilled that they are enjoying it as much as we hoped they would.
Avatar Cameras For Rent… For $1600 Per Day
(geek.com) If you’ve been following the video camera market for the past few years then you’ve almost certainly heard of the RED Epic camera. The Epic handles both digital video and still images and is one of the most respected cameras in the business. Unfortunately this kind of quality costs a pretty penny, or, more accurately, 5.8 million pretty pennies. Yep, the RED Epic-M package — complete with the Epic-M brain, Bomb EVF, 5-inch LCD, and more — sells for $58,000.
James Cameron has purchased 50 RED EPIC-M cameras for $2.9 million (I wonder if he got a discount because he bought in bulk).
Presumably Cameron bought the cameras for Avatar 2 (which is set for release in 2014), but maybe he just wants to give them out as party favors.
Of course, you don’t necessarily need to buy the RED Epic to get your hands on it, you can always rent. Borrow Lenses, purveyors of all sorts of fine camera equipment, are offering up the Epic-M kit at $1600 a day. Or you can rent it out for up to a month for $17500, if you have an extended project that needs to be tackled.
Speaking of projects, check out the video below. That’s the sort of thing the Epic is capable of, which is to say “extremely impressive”. Of course you won’t be able to shoot video just because you laid out the cash to rent the kit, but you can’t exactly shoot video like that without it either.
The Epic-M shoots video at up to 5K resolution, with high speeds shooting ranging up to 200 fps at 2K or 150 fps at 5K. The rental package for this impressive rig doesn’t just include the camera body and the odd lens, you also get gear like a 1.8-inch 128GB SSD storage device and a proprietary camera remote, plus you get a case to put it all in. Ultimately it’s a lot of money, but you get some very cool toys to play with.
Borrow Lenses also has a number of compatible lenses you can rent to use with the Epic kit. Any of the PL mount Zeiss lenses they have in stock should work, such as the Zeiss Compact Prime CP.2 25mm cinema lens. And some good news: these go for only $99 a day.
Twentieth Century Fox to Adapt Isaac Asimov’s ‘The Caves of Steel’
(latinoreview.com) Twentieth Century Fox plans to adapt the Isaac Asimov’s science fiction mystery novel “The Caves of Steel” on to the big screen.
The studio has hired director Henry Hobson to helm the project. It will be Hobson’s directorial debut. His previous work mainly involved designing main and end titles for several films including “The Help,” “Bad Teacher,” “The Hangover Part II,” and “Sherlock Holmes.”
John A. Scott III is brought to the project as the adaptive screenwriter.
Here is the overview of the novel:
In the future you will walk down the crowded streets of New York City not knowing if the bodies brushing past you are humans or androids. With tensions already mounting between humans and robots, the murder of a Spacer must be handled in a politically-correct fashion so Detective Elijah Baley is assigned a robot partner.
“The Caves of Steel” is the first novel in Asimov’s Robot series that also included “The Naked Sun” and “The Robots of Dawn.”
“The Caves of Steel” was adapted for a BBC broadcast as part of an anthology strand called “Story Parade” in 1964. The television adaptation starred Peter Cushing and John Carson.
A Day In The Life at Aardman VFX
(jaa-editing.com) Here's a sample day to show what I presently do at Aardman as the editor in the VFX department on Pirates. My job has evolved a lot since I first started and basically loaded and exported shots, and after 6 months I gained an assistant of my own - which helped a great deal.
Of course, there's no such thing as a typical day in a job like this. Some days are packed full to bursting, others more relaxed. On some days nothing breaks, on others.... well, yes. It changes around a lot. And of course it's all much less segregated than this.
0830 - arrive at work. Switch computers on, and head to the canteen with my cafetiere mug for the first hit of the day.
0835 - load floor plates from the previous day onto the Baselight in the Black Hole. The Black Hole is our windowless room with all surfaces painted black. Some say that all sense of time and space can disappear in there. Our VFX supervisor lives there, and checks outputs from the VFX department for technical issues and flaws - and briefs the artists or supervisors on the necessary changes.
0900 - sit down at my desk, check emails for any urgent tasks and requests, flag the non-urgent ones to follow up later. I use post-its for my To Do list, as they can be easily re-organised as the day progresses and priorities change. As a non-linear editor, it's the only way that really makes sense.
0930 - my assistant arrives, as do other non-floor personnel. The working day begins. My assistant begins negotiations with the floor to make sure that VFX get our 10am time in the viewing theatre for our shot approvals. I update some spreadsheets on the network to reflect the shots which I loaded into the Baselight earlier, with any notes which came through from the floor at the time they were published about take choices (sometimes they film options to decide on at a later date, sometimes two versions are needed for international purposes, action can be split across several plates on greenscreen - there are many possibilities).
1015 - shot approval session in the Viewing Theatre. I used to run this, now my assistant takes care of it owing to the haggling required to get the time and the setup logistical requirements. Our VFX supervisor views the shots which have been submitted for approval, and gives notes on the shots which need further work or fixing. Two 2D passes are made for each stereoscopic eye, and then they are all viewed in stereo to check for issues.
1030 - receive a previz timeline from edit department from yesterday's director review session. This needs to be compared to the previous timeline which we sent to them so that we can tell what the changes are and which slates need to be re-worked to account for timing changes - or where a previous version of a slate has been used instead of the most recent. After conforming, several of the old track layers are added to a copy of the new timeline, to give us easy access to the versions during director reviews. If a slate has been reframed or retimed then it needs to be exported and published (via a linux script) for the artist to use in Maya so that they can match the new version.
1050 - enquiry from VFX coordinator about an edit change previously notified. I check it against the cutting copy timeline and verify/ expand on the note.
1100 - the previz artist is briefed by the VFX Producer on which changes need to be worked up as a result of the editorial director review session. My notes are added to these notes, and the artist who is working on that section of the sequence goes away to make their amendments.
1130 - import shots recently exported by previz/ anim, and place on the timeline. Our VFX anim timelines are for sequences which have been already approved in previz, and are kept separate. If the change is minor or technical in nature, the previous version is pasted over. If there are major changes in positioning, camera angle, or other elements then the new version is added on a higher track. Sometimes alternative (alt) versions are output - either at a director request or because it's something that the artist wanted to try out, so yet another video track (or more) is added for the alts in a sequence.
1230 - pop through to the edit department for a quick catch-up/ chat/ situation report on how they're doing with our requests and vice versa. Email the relevant people in VFX to make sure they are aware of current or forthcoming changes discussed.
1245 - lunch. We have a canteen in the building for the crew to use (at staggered intervals, since there are quite a lot of us now), there are options in the Aztec West business park where we're based, people bring food from home, and there's the option of heading out further afield to the nearby shopping centre to get some chores done at the same time.
1345 - load some more previz/ anim shots into my timelines for the review
1400 - director review. We'll go through a sequence (or part of one) and discuss the things which aren't quite working and how to fix them. Often we'll look at previous versions to see if the suggested change has already been worked up (and possibly rejected because of the surrounding slates at the time), and if not then I'll do some quick tweaking in the Avid to reframe or retime the slate to give everyone an idea of what it may look like when worked up. In certain circumstances the floor will want to shoot a certain shot before the previz is approved, so we'll bung in that shot for the directors and/or HoDs where applicable to view and make any last minute changes in context with the surrounding shots, and then send it off for techviz to translate the Maya scene into technical information for the floor to use and programme into their MoCo rigs to shoot.
1500 - tea break. An absolutely vital part of the day. We have some rather nice cakes available in the canteen from time to time.
1515 - sorting through the emails which have accumulated during the review and responding to them/ relaying information. Most of it tends to be VFX or anim asking for information about the floor plates or current edit, or edit passing on changes which may affect VFX - every shot in the film has VFX, but certain types of shots (e.g. those containing VFX-generated fluids) will be affected more by the types of changes that edit can make than others. I add all of these requests to a list on the network, and make a note of the EDL and reference versions output.
1530 - checking through the recent VFX outputs for shots which should be sent to edit as work-in-progress. There are various stages at which edit are interested in receiving updated versions from VFX for reasons of workflow or aesthetic, and of course once a shot's approved. I cross-reference the cutting copy and a still frame of the latest output to see if the update is worth sending across, and compile a list for my assistant to deal with. There are also several shots which I'll import into my own Avid project - if I need to check that an output's corrected a change requested by edit, or if it's a rendered update of a shot which anim are still working on, which may be requested for reference during an anim review. If the correction looks good, I'll tick it off my edit request list.
1615 - a request for further information from one of the VFX houses we're outsourcing some of our work to. Often this requires cross-referencing cutting copies, notes, EDLs, and several other sources of information to be sure that the answer is as thorough as necessary. It took a while to get used to the linguistic differences between VFX and edity people, and even longer to get precise terms across the boundary - and communicating some requests or requirements without being able to point at a screen and draw squiggly lines underneath certain numbers which link to other squiggly lines... but it's something of a necessity when they're based in other cities.
1645 - a director or HoD comes in to sit with a previz artist and work up a difficult shot. This often requires reference to floor shots and other versions of previz - sometimes a shot from an entirely different sequence can be loaded to help visualise the characters on the real set rather than the previz sets. Our previz sets and characters are significantly more detailed than you may expect, but there can be some discrepancies when dealing with the beautifully intricate Aardman sets which can affect a read on distances and timing.
1730 - gather the last previz outputs for anything which is going to edit. On a duplicated timeline I then condense all of the previz tracks that we keep for options onto one track to make it easier for the editor to use. I drag the sequence into our !!FROM PREVIZ bin which will be picked up by edit across the Unity.
1800 - collect info on what's been shot over the day to load into the Baselight first thing the following morning. Check for any emails which haven't been dealt with or forwarded on to someone better placed to respond. Tidy the Avid bins up a bit.
1830 - end of day. Unless there's a nearby deadline or too many shots have come through or there's an ongoing crisis... you get the idea.
Genuinely though, we do usually leave at a reasonable hour. Part of that seems to be the Aardman way - it's out of London, and there are a lot of employees who have young families who they want to get back to. Plus, the floor stop shooting at 6 and we do like to keep things fair....
I'd love to see others in the post community do posts of this nature and help us all get an insight into the type of work everyone's currently in... but this has also been a good exercise in writing down some of my main tasks to help explain what I've been doing when I'm next looking for work.
Digital Domain IPO: A Game Changer?
(ia4thefuture.blogspot.com) With all of the recent discussion about the flawed business model which is the basis for the "race to the bottom" and the abysmal economics of our vfx industry; it seems that DD's IPO offers all of us a real opportunity to take a big step towards fixing that model. According to documents filed with the SEC, DD intends to get into the business of creating (and retaining ownership of)content.
Indeed, we've heard rumblings about other illustrious effects companies negotiating in the past, for a piece of the ownership pie. While rolling the dice in the hopes of recouping one's investment in this risky business is always a doubtful proposition, sharing in the upside might just make fx companies turn a profit!! And, when that happens, we all benefit. Even the compositor. :)
IATSE is waiting patiently and hopefully, on the sidelines. We are prepared to participate in a meaningful way in ensuring that artists are protected and share in any upside of this development. It's worth a try.
Academy Award-Winning Special Effects Expert Vetts Raiders Props
(californiarumor.com) Movie fans are being offered a whip-cracking good chance of owning a piece of cinematic history – with a new auction of Indiana Jones props. Props from the hit movie Raiders Of The Lost Ark are going under the hammer on 26 June – to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the film's release in 1981. Items set to be auctioned off include one of Indiana Jones' iconic bullwhips [pictured], which has an estimated price of $50,000-$70,000, and a prop golden idol that was also used during filming, which is expected to fetch between $20,000 and $30,000. The props – which are being sold off as part of a larger entertainment memorabilia auction being held at Bonhams & Butterfields, in LA – are accompanied by a letter of provenance from Academy Award-winning special effects expert, Kit West, who was the mechanical effects supervisor on Raiders Of The Lost Ark.
I’m Here to Judge the CGI on "Rise of the Planet of the Apes"
(ktr89.wordpress.com) The mileage on Rise of the Planet of the Apes will vary. I’m here to judge the CGI of the monkeys/apes of the movie, which has been praised as realistic and groundbreaking. Ever since Avatar, the CGI has been set to a new standard and just so coincidentally, Weta Studios, the co-partners of the CGI behind Avatar, is behind Rise of the Planet of the Apes as well. It’s unfair to compare Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ CGI to Avatar since Avatar had a $300+ million budget, so I’m not going to. I’m here to see how well the CGI was done in the movie and how much it adds to the movie and like I Am Legend, how it takes away from the movie.
Full article: http://ktr89.wordpress.com/2011/08/31/rise-of-the-planet-of-the-really-bad-cgi/
Making Realistic Dinosaurs on a TV Timetable
(studiodaily.com) When executive producer Brannon Braga was hired for Fox’s new series Terra Nova, he was the second person brought onboard. The third, before any other writing or producing staff or cast, was visual-effects supervisor Kevin Blank. “That shows you how important we knew he would be to the success of this series,” says Braga. “Because if we couldn’t pull off this world, there would be no show.”
Terra Nova actually comprises two worlds. In an overcrowded, filthy Chicago of 2149 – where humans require rebreather devices just to stay alive – an accidental discovery of access to a wormhole to the past allows settlement of the Cretaceous period, to give man a second chance. That’s the 85-million-years-ago Cretaceous period, when deadly dinosaurs still roamed the Earth. “They’re two very different worlds, and they’re completely separate,” Blank says.
The issue was not so much whether these worlds could be created on a television budget, but whether they could be created on a television schedule. “The issue here wasn’t the money,” Braga explains. “It comes down to time – that’s the bigger issue.”
There was plenty of time to develop the effects for the two-hour pilot. “But we didn’t want to see a dramatic downturn in the amount of visual effects the audience would see week to week,” Braga says. “So Kevin discovered that he wasn’t going to be able to do things in any way that had been done before.”
No problem for the Emmy-winning visual effects supervisor of series/films such as Fringe (pilot), Alias, Cloverfield and Lost. Deconstructing existing pipelines and giving them a redux is one of his favorite hobbies. “‘This is how this is done here, and this is how long and how much it takes to do that.’ Okay, how do I find efficiencies to make it go faster and cost less?’ That’s kind of my specialty,” he says.
The Difference Between TV and Features
With experience in both the television and feature worlds, Blank began looking at what worked and didn’t work in both production pipelines, to see what could be applied to the Terra Nova universe. Quoting John Parenteau at Pixomondo, the visual effects vendor chosen to produce the show’s animation and effects, he notes, “In feature films, it takes three people to do one shot. And in television, one person does three shots.”
He explains. “In feature film, the visual effects disciplines get compartmentalized. One team does rotoscoping, one team does tracking, another does modeling, another animation. It’s just an assembly line. And moving those things in and out of those departments is something that can take time.”
Full article: http://www.studiodaily.com/main/news/headlines/Making-Realistic-Dinosaurs-on-a-TV-Timetable_13470.html
Framestore Adopts New MoCap Tech
(PRWEB) Bringing a new age of motion capture processing to the industry, IKinema™ LTD announced today that the leading VFX house in London, Framestore, has incorporated IKinema technology into its motion capture production pipeline. Chosen for its powerful, fast and remarkably controllable design, IKinema's inverse kinematics (IK) solver is now the key motion capture solving and retargeting tool that Framestore uses to create special effects and animation for both its broadcast and VFX projects.
"The IKinema solver is a fantastic solution for a wide range of skeleton control issues," said Nicolas Scapel, head of rigging at Framestore. "By using IKinema's advanced solver settings and its extremely flexible constraint system, we have been able to iteratively improve our solving solution and accuracy. With the ability to easily reproduce this same setup script on many shots, we will be shaving days and weeks off our production time."
Once Framestore integrated IKinema into its core motion capture pipeline, the results they had been hoping for began to appear. It is now possible to take tracked and filtered point cloud data from mocap software and easily animate a high-resolution skeleton by assigning their data to a linked set of joints. This process can be scripted via IKinema SDK and reused on every future take, which saves time by producing high-quality results.
Current Film projects include: "War Horse," "Gravity," "Johnny English Reborn," "Captain America: The First Avenger," "Clash of the Titans 2," "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" and "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy."
Romancing the Oscar - Academy Issues New Screening Rules
(bts.backstage.com) The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences set some new rules concerning campaigning today.
The New Rules: http://bts.backstage.com/2011/09/new-rules-oscar-version.html
Pirates of the Caribbean Upgrade Cancelled: No Jack Sparrow Animatronic for Paris?
(dlrptoday.com) Never trust a pirate, eh. For months it has seemed a sure-fire certainty: Jack Sparrow audio animatronics to finally join Pirates of the Caribbean for 20th Anniversary! But now it looks like the big Pirates of the Caribbean refurbishment planned for early next year has been curtailed and the addition of Jack Sparrow animatronics cancelled — at least for 2012. According to several sources on the French Disney Central Plaza forum, including La Rouquine, the originally planned closure of 3 months early next year to account for the changes has now been cut back to just 2 weeks. Moderator Dash adds that he learnt last week the new additions were cancelled again due to budgetary reasons.
The movie overlay, which was given to the US versions as long ago as 2006, was never publicly announced by Disneyland Paris, only confirmed internally, so we should note that for us the resort is not technically “cancelling” anything. It was first strongly rumoured for the Paris version of the attraction during the 15th Anniversary, before again appearing to be on the cards for the New Generation Festival in 2010, and then again for the current Magical Moments Festival to tie in with the fourth film, “On Stranger Tides”. This year’s 20th Anniversary plans were the closest the make-over — which could include up to three Jack Sparrow audio-animatronics, Barbossa as captain of the marauding ship, a Davy Jones mist-screen projection and other technical upgrades — ever got to reality.
While Pirates purists might raise a bottle of rum to the news that the Disneyland Paris version of the attraction will remain (for at least a little while longer) in its own world, untouched by the movies’ characters, consider what you’re drinking up to, me ‘hearties. Is the cancellation of a three-month spruce-up for this 20-year old masterpiece really a good thing? Couldn’t it stand to benefit from new technology, from improved lighting, effects and music? A robotic Johnny Depp might be a price to pay for that, but it’s probably the only (marketable) way such an upgrade would happen right now.
However, continuing the annual almost-but-not-quite game, DynastyGo reports the refurbishment is not cancelled but simply postponed, to the next financial year. But what do you think — has Disneyland Paris already missed its “opportune moment” to capitalise on the success of Captain Jack?
(Lucasfilm) Lucasfilm Ltd. and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment have announced that "Star Wars: The Complete Saga" broke the global Blu-ray sales record with one million units sold and $84 million in consumer spend:
Lucasfilm Ltd. and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment announced today that STAR WARS is the bestselling catalog Blu-ray Disc of all time with worldwide sales totaling one million units, including 515,000 units sold in North America in its first week alone. This represents $84 million in worldwide consumer spend including $38 million in North America - unprecedented for a nine-disc Blu-ray collection at a premium price.
The thirteen-month campaign to launch the SAGA Blu-ray and engage consumers around the globe began in August 2010. From Darth Vader at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), a first look at San Diego Comic Con, a first-of-its-kind partnership with eBay, to creating the world�s largest lightsaber in the UK, the power of the Force continued to resonate around the world as fans came out in droves to have fun with that galaxy far, far away.
"Once again our fan�s enthusiasm to celebrate Stars Wars continues to amaze us,� said Kayleen Walters, Senior Director, Marketing, Lucasfilm. �Our goal was to deliver a premium product that they could enjoy with their family and friends and we are thrilled that they are enjoying it as much as we hoped they would.
Avatar Cameras For Rent… For $1600 Per Day
(geek.com) If you’ve been following the video camera market for the past few years then you’ve almost certainly heard of the RED Epic camera. The Epic handles both digital video and still images and is one of the most respected cameras in the business. Unfortunately this kind of quality costs a pretty penny, or, more accurately, 5.8 million pretty pennies. Yep, the RED Epic-M package — complete with the Epic-M brain, Bomb EVF, 5-inch LCD, and more — sells for $58,000.
James Cameron has purchased 50 RED EPIC-M cameras for $2.9 million (I wonder if he got a discount because he bought in bulk).
Presumably Cameron bought the cameras for Avatar 2 (which is set for release in 2014), but maybe he just wants to give them out as party favors.
Of course, you don’t necessarily need to buy the RED Epic to get your hands on it, you can always rent. Borrow Lenses, purveyors of all sorts of fine camera equipment, are offering up the Epic-M kit at $1600 a day. Or you can rent it out for up to a month for $17500, if you have an extended project that needs to be tackled.
Speaking of projects, check out the video below. That’s the sort of thing the Epic is capable of, which is to say “extremely impressive”. Of course you won’t be able to shoot video just because you laid out the cash to rent the kit, but you can’t exactly shoot video like that without it either.
The Epic-M shoots video at up to 5K resolution, with high speeds shooting ranging up to 200 fps at 2K or 150 fps at 5K. The rental package for this impressive rig doesn’t just include the camera body and the odd lens, you also get gear like a 1.8-inch 128GB SSD storage device and a proprietary camera remote, plus you get a case to put it all in. Ultimately it’s a lot of money, but you get some very cool toys to play with.
Borrow Lenses also has a number of compatible lenses you can rent to use with the Epic kit. Any of the PL mount Zeiss lenses they have in stock should work, such as the Zeiss Compact Prime CP.2 25mm cinema lens. And some good news: these go for only $99 a day.
Twentieth Century Fox to Adapt Isaac Asimov’s ‘The Caves of Steel’
(latinoreview.com) Twentieth Century Fox plans to adapt the Isaac Asimov’s science fiction mystery novel “The Caves of Steel” on to the big screen.
The studio has hired director Henry Hobson to helm the project. It will be Hobson’s directorial debut. His previous work mainly involved designing main and end titles for several films including “The Help,” “Bad Teacher,” “The Hangover Part II,” and “Sherlock Holmes.”
John A. Scott III is brought to the project as the adaptive screenwriter.
Here is the overview of the novel:
In the future you will walk down the crowded streets of New York City not knowing if the bodies brushing past you are humans or androids. With tensions already mounting between humans and robots, the murder of a Spacer must be handled in a politically-correct fashion so Detective Elijah Baley is assigned a robot partner.
“The Caves of Steel” is the first novel in Asimov’s Robot series that also included “The Naked Sun” and “The Robots of Dawn.”
“The Caves of Steel” was adapted for a BBC broadcast as part of an anthology strand called “Story Parade” in 1964. The television adaptation starred Peter Cushing and John Carson.
A Day In The Life at Aardman VFX
(jaa-editing.com) Here's a sample day to show what I presently do at Aardman as the editor in the VFX department on Pirates. My job has evolved a lot since I first started and basically loaded and exported shots, and after 6 months I gained an assistant of my own - which helped a great deal.
Of course, there's no such thing as a typical day in a job like this. Some days are packed full to bursting, others more relaxed. On some days nothing breaks, on others.... well, yes. It changes around a lot. And of course it's all much less segregated than this.
0830 - arrive at work. Switch computers on, and head to the canteen with my cafetiere mug for the first hit of the day.
0835 - load floor plates from the previous day onto the Baselight in the Black Hole. The Black Hole is our windowless room with all surfaces painted black. Some say that all sense of time and space can disappear in there. Our VFX supervisor lives there, and checks outputs from the VFX department for technical issues and flaws - and briefs the artists or supervisors on the necessary changes.
0900 - sit down at my desk, check emails for any urgent tasks and requests, flag the non-urgent ones to follow up later. I use post-its for my To Do list, as they can be easily re-organised as the day progresses and priorities change. As a non-linear editor, it's the only way that really makes sense.
0930 - my assistant arrives, as do other non-floor personnel. The working day begins. My assistant begins negotiations with the floor to make sure that VFX get our 10am time in the viewing theatre for our shot approvals. I update some spreadsheets on the network to reflect the shots which I loaded into the Baselight earlier, with any notes which came through from the floor at the time they were published about take choices (sometimes they film options to decide on at a later date, sometimes two versions are needed for international purposes, action can be split across several plates on greenscreen - there are many possibilities).
1015 - shot approval session in the Viewing Theatre. I used to run this, now my assistant takes care of it owing to the haggling required to get the time and the setup logistical requirements. Our VFX supervisor views the shots which have been submitted for approval, and gives notes on the shots which need further work or fixing. Two 2D passes are made for each stereoscopic eye, and then they are all viewed in stereo to check for issues.
1030 - receive a previz timeline from edit department from yesterday's director review session. This needs to be compared to the previous timeline which we sent to them so that we can tell what the changes are and which slates need to be re-worked to account for timing changes - or where a previous version of a slate has been used instead of the most recent. After conforming, several of the old track layers are added to a copy of the new timeline, to give us easy access to the versions during director reviews. If a slate has been reframed or retimed then it needs to be exported and published (via a linux script) for the artist to use in Maya so that they can match the new version.
1050 - enquiry from VFX coordinator about an edit change previously notified. I check it against the cutting copy timeline and verify/ expand on the note.
1100 - the previz artist is briefed by the VFX Producer on which changes need to be worked up as a result of the editorial director review session. My notes are added to these notes, and the artist who is working on that section of the sequence goes away to make their amendments.
1130 - import shots recently exported by previz/ anim, and place on the timeline. Our VFX anim timelines are for sequences which have been already approved in previz, and are kept separate. If the change is minor or technical in nature, the previous version is pasted over. If there are major changes in positioning, camera angle, or other elements then the new version is added on a higher track. Sometimes alternative (alt) versions are output - either at a director request or because it's something that the artist wanted to try out, so yet another video track (or more) is added for the alts in a sequence.
1230 - pop through to the edit department for a quick catch-up/ chat/ situation report on how they're doing with our requests and vice versa. Email the relevant people in VFX to make sure they are aware of current or forthcoming changes discussed.
1245 - lunch. We have a canteen in the building for the crew to use (at staggered intervals, since there are quite a lot of us now), there are options in the Aztec West business park where we're based, people bring food from home, and there's the option of heading out further afield to the nearby shopping centre to get some chores done at the same time.
1345 - load some more previz/ anim shots into my timelines for the review
1400 - director review. We'll go through a sequence (or part of one) and discuss the things which aren't quite working and how to fix them. Often we'll look at previous versions to see if the suggested change has already been worked up (and possibly rejected because of the surrounding slates at the time), and if not then I'll do some quick tweaking in the Avid to reframe or retime the slate to give everyone an idea of what it may look like when worked up. In certain circumstances the floor will want to shoot a certain shot before the previz is approved, so we'll bung in that shot for the directors and/or HoDs where applicable to view and make any last minute changes in context with the surrounding shots, and then send it off for techviz to translate the Maya scene into technical information for the floor to use and programme into their MoCo rigs to shoot.
1500 - tea break. An absolutely vital part of the day. We have some rather nice cakes available in the canteen from time to time.
1515 - sorting through the emails which have accumulated during the review and responding to them/ relaying information. Most of it tends to be VFX or anim asking for information about the floor plates or current edit, or edit passing on changes which may affect VFX - every shot in the film has VFX, but certain types of shots (e.g. those containing VFX-generated fluids) will be affected more by the types of changes that edit can make than others. I add all of these requests to a list on the network, and make a note of the EDL and reference versions output.
1530 - checking through the recent VFX outputs for shots which should be sent to edit as work-in-progress. There are various stages at which edit are interested in receiving updated versions from VFX for reasons of workflow or aesthetic, and of course once a shot's approved. I cross-reference the cutting copy and a still frame of the latest output to see if the update is worth sending across, and compile a list for my assistant to deal with. There are also several shots which I'll import into my own Avid project - if I need to check that an output's corrected a change requested by edit, or if it's a rendered update of a shot which anim are still working on, which may be requested for reference during an anim review. If the correction looks good, I'll tick it off my edit request list.
1615 - a request for further information from one of the VFX houses we're outsourcing some of our work to. Often this requires cross-referencing cutting copies, notes, EDLs, and several other sources of information to be sure that the answer is as thorough as necessary. It took a while to get used to the linguistic differences between VFX and edity people, and even longer to get precise terms across the boundary - and communicating some requests or requirements without being able to point at a screen and draw squiggly lines underneath certain numbers which link to other squiggly lines... but it's something of a necessity when they're based in other cities.
1645 - a director or HoD comes in to sit with a previz artist and work up a difficult shot. This often requires reference to floor shots and other versions of previz - sometimes a shot from an entirely different sequence can be loaded to help visualise the characters on the real set rather than the previz sets. Our previz sets and characters are significantly more detailed than you may expect, but there can be some discrepancies when dealing with the beautifully intricate Aardman sets which can affect a read on distances and timing.
1730 - gather the last previz outputs for anything which is going to edit. On a duplicated timeline I then condense all of the previz tracks that we keep for options onto one track to make it easier for the editor to use. I drag the sequence into our !!FROM PREVIZ bin which will be picked up by edit across the Unity.
1800 - collect info on what's been shot over the day to load into the Baselight first thing the following morning. Check for any emails which haven't been dealt with or forwarded on to someone better placed to respond. Tidy the Avid bins up a bit.
1830 - end of day. Unless there's a nearby deadline or too many shots have come through or there's an ongoing crisis... you get the idea.
Genuinely though, we do usually leave at a reasonable hour. Part of that seems to be the Aardman way - it's out of London, and there are a lot of employees who have young families who they want to get back to. Plus, the floor stop shooting at 6 and we do like to keep things fair....
I'd love to see others in the post community do posts of this nature and help us all get an insight into the type of work everyone's currently in... but this has also been a good exercise in writing down some of my main tasks to help explain what I've been doing when I'm next looking for work.
Digital Domain IPO: A Game Changer?
(ia4thefuture.blogspot.com) With all of the recent discussion about the flawed business model which is the basis for the "race to the bottom" and the abysmal economics of our vfx industry; it seems that DD's IPO offers all of us a real opportunity to take a big step towards fixing that model. According to documents filed with the SEC, DD intends to get into the business of creating (and retaining ownership of)content.
Indeed, we've heard rumblings about other illustrious effects companies negotiating in the past, for a piece of the ownership pie. While rolling the dice in the hopes of recouping one's investment in this risky business is always a doubtful proposition, sharing in the upside might just make fx companies turn a profit!! And, when that happens, we all benefit. Even the compositor. :)
IATSE is waiting patiently and hopefully, on the sidelines. We are prepared to participate in a meaningful way in ensuring that artists are protected and share in any upside of this development. It's worth a try.
Academy Award-Winning Special Effects Expert Vetts Raiders Props
(californiarumor.com) Movie fans are being offered a whip-cracking good chance of owning a piece of cinematic history – with a new auction of Indiana Jones props. Props from the hit movie Raiders Of The Lost Ark are going under the hammer on 26 June – to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the film's release in 1981. Items set to be auctioned off include one of Indiana Jones' iconic bullwhips [pictured], which has an estimated price of $50,000-$70,000, and a prop golden idol that was also used during filming, which is expected to fetch between $20,000 and $30,000. The props – which are being sold off as part of a larger entertainment memorabilia auction being held at Bonhams & Butterfields, in LA – are accompanied by a letter of provenance from Academy Award-winning special effects expert, Kit West, who was the mechanical effects supervisor on Raiders Of The Lost Ark.
I’m Here to Judge the CGI on "Rise of the Planet of the Apes"
(ktr89.wordpress.com) The mileage on Rise of the Planet of the Apes will vary. I’m here to judge the CGI of the monkeys/apes of the movie, which has been praised as realistic and groundbreaking. Ever since Avatar, the CGI has been set to a new standard and just so coincidentally, Weta Studios, the co-partners of the CGI behind Avatar, is behind Rise of the Planet of the Apes as well. It’s unfair to compare Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ CGI to Avatar since Avatar had a $300+ million budget, so I’m not going to. I’m here to see how well the CGI was done in the movie and how much it adds to the movie and like I Am Legend, how it takes away from the movie.
Full article: http://ktr89.wordpress.com/2011/08/31/rise-of-the-planet-of-the-really-bad-cgi/
Making Realistic Dinosaurs on a TV Timetable
(studiodaily.com) When executive producer Brannon Braga was hired for Fox’s new series Terra Nova, he was the second person brought onboard. The third, before any other writing or producing staff or cast, was visual-effects supervisor Kevin Blank. “That shows you how important we knew he would be to the success of this series,” says Braga. “Because if we couldn’t pull off this world, there would be no show.”
Terra Nova actually comprises two worlds. In an overcrowded, filthy Chicago of 2149 – where humans require rebreather devices just to stay alive – an accidental discovery of access to a wormhole to the past allows settlement of the Cretaceous period, to give man a second chance. That’s the 85-million-years-ago Cretaceous period, when deadly dinosaurs still roamed the Earth. “They’re two very different worlds, and they’re completely separate,” Blank says.
The issue was not so much whether these worlds could be created on a television budget, but whether they could be created on a television schedule. “The issue here wasn’t the money,” Braga explains. “It comes down to time – that’s the bigger issue.”
There was plenty of time to develop the effects for the two-hour pilot. “But we didn’t want to see a dramatic downturn in the amount of visual effects the audience would see week to week,” Braga says. “So Kevin discovered that he wasn’t going to be able to do things in any way that had been done before.”
No problem for the Emmy-winning visual effects supervisor of series/films such as Fringe (pilot), Alias, Cloverfield and Lost. Deconstructing existing pipelines and giving them a redux is one of his favorite hobbies. “‘This is how this is done here, and this is how long and how much it takes to do that.’ Okay, how do I find efficiencies to make it go faster and cost less?’ That’s kind of my specialty,” he says.
The Difference Between TV and Features
With experience in both the television and feature worlds, Blank began looking at what worked and didn’t work in both production pipelines, to see what could be applied to the Terra Nova universe. Quoting John Parenteau at Pixomondo, the visual effects vendor chosen to produce the show’s animation and effects, he notes, “In feature films, it takes three people to do one shot. And in television, one person does three shots.”
He explains. “In feature film, the visual effects disciplines get compartmentalized. One team does rotoscoping, one team does tracking, another does modeling, another animation. It’s just an assembly line. And moving those things in and out of those departments is something that can take time.”
Full article: http://www.studiodaily.com/main/news/headlines/Making-Realistic-Dinosaurs-on-a-TV-Timetable_13470.html
Framestore Adopts New MoCap Tech
(PRWEB) Bringing a new age of motion capture processing to the industry, IKinema™ LTD announced today that the leading VFX house in London, Framestore, has incorporated IKinema technology into its motion capture production pipeline. Chosen for its powerful, fast and remarkably controllable design, IKinema's inverse kinematics (IK) solver is now the key motion capture solving and retargeting tool that Framestore uses to create special effects and animation for both its broadcast and VFX projects.
"The IKinema solver is a fantastic solution for a wide range of skeleton control issues," said Nicolas Scapel, head of rigging at Framestore. "By using IKinema's advanced solver settings and its extremely flexible constraint system, we have been able to iteratively improve our solving solution and accuracy. With the ability to easily reproduce this same setup script on many shots, we will be shaving days and weeks off our production time."
Once Framestore integrated IKinema into its core motion capture pipeline, the results they had been hoping for began to appear. It is now possible to take tracked and filtered point cloud data from mocap software and easily animate a high-resolution skeleton by assigning their data to a linked set of joints. This process can be scripted via IKinema SDK and reused on every future take, which saves time by producing high-quality results.
Current Film projects include: "War Horse," "Gravity," "Johnny English Reborn," "Captain America: The First Avenger," "Clash of the Titans 2," "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" and "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy."
Romancing the Oscar - Academy Issues New Screening Rules
(bts.backstage.com) The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences set some new rules concerning campaigning today.
The New Rules: http://bts.backstage.com/2011/09/new-rules-oscar-version.html
Pirates of the Caribbean Upgrade Cancelled: No Jack Sparrow Animatronic for Paris?
(dlrptoday.com) Never trust a pirate, eh. For months it has seemed a sure-fire certainty: Jack Sparrow audio animatronics to finally join Pirates of the Caribbean for 20th Anniversary! But now it looks like the big Pirates of the Caribbean refurbishment planned for early next year has been curtailed and the addition of Jack Sparrow animatronics cancelled — at least for 2012. According to several sources on the French Disney Central Plaza forum, including La Rouquine, the originally planned closure of 3 months early next year to account for the changes has now been cut back to just 2 weeks. Moderator Dash adds that he learnt last week the new additions were cancelled again due to budgetary reasons.
The movie overlay, which was given to the US versions as long ago as 2006, was never publicly announced by Disneyland Paris, only confirmed internally, so we should note that for us the resort is not technically “cancelling” anything. It was first strongly rumoured for the Paris version of the attraction during the 15th Anniversary, before again appearing to be on the cards for the New Generation Festival in 2010, and then again for the current Magical Moments Festival to tie in with the fourth film, “On Stranger Tides”. This year’s 20th Anniversary plans were the closest the make-over — which could include up to three Jack Sparrow audio-animatronics, Barbossa as captain of the marauding ship, a Davy Jones mist-screen projection and other technical upgrades — ever got to reality.
While Pirates purists might raise a bottle of rum to the news that the Disneyland Paris version of the attraction will remain (for at least a little while longer) in its own world, untouched by the movies’ characters, consider what you’re drinking up to, me ‘hearties. Is the cancellation of a three-month spruce-up for this 20-year old masterpiece really a good thing? Couldn’t it stand to benefit from new technology, from improved lighting, effects and music? A robotic Johnny Depp might be a price to pay for that, but it’s probably the only (marketable) way such an upgrade would happen right now.
However, continuing the annual almost-but-not-quite game, DynastyGo reports the refurbishment is not cancelled but simply postponed, to the next financial year. But what do you think — has Disneyland Paris already missed its “opportune moment” to capitalise on the success of Captain Jack?
Iron Man 3 Eyes North Carolina Shoot
(Latino Review) Though the armored hero will make his presence known on the big screen next summer as part of the superhero ensemble, The Avengers, Marvel Studios is already prepping Tony Stark's next solo adventure with Iron Man 3. While the first two Iron Man films shot primarily in Los Angeles, Latino Review reports that the third outting is eyeing production in Wilmington, North Carolina.
If all goes according to their reports, Iron Man 3 will take over 10 sound stages at the city's Screen Gems Studios with production targeted to begin next June.
Little is known about the plot of the film, but Shane Black will take the director's seat (replacing the first two films' Jon Favreau) and will lend his writing talents to the script by Drew Pearce. At this time, Robert Downey Jr. is the only confirmed cast member, though it's highly likely that Gwyneth Paltrow and Don Cheadle will be returning as well.
Thor, X-Men & Star Wars Top the DVD Charts
(SuperHeroHype) The Hollywood Reporter says that Paramount Home Entertainment's Thor topped the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert sales chart for the week ending September 18, pushing X-Men: First Class down to second place.
The two both beat "Star Wars: The Complete Saga," which took third but also cost a lot more than the two superhero titles.
Thor also topped Nielsen's dedicated Blu-ray Disc chart, with "Star Wars" coming in at No. 2 and X-Men: First Class slipping to third. Thor generated 61% of its sales from Blu-ray and X-Men: First Class, 54%.
On Home Media Magazine's rental chart for the week, Thor also received the top spot and was followed by Something Borrowed, Everything Must Go and Paul.
Thor has earned $449 million at the worldwide box office, while X-Men: First Class took in $353 million globally.
Avoiding the Uncanny Valley: How to Keep Your Animations from Creeping People Out
(animation.about.com) So...recently, I finally caved in and watched the Green Lantern film with Ryan Reynolds. I'd been avoiding it for a number of reasons, among them being that as much as I like Ryan Reynolds, the choice of him for this role just felt strange to me. What was even more strange, though, was the CGI used in the film - especially for Reynolds' superhero garb as the eponymous Green Lantern. In the commercials it bothered me on a deep-seated level, with that mixture of comic-book exaggeration combined with oddly realistic (but anatomically incorrect) textures and oh, hey, Reynolds' real head on top of it, in many instances. Opinions on the quality of the film itself aside, Green Lantern definitely hit the Uncanny Valley for me. There are just a few rules you don't break when blending CGI and realism - that is, if you don't want to squick people into leaving the theater.
The Uncanny Rules: http://animation.about.com/od/relatedtopics/a/Avoiding-The-Uncanny-Valley-How-To-Keep-Your-Animation-From-Creeping-People-Out.htm
Cameron Previewing New Cirque du Soleil 3D Movie
James Cameron and Vince Pace, co-founders and co-chairmen of Cameron | Pace Group, have started to preview 39 minutes of stunning new footage of a Cirque du Soleil 3D movie, directed by Andrew Adamson and shot using CPG’s Fusion 3D camera system, for industry audiences.
The production, which does not yet have a title, is a partnership between Cameron, Adamson and Cirque du Soleil and uses a new story as a device to weave together acts from various Cirque du Soleil shows, such as Ka, with its climatic battle on a vertical stage, and O, the water-themed production that includes an acrobatic act on a ship that floats above the pool of water.
“The performers are in jeopardy the entire time,” Cameron said of the shows. “The 3D camera gets right up there with the performers, you feel the height when they are performing 90 feet above the floor. You see the amazing physicality of the performance--the strength, the grace, the beauty.”
The multi-camera production was lensed both during actual performances as well as during separate shoots.
“We combined all of the newest technology innovation for this production. The footage is spectacular,” Pace said. “CPG delivered ‘Slate2Screen’ services including 23 Fusion 3D systems and a new underwater Fusion 3D system, Fusion H2O/20.”
The Fusion 3D camera system has been used on productions from Avatar to Justin Bieber: Never Say Never to coverage of live events such as the recent US Open tennis championship.
Theatrical distributers for the Cirque du Soliel production have not yet been announced.
Art Directors Guild Pushes to Organize Previs Artists
(AWN News) The Art Directors Guild has launched a new website called Artists for Direct Action (http://www.directactionartist.com) that is encouraging previs artists to organize. The site calls for artists to contact the Guild to obtain and sign an IATSE representation card, highlighting the fact that their employer will not be notified that they signed this card. The Guild is looking to gain representation of a major of previs artists in order to negotiate a union contract for the workers.
Captain America 2 Likely for 2014
(comingsoon.net) With two new films hitting in the next two weeks (Puncture and What's Your Number?), Chris Evans has been making the press rounds. The Playlist caught up with the actor and managed to get a question out about potential upcoming appearances as Captain America in Marvel Studios' cinematic universe.
“They may wait until 2014 until they release the next 'Cap'," he said, "Marvel has a lot of balls in the air. They aren’t going to cannibalize their films.”
That means that after appearing in next summer's The Avengers, Steve Rogers is likely going to lay low for two years, presumably then taking over one of the already-announced Marvel release dates of either May 16 or June 27, 2014. Unlike Robert Downey Jr., who appeared between Iron Man and Iron Man 2 in The Incredible Hulk, Evans suspects that cameos are out. Contracted for six films altogether, Evans believes he'll split his roles between three Captain America films and three Avengers films.
“Out of those six films, if I pop up in one of those [other films], it counts as part of the deal," he continued, "So if they needed me in a third 'Cap', and I say, ‘F--k you, give me $30 million,’ well, they want to avoid that.”
Talking Tech: James Cameron at the 3-D Summit
James Cameron, director of the film 'Avatar,' discusses plans to open an Avatar-themed land, first at Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Florida, at a news conference at Disney Imagineering in Glendale,
Avatar director James Cameron and business partner Vince Pace stopped by the 3-D Entertainment Summit in Los Angeles this week to talk up 3-D, and their go-go plans to go forward with more 3-D in the future.
The leaders of the Cameron/Pace Group, which works with sports broadcasters such as ESPN and CBS Sports on 3-D sporting events, and films, including an upcoming production from the theatrical group Cirque du Soleil, sat down with us after their keynote to talk 3-D.
VIDEO - http://content.usatoday.com/communities/technologylive/post/2011/09/talking-tech-james-cameron-at-the-3-d-summit/1
"Monster" Director To Helm "Thor 2"
Patty Jenkins is in early talks to helm the "Thor" sequel for Marvel Studios and Disney Pictures says Variety.
Jenkins directed acclaimed 2003 indie drama "Monster" and has since worked on TV shows like "Entourage," "Arrested Development" and more recently the acclaimed two-hour pilot for AMC's "The Killing".
The hiring of Jenkins is decidedly unconventional, but so was the hiring of Kenneth Branagh for the first film which collected $447 million at the worldwide box office, a risk that definitely payed off.
Jenkins beat out another acclaimed cable series director who was previously linked as the favourite - "Game of Thrones" episode helmer Brian Kirk. Kirk opted out during negotiations.
Others reportedly considered for the job include the likes of Drew Goddard ("Cabin in the Woods"), James McTeigue ("Ninja Assassin"), Noam Murro ("300: Battle of Artemesia") and Breck Eisner ("The Crazies").
Don Payne, who co-wrote "Thor," is writing the sequel which is already scheduled for a July 26th 2013 release.
GREEN LANTERN Coaster CGI
VIDEO - Take a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2wVj57vLus
Visual Effects Community Releases Bill of Rights
(hollywoodreporter.com) The Visual Effects Society—representing roughly 2400 members in 23 countries—has released a Bill of Rights that aims to address issues affecting its industry including the downward spiral of VFX working conditions and facility profit margins. These and related issues were outlined in an open letter to the entertainment industry that VES produced several months ago.
The VES board of directors unanimously voted to approve this new Bill of Rights, which addresses topics including overtime, credits, change fees and ownership of intellectual property. Input in developing the document was solicited by VES in numerous meetings, blogs, and forums with entertainment industry representatives.
“It is list of aspirations and things that we’d like to see people come together and try to achieve,” Eric Roth, executive director of VES, told The Hollywood Reporter.
But with directives to keep costs down and many VFX facilities operating on razor-thin margins, he added: “We recognize that there are various pressures on each of these components to allow these pieces to go forward. This is going to have to be collaborative and with tons of education.
“At this time we have engaged in a vigorous dialog with key stakeholders at all levels and believe our Bill of Rights lays out the vital concerns of each segment of the industry. Our next step is to focus on bringing all parties together to seek solutions.”
Roth noted that some of the items in the Bill of Rights--including credits--have been subjects for collective bargaining and would therefore be a “future focus. … by bring people together and trying to do what’s right.”
VES is an honorary society and doesn’t have collective barging power. Separate from VES, two unions--IATSE and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers--are trying to organize the field.
The complete text of the Bill of Rights follows:
VISUAL EFFECTS INDUSTRY Bill of Rights
The Situation Today
The global visual effects industry is in transition. Because visual effects now play a central role in today’s feature films, television programming, animation, video games, commercials and virtually all forms of entertainment, they have become critically important to the entertainment industry.
43 of the top 50 films of all time are visual effects driven. Today, visual effects are the ‘movie stars’ of studio tentpole pictures – that is, visual effects make contemporary movies box office hits in the same way that big name actors ensured the success of films in the past.
It is very difficult to imagine a modern feature film or TV program without visual effects. Visual effects drive the entertainment marketplace which entertains billions of people across the globe, and earns billions of net profit dollars each year.
Technology, local tax policies and the current business model have transformed the visual effects industry over the last 30 years from a provincial business with a few locations primarily in California, working on a relatively small number of projects, to a global market of projects and providers. Though the number of jobs has grown worldwide, job security and working conditions have significantly eroded.
Caught in these changing conditions are the visual effects artists, practitioners, and facilities that actually do the work and are finding the business landscape more difficult to navigate. In some parts of the world, many artists and practitioners do not have access to health care coverage (primarily in countries without nationalized health care); in many areas of the world, non-paid and unchecked overtime, lack of access to pensions and day-to-day job security are key issues facing visual effects artists and practitioners. Similarly, many facilities are experiencing tremendous difficulties keeping their doors open because they are finding out that their current business models are broken.
The Visual Effects Society (VES) is an honorary Society of artists and practitioners, and is currently the preeminent visual effects organization in the industry. Our mission is to further the art and science of visual effects, to address conditions impacting artists and practitioners, facilities, directors and studios, and to reflect the needs of our membership, therefore enhancing the artistic and business lives of our members around the world. Addressing these challenges will require the collaboration and cooperation of all sectors of the entertainment industry.
In response to this environment, the VES offers this visual effects Bill of Rights, and a dedication to work with the entertainment industry at large to transform the visual effects industry into a model that is mutually sustainable for artists and practitioners, facilities and studios.
Therefore be it resolved that:
A Visual Effects Artist or Practitioner has the right to:
--A clear understanding of the work he/she is being hired to perform, including knowing what they are being paid per hour, per week or per job, as well as the duration of the assignment, with strict adherence to all local labor laws and tax codes regarding overtime, sick time, vacation time, working conditions, safety and other aspects of a professional work environment. This would include a minimum of an industry-standard turnaround between work shifts;
--Negotiate a modification in the terms of employment should the realities of the position change in any material way, or decline work that is outside the terms of the employment agreement;
--Quality health care coverage no matter where in the world he/she may be working;
--Be paid on time;
--Work under conditions conducive to the work they are expected to perform and the creative process it entails;
--Be given a reasonable amount of notice when being asked to work overtime. If asked, to be able to turn down such requests without reprisals;
--An appropriate and certifiable credit;
--Show their work after the project is commercially released for the purpose of securing more work.
A Visual Effects Facility has the right to:
--A clear and reasonable deal memo with the artists and practitioners for hire delineating the scope of the work, the schedule from commencement to completion, and the agreed upon price;
--A clear and reasonable contract, signed before their work begins, with the producers or studio hiring the facility, delineating the scope of work, production schedule and payment schedule;
--Expect to make a fair and reasonable profit for work performed;
--Expect the highest level of professionalism from artists, practitioners, and studios;
--Turn down projects, or additional work on projects already awarded, without fear of reprisal on future projects;
--Charge for material changes and delivery schedule changes that impact the ability to deliver or the quality of work to be delivered;
--Retain ownership of their intellectual property and proprietary tools;
--Fair and reasonable credit for services rendered and/or risks taken;
--Show their work after the project is commercially released for the purpose of securing more work.
A Studio has the right to:
--A clear and reasonable contract delineating the scope of the work, the schedule from commencement to completion of the project, and the payment schedule based on the agreed upon price;
--Be informed in a timely manner before incurring any excess charges, delays or problems with work for which it has contracted;
--Shorten or lengthen a schedule as long as they are willing to compensate facilities;
--Change direction on any aspect of the show in question, as long as it fairly compensates facilities and artists and makes the necessary contractual and time accommodations, on any changes that affect them;
--Expect professional work from facilities, artists and practitioners;
--Expect a high degree of productive collaboration between facilities on shows that have multiple visual effects facilities working on the same project;
The Future
These goals must be sought with an overriding concern for improving the artistic quality and value of the films, TV shows, commercials, animation and new media we produce.
We believe that achieving these outcomes – which will benefit visual effects artists and practitioners, visual effects facilities, directors and production studios – will be a collaborative process. This Bill of Rights is only a starting point for a meaningful discussion that will unfold over the months ahead. Each geographic community that is involved in the crafting of visual effects has different needs. VES’s goal is to play the role of catalyst to bring together all the participants in the entertainment industry who interact with visual effects.
This Bill of Rights is also a “bill of responsibilities:” it must be implemented in a manner that strengthens the visual effects industry. We recognize that the responsibility of moving this program further lies primarily with the VES. This is a global issue---by working together, we will benefit together, and so will the entertainment industry at large.
VFX Time Warp: 2008 VES Awards Outstanding Models & Miniatures
VIDEO - Take a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-QXNdONCgo
James Cameron Wants to Certify 3D Filmmakers
(thewrap.com) James Cameron wants to create veritable Good Housekeeping seal of approval for 3D filmmakers.
The “Avatar” director and 3D evangelist told TheWrap Wednesday that his company, the Cameron-Pace Group, has developed just such a certification process for 3D filmmakers.
“We want to be the Dolby of 3D,” he said.
He said that Real D handles that function on the display side, but no one’s doing it for filmmakers.
Also read: James Cameron on 3D and 'The Lion King': 'All It Takes Is Greed'
A "Cameron-Pace Group-certified" stamp of approval would do just that, he said.
Cameron added that he wants the certification program to be a way for filmmakers to know that they’re using 3D technology in the best possible way.
“It’s about the planning, the acquisition … delivering it to display,” he said. “We want to work with the filmmakers, we want to work with the standards entities … to create a consensus about the best practices and standards on the way the set is run, the cameras are used and so on.”
He said any company that uses his group’s services -- rents its equipment, for instance -- will be eligible for certification.
They’ll pay for the services, he said, but not for the certification.
“Any company that works with us is going to have the benefit of our 12 years of experience doing it not right in a sense of, there’s a right and a wrong, but in a way that’s qualitatively better for the audience ... We’ll show you how to do it in a way that doesn’t hurt peoples’ eyes.
“We’ll work with everybody who’s out there doing something in 3D to create a consensus around best practices, standards and so on.”
Of course, Cameron is a busy man, so finding time to set up the certification process will be its own challenge.
“I’ve got a window of time now before I really knuckle down on ‘Avatar’ day to day, which will be after the first of the year, to really get this company launched to the next threshold and after that it’s just a time management issue,” he said.
Want to dine with George Lucas?
(marquee.blogs.cnn.com) Through Friday September 23, you can bid on one-of-a-kind "Star Wars"-related goods on eBay - including dinner with Lucas. (Francis Ford Coppola, John Lasseter, Chris Columbus and Phillip Kaufman will be there, too!) Other items for bid include a "Star Wars" edition 2012 Volkswagen Passat and over 100 collectibles.
The current bid for dinner with Lucas at the time of this post was $8,550...so like we said, save up if you're interested.
Bid today: http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290607988421&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT#ht_4993wt_1270
(Latino Review) Though the armored hero will make his presence known on the big screen next summer as part of the superhero ensemble, The Avengers, Marvel Studios is already prepping Tony Stark's next solo adventure with Iron Man 3. While the first two Iron Man films shot primarily in Los Angeles, Latino Review reports that the third outting is eyeing production in Wilmington, North Carolina.
If all goes according to their reports, Iron Man 3 will take over 10 sound stages at the city's Screen Gems Studios with production targeted to begin next June.
Little is known about the plot of the film, but Shane Black will take the director's seat (replacing the first two films' Jon Favreau) and will lend his writing talents to the script by Drew Pearce. At this time, Robert Downey Jr. is the only confirmed cast member, though it's highly likely that Gwyneth Paltrow and Don Cheadle will be returning as well.
Thor, X-Men & Star Wars Top the DVD Charts
(SuperHeroHype) The Hollywood Reporter says that Paramount Home Entertainment's Thor topped the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert sales chart for the week ending September 18, pushing X-Men: First Class down to second place.
The two both beat "Star Wars: The Complete Saga," which took third but also cost a lot more than the two superhero titles.
Thor also topped Nielsen's dedicated Blu-ray Disc chart, with "Star Wars" coming in at No. 2 and X-Men: First Class slipping to third. Thor generated 61% of its sales from Blu-ray and X-Men: First Class, 54%.
On Home Media Magazine's rental chart for the week, Thor also received the top spot and was followed by Something Borrowed, Everything Must Go and Paul.
Thor has earned $449 million at the worldwide box office, while X-Men: First Class took in $353 million globally.
Avoiding the Uncanny Valley: How to Keep Your Animations from Creeping People Out
(animation.about.com) So...recently, I finally caved in and watched the Green Lantern film with Ryan Reynolds. I'd been avoiding it for a number of reasons, among them being that as much as I like Ryan Reynolds, the choice of him for this role just felt strange to me. What was even more strange, though, was the CGI used in the film - especially for Reynolds' superhero garb as the eponymous Green Lantern. In the commercials it bothered me on a deep-seated level, with that mixture of comic-book exaggeration combined with oddly realistic (but anatomically incorrect) textures and oh, hey, Reynolds' real head on top of it, in many instances. Opinions on the quality of the film itself aside, Green Lantern definitely hit the Uncanny Valley for me. There are just a few rules you don't break when blending CGI and realism - that is, if you don't want to squick people into leaving the theater.
The Uncanny Rules: http://animation.about.com/od/relatedtopics/a/Avoiding-The-Uncanny-Valley-How-To-Keep-Your-Animation-From-Creeping-People-Out.htm
Cameron Previewing New Cirque du Soleil 3D Movie
James Cameron and Vince Pace, co-founders and co-chairmen of Cameron | Pace Group, have started to preview 39 minutes of stunning new footage of a Cirque du Soleil 3D movie, directed by Andrew Adamson and shot using CPG’s Fusion 3D camera system, for industry audiences.
The production, which does not yet have a title, is a partnership between Cameron, Adamson and Cirque du Soleil and uses a new story as a device to weave together acts from various Cirque du Soleil shows, such as Ka, with its climatic battle on a vertical stage, and O, the water-themed production that includes an acrobatic act on a ship that floats above the pool of water.
“The performers are in jeopardy the entire time,” Cameron said of the shows. “The 3D camera gets right up there with the performers, you feel the height when they are performing 90 feet above the floor. You see the amazing physicality of the performance--the strength, the grace, the beauty.”
The multi-camera production was lensed both during actual performances as well as during separate shoots.
“We combined all of the newest technology innovation for this production. The footage is spectacular,” Pace said. “CPG delivered ‘Slate2Screen’ services including 23 Fusion 3D systems and a new underwater Fusion 3D system, Fusion H2O/20.”
The Fusion 3D camera system has been used on productions from Avatar to Justin Bieber: Never Say Never to coverage of live events such as the recent US Open tennis championship.
Theatrical distributers for the Cirque du Soliel production have not yet been announced.
Art Directors Guild Pushes to Organize Previs Artists
(AWN News) The Art Directors Guild has launched a new website called Artists for Direct Action (http://www.directactionartist.com) that is encouraging previs artists to organize. The site calls for artists to contact the Guild to obtain and sign an IATSE representation card, highlighting the fact that their employer will not be notified that they signed this card. The Guild is looking to gain representation of a major of previs artists in order to negotiate a union contract for the workers.
Captain America 2 Likely for 2014
(comingsoon.net) With two new films hitting in the next two weeks (Puncture and What's Your Number?), Chris Evans has been making the press rounds. The Playlist caught up with the actor and managed to get a question out about potential upcoming appearances as Captain America in Marvel Studios' cinematic universe.
“They may wait until 2014 until they release the next 'Cap'," he said, "Marvel has a lot of balls in the air. They aren’t going to cannibalize their films.”
That means that after appearing in next summer's The Avengers, Steve Rogers is likely going to lay low for two years, presumably then taking over one of the already-announced Marvel release dates of either May 16 or June 27, 2014. Unlike Robert Downey Jr., who appeared between Iron Man and Iron Man 2 in The Incredible Hulk, Evans suspects that cameos are out. Contracted for six films altogether, Evans believes he'll split his roles between three Captain America films and three Avengers films.
“Out of those six films, if I pop up in one of those [other films], it counts as part of the deal," he continued, "So if they needed me in a third 'Cap', and I say, ‘F--k you, give me $30 million,’ well, they want to avoid that.”
Talking Tech: James Cameron at the 3-D Summit
James Cameron, director of the film 'Avatar,' discusses plans to open an Avatar-themed land, first at Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Florida, at a news conference at Disney Imagineering in Glendale,
Avatar director James Cameron and business partner Vince Pace stopped by the 3-D Entertainment Summit in Los Angeles this week to talk up 3-D, and their go-go plans to go forward with more 3-D in the future.
The leaders of the Cameron/Pace Group, which works with sports broadcasters such as ESPN and CBS Sports on 3-D sporting events, and films, including an upcoming production from the theatrical group Cirque du Soleil, sat down with us after their keynote to talk 3-D.
VIDEO - http://content.usatoday.com/communities/technologylive/post/2011/09/talking-tech-james-cameron-at-the-3-d-summit/1
"Monster" Director To Helm "Thor 2"
Patty Jenkins is in early talks to helm the "Thor" sequel for Marvel Studios and Disney Pictures says Variety.
Jenkins directed acclaimed 2003 indie drama "Monster" and has since worked on TV shows like "Entourage," "Arrested Development" and more recently the acclaimed two-hour pilot for AMC's "The Killing".
The hiring of Jenkins is decidedly unconventional, but so was the hiring of Kenneth Branagh for the first film which collected $447 million at the worldwide box office, a risk that definitely payed off.
Jenkins beat out another acclaimed cable series director who was previously linked as the favourite - "Game of Thrones" episode helmer Brian Kirk. Kirk opted out during negotiations.
Others reportedly considered for the job include the likes of Drew Goddard ("Cabin in the Woods"), James McTeigue ("Ninja Assassin"), Noam Murro ("300: Battle of Artemesia") and Breck Eisner ("The Crazies").
Don Payne, who co-wrote "Thor," is writing the sequel which is already scheduled for a July 26th 2013 release.
GREEN LANTERN Coaster CGI
VIDEO - Take a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2wVj57vLus
Visual Effects Community Releases Bill of Rights
(hollywoodreporter.com) The Visual Effects Society—representing roughly 2400 members in 23 countries—has released a Bill of Rights that aims to address issues affecting its industry including the downward spiral of VFX working conditions and facility profit margins. These and related issues were outlined in an open letter to the entertainment industry that VES produced several months ago.
The VES board of directors unanimously voted to approve this new Bill of Rights, which addresses topics including overtime, credits, change fees and ownership of intellectual property. Input in developing the document was solicited by VES in numerous meetings, blogs, and forums with entertainment industry representatives.
“It is list of aspirations and things that we’d like to see people come together and try to achieve,” Eric Roth, executive director of VES, told The Hollywood Reporter.
But with directives to keep costs down and many VFX facilities operating on razor-thin margins, he added: “We recognize that there are various pressures on each of these components to allow these pieces to go forward. This is going to have to be collaborative and with tons of education.
“At this time we have engaged in a vigorous dialog with key stakeholders at all levels and believe our Bill of Rights lays out the vital concerns of each segment of the industry. Our next step is to focus on bringing all parties together to seek solutions.”
Roth noted that some of the items in the Bill of Rights--including credits--have been subjects for collective bargaining and would therefore be a “future focus. … by bring people together and trying to do what’s right.”
VES is an honorary society and doesn’t have collective barging power. Separate from VES, two unions--IATSE and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers--are trying to organize the field.
The complete text of the Bill of Rights follows:
VISUAL EFFECTS INDUSTRY Bill of Rights
The Situation Today
The global visual effects industry is in transition. Because visual effects now play a central role in today’s feature films, television programming, animation, video games, commercials and virtually all forms of entertainment, they have become critically important to the entertainment industry.
43 of the top 50 films of all time are visual effects driven. Today, visual effects are the ‘movie stars’ of studio tentpole pictures – that is, visual effects make contemporary movies box office hits in the same way that big name actors ensured the success of films in the past.
It is very difficult to imagine a modern feature film or TV program without visual effects. Visual effects drive the entertainment marketplace which entertains billions of people across the globe, and earns billions of net profit dollars each year.
Technology, local tax policies and the current business model have transformed the visual effects industry over the last 30 years from a provincial business with a few locations primarily in California, working on a relatively small number of projects, to a global market of projects and providers. Though the number of jobs has grown worldwide, job security and working conditions have significantly eroded.
Caught in these changing conditions are the visual effects artists, practitioners, and facilities that actually do the work and are finding the business landscape more difficult to navigate. In some parts of the world, many artists and practitioners do not have access to health care coverage (primarily in countries without nationalized health care); in many areas of the world, non-paid and unchecked overtime, lack of access to pensions and day-to-day job security are key issues facing visual effects artists and practitioners. Similarly, many facilities are experiencing tremendous difficulties keeping their doors open because they are finding out that their current business models are broken.
The Visual Effects Society (VES) is an honorary Society of artists and practitioners, and is currently the preeminent visual effects organization in the industry. Our mission is to further the art and science of visual effects, to address conditions impacting artists and practitioners, facilities, directors and studios, and to reflect the needs of our membership, therefore enhancing the artistic and business lives of our members around the world. Addressing these challenges will require the collaboration and cooperation of all sectors of the entertainment industry.
In response to this environment, the VES offers this visual effects Bill of Rights, and a dedication to work with the entertainment industry at large to transform the visual effects industry into a model that is mutually sustainable for artists and practitioners, facilities and studios.
Therefore be it resolved that:
A Visual Effects Artist or Practitioner has the right to:
--A clear understanding of the work he/she is being hired to perform, including knowing what they are being paid per hour, per week or per job, as well as the duration of the assignment, with strict adherence to all local labor laws and tax codes regarding overtime, sick time, vacation time, working conditions, safety and other aspects of a professional work environment. This would include a minimum of an industry-standard turnaround between work shifts;
--Negotiate a modification in the terms of employment should the realities of the position change in any material way, or decline work that is outside the terms of the employment agreement;
--Quality health care coverage no matter where in the world he/she may be working;
--Be paid on time;
--Work under conditions conducive to the work they are expected to perform and the creative process it entails;
--Be given a reasonable amount of notice when being asked to work overtime. If asked, to be able to turn down such requests without reprisals;
--An appropriate and certifiable credit;
--Show their work after the project is commercially released for the purpose of securing more work.
A Visual Effects Facility has the right to:
--A clear and reasonable deal memo with the artists and practitioners for hire delineating the scope of the work, the schedule from commencement to completion, and the agreed upon price;
--A clear and reasonable contract, signed before their work begins, with the producers or studio hiring the facility, delineating the scope of work, production schedule and payment schedule;
--Expect to make a fair and reasonable profit for work performed;
--Expect the highest level of professionalism from artists, practitioners, and studios;
--Turn down projects, or additional work on projects already awarded, without fear of reprisal on future projects;
--Charge for material changes and delivery schedule changes that impact the ability to deliver or the quality of work to be delivered;
--Retain ownership of their intellectual property and proprietary tools;
--Fair and reasonable credit for services rendered and/or risks taken;
--Show their work after the project is commercially released for the purpose of securing more work.
A Studio has the right to:
--A clear and reasonable contract delineating the scope of the work, the schedule from commencement to completion of the project, and the payment schedule based on the agreed upon price;
--Be informed in a timely manner before incurring any excess charges, delays or problems with work for which it has contracted;
--Shorten or lengthen a schedule as long as they are willing to compensate facilities;
--Change direction on any aspect of the show in question, as long as it fairly compensates facilities and artists and makes the necessary contractual and time accommodations, on any changes that affect them;
--Expect professional work from facilities, artists and practitioners;
--Expect a high degree of productive collaboration between facilities on shows that have multiple visual effects facilities working on the same project;
The Future
These goals must be sought with an overriding concern for improving the artistic quality and value of the films, TV shows, commercials, animation and new media we produce.
We believe that achieving these outcomes – which will benefit visual effects artists and practitioners, visual effects facilities, directors and production studios – will be a collaborative process. This Bill of Rights is only a starting point for a meaningful discussion that will unfold over the months ahead. Each geographic community that is involved in the crafting of visual effects has different needs. VES’s goal is to play the role of catalyst to bring together all the participants in the entertainment industry who interact with visual effects.
This Bill of Rights is also a “bill of responsibilities:” it must be implemented in a manner that strengthens the visual effects industry. We recognize that the responsibility of moving this program further lies primarily with the VES. This is a global issue---by working together, we will benefit together, and so will the entertainment industry at large.
VFX Time Warp: 2008 VES Awards Outstanding Models & Miniatures
VIDEO - Take a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-QXNdONCgo
James Cameron Wants to Certify 3D Filmmakers
(thewrap.com) James Cameron wants to create veritable Good Housekeeping seal of approval for 3D filmmakers.
The “Avatar” director and 3D evangelist told TheWrap Wednesday that his company, the Cameron-Pace Group, has developed just such a certification process for 3D filmmakers.
“We want to be the Dolby of 3D,” he said.
He said that Real D handles that function on the display side, but no one’s doing it for filmmakers.
Also read: James Cameron on 3D and 'The Lion King': 'All It Takes Is Greed'
A "Cameron-Pace Group-certified" stamp of approval would do just that, he said.
Cameron added that he wants the certification program to be a way for filmmakers to know that they’re using 3D technology in the best possible way.
“It’s about the planning, the acquisition … delivering it to display,” he said. “We want to work with the filmmakers, we want to work with the standards entities … to create a consensus about the best practices and standards on the way the set is run, the cameras are used and so on.”
He said any company that uses his group’s services -- rents its equipment, for instance -- will be eligible for certification.
They’ll pay for the services, he said, but not for the certification.
“Any company that works with us is going to have the benefit of our 12 years of experience doing it not right in a sense of, there’s a right and a wrong, but in a way that’s qualitatively better for the audience ... We’ll show you how to do it in a way that doesn’t hurt peoples’ eyes.
“We’ll work with everybody who’s out there doing something in 3D to create a consensus around best practices, standards and so on.”
Of course, Cameron is a busy man, so finding time to set up the certification process will be its own challenge.
“I’ve got a window of time now before I really knuckle down on ‘Avatar’ day to day, which will be after the first of the year, to really get this company launched to the next threshold and after that it’s just a time management issue,” he said.
Want to dine with George Lucas?
(marquee.blogs.cnn.com) Through Friday September 23, you can bid on one-of-a-kind "Star Wars"-related goods on eBay - including dinner with Lucas. (Francis Ford Coppola, John Lasseter, Chris Columbus and Phillip Kaufman will be there, too!) Other items for bid include a "Star Wars" edition 2012 Volkswagen Passat and over 100 collectibles.
The current bid for dinner with Lucas at the time of this post was $8,550...so like we said, save up if you're interested.
Bid today: http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290607988421&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT#ht_4993wt_1270
'The Dark Knight Rises' Ending Sequence Said To Be All Visual FX
(latinoreview.com) Watch out, here comes one of those dreaded and much reviled rumors of 'The Dark Knight Rises.' This one has a slightly more reliable source than the overheard mumblings of a comic book store owner. In fact, this source has it all: a name, (Frederick Roche) a face, and even an IMDB page -- at least it looks like his. The guy's Twitter account has him listed as a "professional location sound recordist - boom operator," which matches his attributed work on IMDB. It's all very fitting.
One thing that's a little confusing is that Roche appears privy to some of the secrets of 'The Dark Knight Rises,' even though he's not listed as working on the production. It's possible that he has some connections. You hold enough mics for people, opportunities come your way. He Tweeted today:
"#thedarkknightrises technical info: The ending sequence is soo secret that only 5 (Includ Nolan) know it and will be done completely in vfx."
If true, that's some decent information. That's to say that even if the cast of the film wanted to tell you the ending, they couldn't -- that is until they shoot it, if it hasn't been already. Don't confuse the visual FX bit for solely meaning computer-generated imagery. It does fall into that category, but things like animatronics and models do as well.
Back in June, prior to the Batwing being revealed on the set of the film, Roche came close to breaking some news with his Tweet:
"'The Dark Knight Rises': Inside Info, they are Building 2 Attack Helicopters in the same design as the Bat Mobile from The Dark Knight! BOOM"
To be fair, the Batwing doesn't really look like the Batcopter, but no one has seen how it will appear in the finished film, yet. It could sprout some blades.
That's all for the rumors today. Commence anger. In between, maybe speculate as to what this visual FX driven ending sequence could be all about.
"Terminator 5" Loses Director
(darkhorizons.com) "Fast Five" director Justin Lin has been forced to drop out of a fifth "Terminator" film reports Deadline.
Megan Ellison and Arnold Schwarzenegger are reportedly looking to put the first of two "Terminator" pictures in production for the fourth quarter of 2012.
The scheduling conflicts with Lin's commitment to "Fast Six", but he has left the door open to a return if Ellison and Schwarzenegger will wait. He has reportedly been working closely with Schwarzenegger and Ellison on the project over the past few months.
Ellison’s Annapurna Films scored the film rights to the franchise back at Cannes.
Spielberg: Transformers Announcement Should Be ’Soon’
(blogs.orlandosentinel.com) Here’s a Universal theme park-related quote from Steven Spielberg, who chatted with Sentinel movie critic Roger Moore over the weekend.
“I always like to hear that people are still coming to the attractions we already have in the park. I know everybody’s going to Harry Potter right now. But we think Transformers is going to pretty amazing. We’ve been working on that for about three years now. It should be ready soon. I don’t have an announcement, yet, but it should be coming there soon,” Spielberg said.
Transformers attractions are currently under construction at Universal parks in Singapore and Hollywood. Universal Orlando officials said Monday that they had no announcement to make about one being constructed here.
Tintin Trouble: Is 3D Dead ?
(blogs.orlandosentinel.com) Spielberg’s looking forward to the release of “Tintin” and dismisses all talk of 3D (which “Tintin” is dependent on) being dead as empty talking points.
““3D isn’t dead. Nooo. It’s just waiting for the right film to come along that will make an audience want to see it in 3D and not pay the lesser ticket price to see it in 2D. It’s always up to the audience. 3D is just another tool in our shed. It’s up to the audience to discriminate whether or not they think this or that is worth seeing in 3D. They decide ‘Avatar’ is worth a few bucks more in 3D. They decide if ‘Cars 2’ is worth a few bucks less in 2D. Audiences made those choices – ‘Avatar’ in 3D, ‘Cars 2’ in 2D. And that’s the way it’s going to be from now on.
Thank goodness the audience always has the final word. In the end, we are all working for them.”
'The Avengers' Assembling At New York Comic-Con With New Footage
(latinoreview.com) 'The Avengers' Assembling At New York Comic-Con With New Footage You can never have too much Comic-Con, regardless of the city. The next one takes place in New York from October 13-16. It's sure to be a nerd's paradise, especially now with the news that the Marvel superhero mash-up, 'The Avengers' will be making an appearance. According to the official website for the event, a presentation regarding the film will take place from 6:30pm until 7:30pm on October 15 at the IGN theater. The description reads:
Take a look: http://www.latinoreview.com/news/-the-avengers-assembling-at-new-york-comic-con-with-new-footage-14810
American Zoetrope Taps AJA Hi5-3D for Stereo Previews of Coppola’s “Twixt”
(webwire.com) Grass Valley, CA - AJA Video Systems announced that production company American Zoetrope used the AJA Hi5-3D Mini-Converter to enable convenient, cost-effective post-production reviews of stereo 3D sequences for Twixt, the 2011 thriller from Director Francis Ford Coppola that premiered at the Toronto Film Festival earlier this month.
Twixt, staring Val Kilmer and Elle Fanning, is a 2D feature that includes six minutes of stereo 3D in various sequences throughout the film. During post-production American Zoetrope had a SIM2 projector for screenings and needed a solution to feed it the proper signal for playback of stereo 3D material. “We had heard about AJA’s Hi5-3D and it looked like exactly what we needed,” said Post Production Supervisor James Mockoski.
AJA’s Hi5-3D Mini-Converter automatically combines left and right-eye SDI inputs into stereo 3D output that can be quickly and easily viewed on a 3D monitor or projector. “The 3D company and our VFX houses sent us left eye and right eye material, which we put through the Hi5-3D using its two SDI inputs, and sent a side-by-side signal out. It was a convenient, easy way to run 3D previews to check masks and titles,” said Post Production Manager Sin Cohen. “We also got a lot of use out of it as an SDI/HDMI converter to get signals from SDI to the projector. It was really handy to have that option in a pinch.”
“We’re up in Napa, and it was great to be able to do stereo reviews right here in our own facility rather than having to drive into the city for them,” Mockoski noted.
Twixt was shot using a combination of Sony and RED digital cameras and edited using seven Apple Final Cut Pro systems equipped with AJA KONA cards. An AJA Io HD device floated among editing systems, laptops and screens to enable on-the-spot playback. American Zoetrope is also considering bringing the Hi5-3D along for its road show screenings to potential distributors, to enable stereo review on the road. The AJA Hi5-3D is available for $495.
3D Blinky Bill Movie in the Works
(moviehole.net) Who can forget that adorable tree-hugging Aussie icon Blinky Bill? Not me (and not only because I’m reminded of his existence every time my daughter pops an ABC DVD in the player; there’s a promo for Blinky Bill on near every one of those Hi-5 or Elmo releases) and, by golly, I’m sure not ready to let the critter be roadkill just yet. Press release just landed in the inbox announcing a new 3D “Blinky Bill” movie – yes, the genie has granted you your wish. Now say thanks.
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – September 21, 2011 : Flying Bark Productions today confirmed a Blinky Bill 3D feature film will commence production this year and two of the animation industry’s most respected creative talents have signed on as Director and Line Producer.
With over 13 years working professionally in the fields of 3D animation and multi-media for Disney, Rising Sun Pictures and Animal Logic, Alex Weight will be at the helm of bringing back the iconic Blinky Bill as Director. Alex Weight was also the lead animator of Oscar-winning ‘Happy Feet’ and Animation Supervisor on ‘Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole’.
Marie-Cecile Dahan has also signed on for Blinky Bill as Line Producer. With extensive experience in the animation industry, Marie-Cecile Dahan has worked as Department Manager on ‘Avatar’, Series Line Producer on ‘Animalia’ and as the VFX Production Manager on ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows’ and ‘District 9’.
“Blinky Bill is a timeless Australian classic character so it is an absolute honour for our team at Flying Bark Productions to be bringing the stories of Blinky Bill and his Australian bush friends to life in 3D for a new generation of children – and of course for parents that grew up with this national treasure.
Both Alex and Marie-Cecile bring a wealth of Australian and international animation expertise so we are thrilled to have their creative talent on board for Blinky Bill in 3D” said Flying Bark Productions’ Managing Director, Jim Ballantine.
Flying Bark Productions has had a rich history with one of Australia’s most loved little guys. In 1992, Yoram Gross Film Studios – now Flying Bark Productions – produced the iconic Blinky Bill feature film based on the Australian classic book by Dorothy Wall. Blinky Bill, The Mischievous Koala told the story of Blinky Bill’s childhood with his animal friends in the Australian bush and how the peace and charm of their existence was shattered by the destruction of their homes by humans. The film made a national treasure of Yoram Gross and a megastar of Blinky, the little koala with the heart of gold.
Digital Aging Tech Needs To Improve Before Roland Emmerich' ‘Happy Birthday Mr. President’
(eaap2009.org) As someone who knows his way around special effects, director Roland Emmerich could be a fantastic entrant to use the digital aging technology that has been used for special effects in films like “The Curious Case Of Benjamin Pin,” “Watchmen” and “X-Men 3.”
The subject came up when MTV News caught up with Emmerich at the Toronto Film Festival to talk about his upcoming period thriller, “Anonymous,” which employs two sets of actors to play the same roles at different ages. We questioned Emmerich if he force be interested in de-aging an actor digitally, or even better/more challenging, bringing one back from the dead, FX re-animator, lost footage style and he exposed he’s already at work on a movie that relies heavily on that very technology.
“I am. I’m really into that,” Emmerich admitted. “I have one project which really tries to do that, but I reckon we’re not here yet. I made some tests that didn’t turn out very well, so I reckon we have to wait another five being.”
And what force the mystery project be?
“The title will tell you everything, it’s called ‘Pleased Birthday Mr. President.’”
Right to his word about the revealing title, Emmerich admitted the prospect film would revolve around Marilyn Monroe’s well-known birthday croon to for President John F. Kennedy, and likely the relationship surrounding it. Emmerich said that the film is a long way away from being made, but, at least until the proper aging technology is mastered.
“Yes, one day, one day,” Emmerich said hopefully. “People are kind of courageous to do something like that.”
Monsterpalooza 2012 Is Coming
Reserve your spot today: http://www.monsterpalooza.com/april2012/index.html
(latinoreview.com) Watch out, here comes one of those dreaded and much reviled rumors of 'The Dark Knight Rises.' This one has a slightly more reliable source than the overheard mumblings of a comic book store owner. In fact, this source has it all: a name, (Frederick Roche) a face, and even an IMDB page -- at least it looks like his. The guy's Twitter account has him listed as a "professional location sound recordist - boom operator," which matches his attributed work on IMDB. It's all very fitting.
One thing that's a little confusing is that Roche appears privy to some of the secrets of 'The Dark Knight Rises,' even though he's not listed as working on the production. It's possible that he has some connections. You hold enough mics for people, opportunities come your way. He Tweeted today:
"#thedarkknightrises technical info: The ending sequence is soo secret that only 5 (Includ Nolan) know it and will be done completely in vfx."
If true, that's some decent information. That's to say that even if the cast of the film wanted to tell you the ending, they couldn't -- that is until they shoot it, if it hasn't been already. Don't confuse the visual FX bit for solely meaning computer-generated imagery. It does fall into that category, but things like animatronics and models do as well.
Back in June, prior to the Batwing being revealed on the set of the film, Roche came close to breaking some news with his Tweet:
"'The Dark Knight Rises': Inside Info, they are Building 2 Attack Helicopters in the same design as the Bat Mobile from The Dark Knight! BOOM"
To be fair, the Batwing doesn't really look like the Batcopter, but no one has seen how it will appear in the finished film, yet. It could sprout some blades.
That's all for the rumors today. Commence anger. In between, maybe speculate as to what this visual FX driven ending sequence could be all about.
"Terminator 5" Loses Director
(darkhorizons.com) "Fast Five" director Justin Lin has been forced to drop out of a fifth "Terminator" film reports Deadline.
Megan Ellison and Arnold Schwarzenegger are reportedly looking to put the first of two "Terminator" pictures in production for the fourth quarter of 2012.
The scheduling conflicts with Lin's commitment to "Fast Six", but he has left the door open to a return if Ellison and Schwarzenegger will wait. He has reportedly been working closely with Schwarzenegger and Ellison on the project over the past few months.
Ellison’s Annapurna Films scored the film rights to the franchise back at Cannes.
Spielberg: Transformers Announcement Should Be ’Soon’
(blogs.orlandosentinel.com) Here’s a Universal theme park-related quote from Steven Spielberg, who chatted with Sentinel movie critic Roger Moore over the weekend.
“I always like to hear that people are still coming to the attractions we already have in the park. I know everybody’s going to Harry Potter right now. But we think Transformers is going to pretty amazing. We’ve been working on that for about three years now. It should be ready soon. I don’t have an announcement, yet, but it should be coming there soon,” Spielberg said.
Transformers attractions are currently under construction at Universal parks in Singapore and Hollywood. Universal Orlando officials said Monday that they had no announcement to make about one being constructed here.
Tintin Trouble: Is 3D Dead ?
(blogs.orlandosentinel.com) Spielberg’s looking forward to the release of “Tintin” and dismisses all talk of 3D (which “Tintin” is dependent on) being dead as empty talking points.
““3D isn’t dead. Nooo. It’s just waiting for the right film to come along that will make an audience want to see it in 3D and not pay the lesser ticket price to see it in 2D. It’s always up to the audience. 3D is just another tool in our shed. It’s up to the audience to discriminate whether or not they think this or that is worth seeing in 3D. They decide ‘Avatar’ is worth a few bucks more in 3D. They decide if ‘Cars 2’ is worth a few bucks less in 2D. Audiences made those choices – ‘Avatar’ in 3D, ‘Cars 2’ in 2D. And that’s the way it’s going to be from now on.
Thank goodness the audience always has the final word. In the end, we are all working for them.”
'The Avengers' Assembling At New York Comic-Con With New Footage
(latinoreview.com) 'The Avengers' Assembling At New York Comic-Con With New Footage You can never have too much Comic-Con, regardless of the city. The next one takes place in New York from October 13-16. It's sure to be a nerd's paradise, especially now with the news that the Marvel superhero mash-up, 'The Avengers' will be making an appearance. According to the official website for the event, a presentation regarding the film will take place from 6:30pm until 7:30pm on October 15 at the IGN theater. The description reads:
Take a look: http://www.latinoreview.com/news/-the-avengers-assembling-at-new-york-comic-con-with-new-footage-14810
American Zoetrope Taps AJA Hi5-3D for Stereo Previews of Coppola’s “Twixt”
(webwire.com) Grass Valley, CA - AJA Video Systems announced that production company American Zoetrope used the AJA Hi5-3D Mini-Converter to enable convenient, cost-effective post-production reviews of stereo 3D sequences for Twixt, the 2011 thriller from Director Francis Ford Coppola that premiered at the Toronto Film Festival earlier this month.
Twixt, staring Val Kilmer and Elle Fanning, is a 2D feature that includes six minutes of stereo 3D in various sequences throughout the film. During post-production American Zoetrope had a SIM2 projector for screenings and needed a solution to feed it the proper signal for playback of stereo 3D material. “We had heard about AJA’s Hi5-3D and it looked like exactly what we needed,” said Post Production Supervisor James Mockoski.
AJA’s Hi5-3D Mini-Converter automatically combines left and right-eye SDI inputs into stereo 3D output that can be quickly and easily viewed on a 3D monitor or projector. “The 3D company and our VFX houses sent us left eye and right eye material, which we put through the Hi5-3D using its two SDI inputs, and sent a side-by-side signal out. It was a convenient, easy way to run 3D previews to check masks and titles,” said Post Production Manager Sin Cohen. “We also got a lot of use out of it as an SDI/HDMI converter to get signals from SDI to the projector. It was really handy to have that option in a pinch.”
“We’re up in Napa, and it was great to be able to do stereo reviews right here in our own facility rather than having to drive into the city for them,” Mockoski noted.
Twixt was shot using a combination of Sony and RED digital cameras and edited using seven Apple Final Cut Pro systems equipped with AJA KONA cards. An AJA Io HD device floated among editing systems, laptops and screens to enable on-the-spot playback. American Zoetrope is also considering bringing the Hi5-3D along for its road show screenings to potential distributors, to enable stereo review on the road. The AJA Hi5-3D is available for $495.
3D Blinky Bill Movie in the Works
(moviehole.net) Who can forget that adorable tree-hugging Aussie icon Blinky Bill? Not me (and not only because I’m reminded of his existence every time my daughter pops an ABC DVD in the player; there’s a promo for Blinky Bill on near every one of those Hi-5 or Elmo releases) and, by golly, I’m sure not ready to let the critter be roadkill just yet. Press release just landed in the inbox announcing a new 3D “Blinky Bill” movie – yes, the genie has granted you your wish. Now say thanks.
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – September 21, 2011 : Flying Bark Productions today confirmed a Blinky Bill 3D feature film will commence production this year and two of the animation industry’s most respected creative talents have signed on as Director and Line Producer.
With over 13 years working professionally in the fields of 3D animation and multi-media for Disney, Rising Sun Pictures and Animal Logic, Alex Weight will be at the helm of bringing back the iconic Blinky Bill as Director. Alex Weight was also the lead animator of Oscar-winning ‘Happy Feet’ and Animation Supervisor on ‘Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole’.
Marie-Cecile Dahan has also signed on for Blinky Bill as Line Producer. With extensive experience in the animation industry, Marie-Cecile Dahan has worked as Department Manager on ‘Avatar’, Series Line Producer on ‘Animalia’ and as the VFX Production Manager on ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows’ and ‘District 9’.
“Blinky Bill is a timeless Australian classic character so it is an absolute honour for our team at Flying Bark Productions to be bringing the stories of Blinky Bill and his Australian bush friends to life in 3D for a new generation of children – and of course for parents that grew up with this national treasure.
Both Alex and Marie-Cecile bring a wealth of Australian and international animation expertise so we are thrilled to have their creative talent on board for Blinky Bill in 3D” said Flying Bark Productions’ Managing Director, Jim Ballantine.
Flying Bark Productions has had a rich history with one of Australia’s most loved little guys. In 1992, Yoram Gross Film Studios – now Flying Bark Productions – produced the iconic Blinky Bill feature film based on the Australian classic book by Dorothy Wall. Blinky Bill, The Mischievous Koala told the story of Blinky Bill’s childhood with his animal friends in the Australian bush and how the peace and charm of their existence was shattered by the destruction of their homes by humans. The film made a national treasure of Yoram Gross and a megastar of Blinky, the little koala with the heart of gold.
Digital Aging Tech Needs To Improve Before Roland Emmerich' ‘Happy Birthday Mr. President’
(eaap2009.org) As someone who knows his way around special effects, director Roland Emmerich could be a fantastic entrant to use the digital aging technology that has been used for special effects in films like “The Curious Case Of Benjamin Pin,” “Watchmen” and “X-Men 3.”
The subject came up when MTV News caught up with Emmerich at the Toronto Film Festival to talk about his upcoming period thriller, “Anonymous,” which employs two sets of actors to play the same roles at different ages. We questioned Emmerich if he force be interested in de-aging an actor digitally, or even better/more challenging, bringing one back from the dead, FX re-animator, lost footage style and he exposed he’s already at work on a movie that relies heavily on that very technology.
“I am. I’m really into that,” Emmerich admitted. “I have one project which really tries to do that, but I reckon we’re not here yet. I made some tests that didn’t turn out very well, so I reckon we have to wait another five being.”
And what force the mystery project be?
“The title will tell you everything, it’s called ‘Pleased Birthday Mr. President.’”
Right to his word about the revealing title, Emmerich admitted the prospect film would revolve around Marilyn Monroe’s well-known birthday croon to for President John F. Kennedy, and likely the relationship surrounding it. Emmerich said that the film is a long way away from being made, but, at least until the proper aging technology is mastered.
“Yes, one day, one day,” Emmerich said hopefully. “People are kind of courageous to do something like that.”
Monsterpalooza 2012 Is Coming
Reserve your spot today: http://www.monsterpalooza.com/april2012/index.html
"Logan's Run" Finds Driven Director
(BBC News) Nicolas Winding Refn Nicolas Winding Refn won the best director prize at Cannes for Drive
Director Nicolas Winding Refn has revealed he is hard at work on a new film version of sci-fi classic Logan's Run.
The project would reunite the Danish director with Ryan Gosling, the star of Refn's latest film - Drive.
"I really want to make Logan's Run, and I'm working on it very hard and I have to deliver a script by Christmas," Refn told the BBC News website.
The 1976 movie version of Logan's Run starred Michael York and Jenny Agutter.
Based on a 1967 novel of the same name, it told the story of a future society where the citizens are killed off at the age of 30.
The film won an Oscar for special achievement in special effects.
Refn's next film project after Drive is Only God Forgives, a revenge thriller set in Thailand with Ryan Gosling and Kristin Scott Thomas in the cast. It is due to shoot at Christmas.
"Logan's Run is a bigger thing," explained Refn, "because it's so expensive, it's Warner Bros and it's got more people involved."
In Drive, Gosling plays a Hollywood stuntman who moonlights as a getaway driver for Los Angeles mobsters.
The story sees him embroiled in a heist gone wrong, as well as a romance with a character played by British actress Carey Mulligan.
Refn is also planning another film with Mulligan called I Walk With The Dead. "I have to write it first, but she and I had a very good partnership," he said.
Refn's previous credits include the Pusher crime trilogy, violent biopic Bronson and Valhalla Rising.
Another unconfirmed Refn project that has gained much internet buzz is Wonder Woman, with Mad Men star Christina Hendricks - who also appears in Drive - as the super-heroine.
The cast includes Mad Men star Christina Hendricks Christina Hendricks has a small role in Drive. But will she be Wonder Woman?
Asked about the rumours, Refn explained: "I was asked what would be my dream project, so I said Wonder Woman, and it built up from there.
"Then people asked who I would cast and I said Christina Hendricks, because she's the perfect woman, she's a great actress and she looks like a woman should look."
But Refn didn't rule out the film getting the go-ahead.
"There were some people saying, 'let's see how Logan's Run goes and we'll take Wonder Woman from there'. It's Hollywood - you never know."
Avatar Heads to Walt Disney Parks
(Walt Disney Parks) Fans looking forward to a return visit to Pandora now have something else to anticipate beyond the December, 2014 release of of Avatar 2. Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Worldwide has announced a new deal with Fox Film Entertainment and James Cameron that will bring his sci-fi world to Walt Disney theme parks, beginning with Disney World's Animal Kingdom.
"James Cameron is a groundbreaking filmmaker and gifted storyteller who shares our passion for creativity, technological innovation and delivering the best experience possible," said Robert A. Iger, President and CEO of The Walt Disney Company. "With this agreement, we have the extraordinary opportunity to combine James' talent and vision with the imagination and expertise of Disney."
Cameron himself is said to be heavily involved (alongside producing partner Jon Landau) and construction is eyed to begin in 2013 with Avatar attractions at other Disney parks to follow.
"'Avatar' created a world which audiences can discover again and again and now, through this incredible partnership with Disney, we'll be able to bring Pandora to life like never before," said Cameron, "With two new 'Avatar' films currently in development, we'll have even more locations, characters and stories to explore. I'm chomping at the bit to start work with Disney's legendary Imagineers to bring our 'Avatar' universe to life. Our goal is to go beyond current boundaries of technical innovation and experiential storytelling, and give park goers the chance to see, hear, and touch the world of 'Avatar' with an unprecedented sense of reality."
Roland Emmerich Set to Direct a Sci-fi Movie, and It Isn’t Asteroids
(denofgeek.com) Roland Emmerich is no stranger to sci-fi. Since Moon 44 in 1990, a low-budget feature about ex-convict helicopter pilots in space, Emmerich has brought us his own, slightly peculiar brand of genre fare, which usually sees entire continents crumble in huge balls of flame - the defining aspect of Emmerich's CV, in fact, is that he's responsible for the destruction of more cities than Godzilla.
That pyrotechnic excess has been temporarily quelled for the director’s digression into period drama, Anonymous, which has something to do with Shakespeare. It was widely thought that, within the next few months or so, Emmerich would head back to the sci-fi genre with Asteroids, an adaptation of everyone’s favourite 80s rock-shooting arcade game. But speaking at the Toronto Film Festival, Emmerich has nipped those Asteroid rumours in the bud – when asked if he really was attached to the film by Collider, his response was an immediate “No.”
Instead, Emmerich’s set to embark on a sci-fi project of an altogether different variety, called Singularity. It’s a script he’s co-written with Harald Kloser, with whom he previously collaborated on 10,000 BC and 2012. And, Emmerich says, the film’s pre-production phase is quite far along, with shooting likely to begin next March.
“We’re in pre-production and we probably will shoot end of March as it looks right now, and it takes place in the future 40 years from now,” Emmerich said. “It’s like kind of this moment where computer technology is so advanced that we kind of—It’s the danger of losing control.”
Thankfully, Emmerich will be exploring rather different sci-fi avenues from the more bombastic, disaster-filled films that he’s become associated with. In the film 2012, he effectively destroyed the entire planet, so it’s perhaps understandable that he wants “to stay a little bit away from disaster”.
Emmerich won’t be drawn on exactly what we can expect from Singularity, since he wants to retain a “certain mystery” around the film.
Confusingly, director Roland Joffé has directed his own sci-fi film called Singularity, due out next year. This one stars Josh Hartnett and Neve Campbell, and has a time-travelling plot that sounds like an odd mix of Jeannot Szwarc’s Somewhere In Time and a Hollywood historical epic.
"Wolfman" 2nd Reboot Moves Forward
(darkhorizons.com) Stephen Rea ("V for Vendetta"), Ed Quinn ("Eureka") and Steven Bauer ("Scarface") have all joined the cast of Universal's direct-to-DVD second reboot of "The Wolfman" at Universal Pictures reports Moviehole.
Bauer let slip the info in a recent interview promoting the Blu-ray release of "Scarface". Bauer says he has five weeks of filming on the project and will play a 'hunter', and NOT a werewolf.
Louis Morneau helms this entry which begins filming shortly in Romania.
Iloura Wins VFX Work on Seth Macfarlane's "Ted"
(if.com.au) VFX company Iloura will create complex character animation work on over 250 shots for Seth MacFarlane's feature comedy Ted.
MacFarlane (Family Guy) will direct the film, which revolves around a man (played by Mark Wahlberg) whose childhood teddy bear (also played by McFarlane) comes to life.
MacFarlane gave some insight, according to media reports, about the film's visual effects earlier this year. “I’m doing that whole motion-capture thing where they put me in a suit with a lot of electrodes on it and I’m playing a teddy bear,” he said.
Iloura creative director, Glenn Melenhorst, said the company's early R&D was instrumental in establishing the overall look and nuances of the character.
"This included development and testing of facial expressions and body movement, all the way down to the matted and worn texture of his fur. All this work formulated our pitch which assisted us to win a significant package of shots on the film," he said in a statement.
Iloura has built a reputation around its character animation work and counts upcoming films such as Don't Be Afriad of the Dark and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengence among its work.
Ted will receive the government’s 30 per cent Post Digital and Visual Effects (PDV) offset and Film Victoria’s Production Investment Attraction Fund (PIAF).
The film, due for a July 2012 release, also stars Mila Kunis and comedian Joel McHale. MacFarlane voices the bear on top of writing the screenplay alongside Family Guy co-writers Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild.
30 Pixar Facts
(thefancarpet.com)
1. Pixar’s full name is Pixar Animation Studios, but was originally founded as Graphics Group in 1979.
2. The Pixar moniker was born on February 3rd, 1986 when the company was incorporated by Ed Catmull, Alvy Ray Smith and Steve Jobs (of Apple fame).
3. The Graphics Group was actually started under the umbrella of Lucasfilm, before Steve Jobs bought the company in 1986, which subsequently got taken over by The Walt Disney Company 20 years later for $7.4 billion.
4. Pixar’s 12 feature films and numerous shorts have won the company 26 Oscars, seven Golden Globes and three Grammys!
5. Toy Story, released in 1995 was Pixar’s first feature, and won director John Lasseter a Special Achievement Academy Award. This was not the company’s first Oscar, however, that went to Tin Toy for Best Animated Short in 1989.
6. Since AMPAS started awarding Best Animated Feature in 2001, all eight eligible Pixar films have been nominated, and six have won the Oscar.
7. Only three films have ever been nominated for a Best Picture Oscar: Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, and Pixar’s Up and Toy Story 3.
8. Andr and Wally B., Lasseter’s first 3-D short, while not under the name ‘Pixar’ is considered the spiritual first step of the now world famous studio.
9. Pixar was set up to develop and market computer hardware for graphics and animation generation. Andr and Wally B. were made by Lasseter to show off their systems’ capabilities, and were welcomed with high acclaim.
10. Steve Jobs considered selling the ailing Pixar to Microsoft in 1994, and only decided to keep it when Disney agreed to distribute Toy Story.
11. Toy Story was the first feature film to have been made using 100% CGI. CGI had only been used before to embellish VFX in live action and some normal animation films.
12. The $361 million+ worldwide that Toy Story took placed it firmly within the top 50 highest grossing animated films of all time. In fact, all of Pixar’s feature productions are on that list, with Up, Finding Nemo and Toy Story 3 making it onto the top 50 highest grossing films of all time. The latter in a staggering 7th place!
13. On the technical side, Pixar’s PhotoRealistic RenderMan rendering software is used by all of the major studios to generate digital visual effects. It has been used in films from Titanic to The Lord of The Rings.
14. In 2001 RenderMan became the first software package to earn a technical Oscar for its outstanding contributions to the field of CGI.
15. A relatively mysterious suite of software called Marionette is used exclusively by PIxar, and is said to aid animation by artists with traditional cel experience.
16. Toy Story, although animated by an unproven method for a feature film, attracted a very impressive voice cast. Tom Hanks, Tom Allen, John Ratzenberger and Laurie Metcalf all signed up.
17. A Bug’s Life was released in 1998, and was Pixar’s second feature. The story is based on Akira Kurosawa’s epic Seven Samurai and Aesop’s The Ant and the Grasshopper.
18. Toy Story 2 was initially slated as a straight to home video release by Disney, but upon seeing the quality of the early animation upgraded the film to a theatrical release which subsequently pulled in $485,015,179 worldwide!
19. There are a number of things that appear in all or most of Pixar’s feature films. One is the Pizza Planet delivery truck, in every film except The Incredibles. Another is John Ratzenburger who has leant his voice to every one!
20. Toy Story 2 introduced the female lead character of Jessie, a sprightly cowgirl from Woody’s Roundup, the fictional TV show from which Sheriff Woody also comes.
21. Monstropolis is the name of the city inhabited entirely by monsters, and one cheeky little girl the monster’s christen ‘Boo’, in Pixar’s fourth feature: Monsters, Inc.
22. Laughter really is the best medicine in Monsters, Inc., as Boo’s laughter is found to generate more energy than the screams the monsters had been harvesting.
23. Just Keep Swimming... was the catchphrase on everyone’s lips with the 2003 release of Finding Nemo. But did you know Nemo was the second highest grossing film of that year? Losing out only to The Lord of the Ring: The Return of the King?
24. The undersea adventure Finding Nemo uses real marine biology for all of its underwater characters. Nemo and his father are clownfish, Dory is regal tang, and Crush is a sea turtle.
25. The Incredibles was the first Pixar film to feature humans as the primary characters. Up is the only other. In the Incredibles the Parr family are ‘Supers’, humans with special gifts once seen as heroes. In a Watchman style crackdown on heroes, they are forced to hide their powers until needs must.
26. The Incredibles was the last Pixar film to have a VHS release. All subsequent films were only released on DVD and Blu-ray, and to stream online.
27. Pixar’s ninth feature, WALL-E, was released in 2008 with important messages on the environment and consumerism. Did you know that WALL-E himself can actually be seen sitting on a shelf four years earlier in The Incredibles?
28. Up was Pixar’s first film to be released in 3-D, and the first animated and the first 3-D film to open the Cannes Film Festival. All Pixar films following Up have been released in 3-D, including some older films re-released.
29. The most recent Pixar feature, Cars 2, continues the high calibre of animation and voice acting – enlisting Owen Wilson, Michael Caine, Jason Isaacs, Emily Mortimer and John Turturro among a host of cameo voices such as Lewis Hamilton and Jeff Gordon!
30. Pixar’s future looks very bright, with upcoming titles including the mysterious Brave, set in the Scottish Highlands, the much anticipated sequel to Monsters, Inc.: Monsters University, and untitled projects; one about dinosaurs, and another that will take you inside the mind! We can’t wait!
Flying Monsters Reborn in 3-D
(cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com) The way David Attenborough sees it, pterosaurs and 3-D documentaries were made for each other, even though they're separated by 65 million years.
"You want to have something that moves not just in 2-D across the ground, but goes up as well," he said. That makes the flying reptiles an "obvious subject" for a 3-D movie, Attenborough added.
He should know: The 85-year-old British broadcaster and naturalist has been doing nature documentaries for the BBC for more than 50 years — and what's more, he's the brother of Richard Attenborough, the actor who welcomed scientists to "Jurassic Park" in that classic 1993 dino-flick.
So it's hard to think of anyone better-suited to be the writer and narrator of "Flying Monsters 3D," a big-screen documentary due for its North American opening on Oct. 7.
The movie, which had its British theatrical release earlier this year, blends computer-generated graphics with field trips to fossil beds and laboratories. In the process, a wide variety of pterosaur breeds are virtually resurrected.
Paleontologists say the creatures came to dominate the skies of the Cretaceous era, just as dinosaurs dominated the land below. "The story of how that came about, and why eventually they died out, is what the film is about," David Attenborough told journalists during a Monday teleconference.
The 3-D special effects in "Flying Monsters" take their cue from "Avatar," but there's much more mixing of the Cretaceous and the modern world. At one point, pterosaur bones laid out on a table assemble themselves and take off. And during one of the movie's concluding scenes, a Quetzalcoatlus with a 40-foot wingspan pulls alongside Attenborough as he's sitting in the cockpit of a glider.
A long-extinct pterosaur known as Quetzalcoatlus seems to fly alongside host David Attenborough in a digitally created scene from "Flying Monsters 3D."
"I originally thought I might do that in a hang glider. ... Unfortunately, the insurers wouldn't let me do that, so I had to do it in the glider," he quipped.
Attenborough said one of the challenges of the project was to make sure the movie stuck to the scientific story instead of turning into a 3-D monster chiller horrorfest. "It's no good just doing a film to say, 'Oh, yes, it's wonderful in 3-D,' but have no story behind it," he said.
The scientific story
Pterosaurs have been the subject of scientific debate for decades: Paleontologists have argued over whether they were cold-blooded or warm-blooded, whether they bore feathers or fur, whether they could take off from a runway or had to jump off a cliff in order to take flight. (One of the places Attenborough visited during the making of the movie was the famed "pterosaur landing strip" in southern France, which he compared to "a prehistoric Heathrow" airport.)
The creatures shown in "Flying Dinosaurs 3D" aren't your father's pterosaurs: They use their folded wings as forelimbs when they walk around on all fours — or when they launch into the air. Some have a coat of fine hairs known as pycnofibers, which serve as evidence that they were warm-blooded. And most of them sport colorful crests, which Attenborough considers a "reasonable" hypothesis.
"They were almost certainly colored, and they had structures on their heads which can best be explained as being like the crest of a bird, and were used in courtship," he said.
Atlantic Productions / ZOO
A crested pterosaur known as a Tapejara uses its folded forelimbs as it prepares for take-off in a scene from "Flying Monsters 3D."
Were pterosaurs actually birds? Pterosaurs had wings. (Check, although their wings could spread wider than bird wings.) They laid eggs. (Check, although their eggs were more like those of reptiles than modern-day birds.) They tended to group in colonies, as many species of birds do today. Pterosaurs and early birds co-existed during the Cretaceous ... but the mainstream view is that they came from different lines of the evolutionary tree.
Why did birds survive while pterosaurs die out? That's the 65 million-year question.
"Birds had feathers, stiff quills, but pterosaurs didn't have feathers," Attenborough said. "They didn't evolve feathers."
Instead, pterosaurs got their lift from membranes that were attached to their limbs and spread out during flight. Those membranes made it "very difficult to move around on the ground in a nimble sort of way," while birds "were able to run on the ground very well," Attenborough said. The way he sees it, that was a "crucial element" in the fight for survival when the era of the dinosaurs ended.
The rest of the story
Is that the way paleontologists see it? Mark Witton, a pterosaur expert at the University of Portsmouth, was one of the scientists who served as consultants for the film — and he was invited to a screening when the British version was ready for its release. "My hopes were high that everyone's favourite leathery-winged beasties were about to get their moment in the media sun," he wrote on the Pterosaur.net blog.
Dimorphodon flies through a jungle setting in a scene from "Flying Monsters 3D."
He came away impressed by the film's technical fireworks, but not so much impressed by the scientific claims. "Take, for instance, the way that we're explicitly told that pterosaurs were out-competed by birds and their ability to adapt to new ecologies, thus sealing the extinction of the more evolutionary-stagnant pterosaurs," he wrote. "Detailed analyses of bird and pterosaur diversity have either proved inconclusive on this issue ... or categorically stated that there's no evidence for bird-driven pterosaur extinction. ..."
Witton catalogs the movie's other scientific sins with the rigor that only a dedicated specialist could muster. "It really seems that, with a bit more care, this could've been as much of an achievement for effective scientific communication as it has been for 3-D technology, but it's really an enormous missed opportunity," he wrote.
Other pterosaur experts have provided more positive reviews. The University of Leicester's David Unwin, who was also a consultant for the film, praised the results in a video clip. "Films like this do a tremendous job of actually communicating in a really exciting way, and one that grabs your attention, the kinds of things that we've found out about pterosaurs," he said. "And what I really love is being able to see the animation and being involved in the process of trying to produce the best possible and most accurate animations."
What's a pterosaur fan to do? If you go see "Flying Monsters 3D," you'll want to sit back and enjoy the 3-D effects ... and then get the rest of the story from online resources such Pterosaur.net, or Dave Hone's Archosaur Musings, or John Conway's Palaeontography, or Pterosauria at the University of California Museum of Paleontology.
VIDEO: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/09/19/7844412-flying-monsters-reborn-in-3-d
How The NBN Will Effect The Australian Visual F/X Industry
(bhatt.id.au) The proposed National Broadband Network (NBN) will have an impact on many parts of our lives at work and home. I spoke with a variety of people in the Australian visual effects (VFX) industry about how the NBN could effect their industry.
Phil Sullivan is a classic example of how talented Australians in the VFX industry travel the world like a wandering albatross from project to project.
As a Motion Capture TD (Technical Director) and Animator his specialty is “synthesising life” and he’s applied this skill to movies and computer games such as Happy Feet 1 and 2, Heavenly Sword and LA Noire.
As much as he’d like to live in Australia near his family, the boom and bust nature of the VFX industry means he has to follow projects to the country they’re based in. So after completing his current contract working on Happy Feet 2 in Sydney who knows where he could be next, perhaps Wellington, Los Angeles, Vancouver or London.
Adelaide based Rising Sun Pictures (RSP) has recently finished work on the Green Lantern and Harry Potter 7 Part 2. Their previous success stories include blockbusters like Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Batman Begins and Watchmen.
RSP co-founder Tony Clark told me that the NBN will not substantially change what Rising Sun Pictures does in the beginning but once the network has been rolled out across a substantial part of Australia it could have an important impact on how people in the Australian VFX industry collaborate on projects.
Clark’s description of how the VFX industry worked historically, presently and potentially in the future made it clear how the NBN is one of the progressions required to try and stay competitive with overseas rivals.
In the past big film studios such as Disney had their own VFX department, then they started outsourcing parts of films and by 1990 movies like Terminator II had their VFX done almost solely by one company, in this case George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic. Today VFX work for movies is often shared across many companies, with each winning 5-10% of the budget.
Clark harked back to a time when he had to arrange data tapes for work in progress to be shipped overseas. The week long “lag time” between “packets” of a project was very frustrating as the VFX industry is all about creativity and it’s hard to be creative with such communication delays.
From 2000 onwards RSP sent Quicktime movies back and forth to customers. Files steadily grew larger in size and quality in parallel with the customer film studios expectations of creative communications moving to a practically immediate timeframe.
Even the fastest ADSL transfer speeds became too constraining so RSP setup a private high speed network called Cinenet with the financial assistance of the South Australian Government, using the services of Agile Communications (sister company to ISP Internode).
The launch of Cinenet in mid-2004 had played a critical role in RSP winning the contract for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire according to Clark.
“The speed of Cinenet, combined with Rising Sun Pictures’ sister company Rising Sun Research’s client review software cineSync, allowed our work to be reviewed in Los Angeles and London faster than work from suppliers based in those cities” he said. Cinesync won the Academy award for Technical Achievement in early 2011.
What Clark envisages is a future world where he can assemble best of breed group of VFX artists in small teams of individuals working from home. To enable that he needs these talented people to have access to highly reliable NBN type ultra-fast broadband internet speeds. This would be “revolutionary for distributed film making workflows” he said.
Even if it could be done at a cost premium to ADSL2+ of several hundred dollars per connection it would enable VFX talent outside the big cities to participate in RSP projects, for example a cluster of people who live on the north coast of NSW. At the moment they are willing and available but lack the necessary connectivity.
Clark said that “looking at the NBN wholesale price list it’s very much within the reach of a professional worker to have the kinds of speeds at their home office to compete with big companies on a level playing field”.
Animal Logic (AL) is another prominent Australian VFX company, working on projects such as The Matrix trilogy, 300 and Australia. AL recently won the lead role in a big 2 year project, the $65 million Walking with Dinosaurs 3D feature film which means a large portion of that production money will be spent in Australia.
Guy Griffiths Director of Research & Development at AL notes that a key characteristic of VFX digital animation is that it’s almost all in front of a computer. Specialist programs like Maya are used to make files that are handed on to the next person in the production chain.
The amounts of computer data generated during work on projects such as the recent Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole movie require backing up colossal amounts. It’s not surprising that VFX files are delivered to the customer at present via packing cases of hard disk drives as well as by network file transfers.
VFX work is project based and requires flexibility to scale up access to specialists in different areas at short notice. Ubiquitous consistent speed network file transfer capability would allow new ways to tap into VFX talent regardless of their location. Once there’s a distributed workforce Griffiths wonders how they can be managed, it’s not just about fast file transfers he said.
He told me that AL would need new innovative services to utilise the NBN in order to work and communicate more effectively. Perhaps by looking at an adjacent telepresence wall (immersive video conferencing) in order to talk to a remote colleague rather than initiating a cumbersome video chat through a computer program.
Griffiths is certain that when the NBN is in place imaginative solutions which we can’t imagine now will be created, however there is a fair way to go yet. The NBN could allow innovation and experimentation but companies like AL can’t make business decisions around it until it has a critical mass of availability.
If Australian VFX companies can leapfrog their overseas rivals by using the NBN to connect to talented staff offsite, it could be a factor that allows more projects to be won. These could employ talent within the industry like Phil Sullivan so they can spend more time living, working and spending their income in Australia.
AL Creative Director Bruce Carter told me that “talented people in the VFX industry are mobile nomadic artists who go from project to project around the world, balanced by a core group of older staff who stay put as they have families here … so clearly if there’s a deep talent pool nearby that’s good for AL” and by extension for the rest of the Australian VFX industry.
However it will take more than the NBN to do this because at present the high value of the Australian dollar and more generous tax breaks offered overseas are making it relatively expensive for big film studios to create movies in Australia.
Fantastic Model Miniatures Exhibit 2011
Figure Painters, Model Builders and Collectors come out on Oct. 1st and 2nd 2011 and support our hobby as The East Coast Figure Artists and the IPMS Patriot Chapter present the "Fantastic Model Miniatures" Exhibit at The National Heritage Museum in historic Lexington, MA.
This public exhibition will include: 300 miniatures , Historical and Fantasy Figures and Dioramas by Shep Payne, Bill Horan, Mike Blank, Steve Riojas, John Rosengrandt and works from five NewEngland area model clubs. ( If you or your club can make it, please contact me. ) Seminars on painting , sculpting and molding/casting will run both days.
This non-profit, educational event will present what we do as true artwork in a museum setting to the public who might never attend one of our regular model shows. With our hobby getting a bit smaller with each coming year, exhibits like this one are a solid step toward involving new people. For complete details the museaum will post a page as the date draws nearer. www.nationalheritagemuseum.org
GenArts, PixelFish Release Visual Effects to Engage Shoppers
(bizreport.com) As more people turn to online video to watch Primetime television, original programming and news clips advertisers are following. A new development in the video space may improve some advertisers' video results. From PixelFish and GenArts, the solution will use visual effects to scale video advertising.
by Kristina Knight
GenArts will power the PixelFish solution, offering better performance for local advertisers hoping to engage through video.
"Visual effects have been shown to increase audience engagement and purchase intent by up to 12% for advertisement spots on TV versus the same exact spot without the visual effects," said Katherine Hays, CEO of GenArts. "Traditionally, that level of engagement with video due to the targeted use of visual effects has been limited to blue-chip brands with large production and distribution budgets. Now, through the GenArts Solution, we are able to bring Madison Avenue results to everyone from an independently-run business to your local pizza shop."
Video ads now account for about 14% of the content in the online video space, but that isn't slowing consumer adoption of the medium. According to the latest data from comScore Americans watched nearly 7 billion video clips in July; 180 million Americans are now watching online video. Most clips are still viewed through Google's YouTube, but a growing number of viewers are going direct to sites like Hulu or network websites to find video content, including full-length television episodes and streaming entire movies.
Hulu continues to reach the most consumers with video ads (409 million ad minutes, 7.9% reach) followed by Adap.tv (396 million ad minutes, 20% reach) and Tremor Video (347 million ad minutes, 19% reach).
(BBC News) Nicolas Winding Refn Nicolas Winding Refn won the best director prize at Cannes for Drive
Director Nicolas Winding Refn has revealed he is hard at work on a new film version of sci-fi classic Logan's Run.
The project would reunite the Danish director with Ryan Gosling, the star of Refn's latest film - Drive.
"I really want to make Logan's Run, and I'm working on it very hard and I have to deliver a script by Christmas," Refn told the BBC News website.
The 1976 movie version of Logan's Run starred Michael York and Jenny Agutter.
Based on a 1967 novel of the same name, it told the story of a future society where the citizens are killed off at the age of 30.
The film won an Oscar for special achievement in special effects.
Refn's next film project after Drive is Only God Forgives, a revenge thriller set in Thailand with Ryan Gosling and Kristin Scott Thomas in the cast. It is due to shoot at Christmas.
"Logan's Run is a bigger thing," explained Refn, "because it's so expensive, it's Warner Bros and it's got more people involved."
In Drive, Gosling plays a Hollywood stuntman who moonlights as a getaway driver for Los Angeles mobsters.
The story sees him embroiled in a heist gone wrong, as well as a romance with a character played by British actress Carey Mulligan.
Refn is also planning another film with Mulligan called I Walk With The Dead. "I have to write it first, but she and I had a very good partnership," he said.
Refn's previous credits include the Pusher crime trilogy, violent biopic Bronson and Valhalla Rising.
Another unconfirmed Refn project that has gained much internet buzz is Wonder Woman, with Mad Men star Christina Hendricks - who also appears in Drive - as the super-heroine.
The cast includes Mad Men star Christina Hendricks Christina Hendricks has a small role in Drive. But will she be Wonder Woman?
Asked about the rumours, Refn explained: "I was asked what would be my dream project, so I said Wonder Woman, and it built up from there.
"Then people asked who I would cast and I said Christina Hendricks, because she's the perfect woman, she's a great actress and she looks like a woman should look."
But Refn didn't rule out the film getting the go-ahead.
"There were some people saying, 'let's see how Logan's Run goes and we'll take Wonder Woman from there'. It's Hollywood - you never know."
Avatar Heads to Walt Disney Parks
(Walt Disney Parks) Fans looking forward to a return visit to Pandora now have something else to anticipate beyond the December, 2014 release of of Avatar 2. Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Worldwide has announced a new deal with Fox Film Entertainment and James Cameron that will bring his sci-fi world to Walt Disney theme parks, beginning with Disney World's Animal Kingdom.
"James Cameron is a groundbreaking filmmaker and gifted storyteller who shares our passion for creativity, technological innovation and delivering the best experience possible," said Robert A. Iger, President and CEO of The Walt Disney Company. "With this agreement, we have the extraordinary opportunity to combine James' talent and vision with the imagination and expertise of Disney."
Cameron himself is said to be heavily involved (alongside producing partner Jon Landau) and construction is eyed to begin in 2013 with Avatar attractions at other Disney parks to follow.
"'Avatar' created a world which audiences can discover again and again and now, through this incredible partnership with Disney, we'll be able to bring Pandora to life like never before," said Cameron, "With two new 'Avatar' films currently in development, we'll have even more locations, characters and stories to explore. I'm chomping at the bit to start work with Disney's legendary Imagineers to bring our 'Avatar' universe to life. Our goal is to go beyond current boundaries of technical innovation and experiential storytelling, and give park goers the chance to see, hear, and touch the world of 'Avatar' with an unprecedented sense of reality."
Roland Emmerich Set to Direct a Sci-fi Movie, and It Isn’t Asteroids
(denofgeek.com) Roland Emmerich is no stranger to sci-fi. Since Moon 44 in 1990, a low-budget feature about ex-convict helicopter pilots in space, Emmerich has brought us his own, slightly peculiar brand of genre fare, which usually sees entire continents crumble in huge balls of flame - the defining aspect of Emmerich's CV, in fact, is that he's responsible for the destruction of more cities than Godzilla.
That pyrotechnic excess has been temporarily quelled for the director’s digression into period drama, Anonymous, which has something to do with Shakespeare. It was widely thought that, within the next few months or so, Emmerich would head back to the sci-fi genre with Asteroids, an adaptation of everyone’s favourite 80s rock-shooting arcade game. But speaking at the Toronto Film Festival, Emmerich has nipped those Asteroid rumours in the bud – when asked if he really was attached to the film by Collider, his response was an immediate “No.”
Instead, Emmerich’s set to embark on a sci-fi project of an altogether different variety, called Singularity. It’s a script he’s co-written with Harald Kloser, with whom he previously collaborated on 10,000 BC and 2012. And, Emmerich says, the film’s pre-production phase is quite far along, with shooting likely to begin next March.
“We’re in pre-production and we probably will shoot end of March as it looks right now, and it takes place in the future 40 years from now,” Emmerich said. “It’s like kind of this moment where computer technology is so advanced that we kind of—It’s the danger of losing control.”
Thankfully, Emmerich will be exploring rather different sci-fi avenues from the more bombastic, disaster-filled films that he’s become associated with. In the film 2012, he effectively destroyed the entire planet, so it’s perhaps understandable that he wants “to stay a little bit away from disaster”.
Emmerich won’t be drawn on exactly what we can expect from Singularity, since he wants to retain a “certain mystery” around the film.
Confusingly, director Roland Joffé has directed his own sci-fi film called Singularity, due out next year. This one stars Josh Hartnett and Neve Campbell, and has a time-travelling plot that sounds like an odd mix of Jeannot Szwarc’s Somewhere In Time and a Hollywood historical epic.
"Wolfman" 2nd Reboot Moves Forward
(darkhorizons.com) Stephen Rea ("V for Vendetta"), Ed Quinn ("Eureka") and Steven Bauer ("Scarface") have all joined the cast of Universal's direct-to-DVD second reboot of "The Wolfman" at Universal Pictures reports Moviehole.
Bauer let slip the info in a recent interview promoting the Blu-ray release of "Scarface". Bauer says he has five weeks of filming on the project and will play a 'hunter', and NOT a werewolf.
Louis Morneau helms this entry which begins filming shortly in Romania.
Iloura Wins VFX Work on Seth Macfarlane's "Ted"
(if.com.au) VFX company Iloura will create complex character animation work on over 250 shots for Seth MacFarlane's feature comedy Ted.
MacFarlane (Family Guy) will direct the film, which revolves around a man (played by Mark Wahlberg) whose childhood teddy bear (also played by McFarlane) comes to life.
MacFarlane gave some insight, according to media reports, about the film's visual effects earlier this year. “I’m doing that whole motion-capture thing where they put me in a suit with a lot of electrodes on it and I’m playing a teddy bear,” he said.
Iloura creative director, Glenn Melenhorst, said the company's early R&D was instrumental in establishing the overall look and nuances of the character.
"This included development and testing of facial expressions and body movement, all the way down to the matted and worn texture of his fur. All this work formulated our pitch which assisted us to win a significant package of shots on the film," he said in a statement.
Iloura has built a reputation around its character animation work and counts upcoming films such as Don't Be Afriad of the Dark and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengence among its work.
Ted will receive the government’s 30 per cent Post Digital and Visual Effects (PDV) offset and Film Victoria’s Production Investment Attraction Fund (PIAF).
The film, due for a July 2012 release, also stars Mila Kunis and comedian Joel McHale. MacFarlane voices the bear on top of writing the screenplay alongside Family Guy co-writers Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild.
30 Pixar Facts
(thefancarpet.com)
1. Pixar’s full name is Pixar Animation Studios, but was originally founded as Graphics Group in 1979.
2. The Pixar moniker was born on February 3rd, 1986 when the company was incorporated by Ed Catmull, Alvy Ray Smith and Steve Jobs (of Apple fame).
3. The Graphics Group was actually started under the umbrella of Lucasfilm, before Steve Jobs bought the company in 1986, which subsequently got taken over by The Walt Disney Company 20 years later for $7.4 billion.
4. Pixar’s 12 feature films and numerous shorts have won the company 26 Oscars, seven Golden Globes and three Grammys!
5. Toy Story, released in 1995 was Pixar’s first feature, and won director John Lasseter a Special Achievement Academy Award. This was not the company’s first Oscar, however, that went to Tin Toy for Best Animated Short in 1989.
6. Since AMPAS started awarding Best Animated Feature in 2001, all eight eligible Pixar films have been nominated, and six have won the Oscar.
7. Only three films have ever been nominated for a Best Picture Oscar: Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, and Pixar’s Up and Toy Story 3.
8. Andr and Wally B., Lasseter’s first 3-D short, while not under the name ‘Pixar’ is considered the spiritual first step of the now world famous studio.
9. Pixar was set up to develop and market computer hardware for graphics and animation generation. Andr and Wally B. were made by Lasseter to show off their systems’ capabilities, and were welcomed with high acclaim.
10. Steve Jobs considered selling the ailing Pixar to Microsoft in 1994, and only decided to keep it when Disney agreed to distribute Toy Story.
11. Toy Story was the first feature film to have been made using 100% CGI. CGI had only been used before to embellish VFX in live action and some normal animation films.
12. The $361 million+ worldwide that Toy Story took placed it firmly within the top 50 highest grossing animated films of all time. In fact, all of Pixar’s feature productions are on that list, with Up, Finding Nemo and Toy Story 3 making it onto the top 50 highest grossing films of all time. The latter in a staggering 7th place!
13. On the technical side, Pixar’s PhotoRealistic RenderMan rendering software is used by all of the major studios to generate digital visual effects. It has been used in films from Titanic to The Lord of The Rings.
14. In 2001 RenderMan became the first software package to earn a technical Oscar for its outstanding contributions to the field of CGI.
15. A relatively mysterious suite of software called Marionette is used exclusively by PIxar, and is said to aid animation by artists with traditional cel experience.
16. Toy Story, although animated by an unproven method for a feature film, attracted a very impressive voice cast. Tom Hanks, Tom Allen, John Ratzenberger and Laurie Metcalf all signed up.
17. A Bug’s Life was released in 1998, and was Pixar’s second feature. The story is based on Akira Kurosawa’s epic Seven Samurai and Aesop’s The Ant and the Grasshopper.
18. Toy Story 2 was initially slated as a straight to home video release by Disney, but upon seeing the quality of the early animation upgraded the film to a theatrical release which subsequently pulled in $485,015,179 worldwide!
19. There are a number of things that appear in all or most of Pixar’s feature films. One is the Pizza Planet delivery truck, in every film except The Incredibles. Another is John Ratzenburger who has leant his voice to every one!
20. Toy Story 2 introduced the female lead character of Jessie, a sprightly cowgirl from Woody’s Roundup, the fictional TV show from which Sheriff Woody also comes.
21. Monstropolis is the name of the city inhabited entirely by monsters, and one cheeky little girl the monster’s christen ‘Boo’, in Pixar’s fourth feature: Monsters, Inc.
22. Laughter really is the best medicine in Monsters, Inc., as Boo’s laughter is found to generate more energy than the screams the monsters had been harvesting.
23. Just Keep Swimming... was the catchphrase on everyone’s lips with the 2003 release of Finding Nemo. But did you know Nemo was the second highest grossing film of that year? Losing out only to The Lord of the Ring: The Return of the King?
24. The undersea adventure Finding Nemo uses real marine biology for all of its underwater characters. Nemo and his father are clownfish, Dory is regal tang, and Crush is a sea turtle.
25. The Incredibles was the first Pixar film to feature humans as the primary characters. Up is the only other. In the Incredibles the Parr family are ‘Supers’, humans with special gifts once seen as heroes. In a Watchman style crackdown on heroes, they are forced to hide their powers until needs must.
26. The Incredibles was the last Pixar film to have a VHS release. All subsequent films were only released on DVD and Blu-ray, and to stream online.
27. Pixar’s ninth feature, WALL-E, was released in 2008 with important messages on the environment and consumerism. Did you know that WALL-E himself can actually be seen sitting on a shelf four years earlier in The Incredibles?
28. Up was Pixar’s first film to be released in 3-D, and the first animated and the first 3-D film to open the Cannes Film Festival. All Pixar films following Up have been released in 3-D, including some older films re-released.
29. The most recent Pixar feature, Cars 2, continues the high calibre of animation and voice acting – enlisting Owen Wilson, Michael Caine, Jason Isaacs, Emily Mortimer and John Turturro among a host of cameo voices such as Lewis Hamilton and Jeff Gordon!
30. Pixar’s future looks very bright, with upcoming titles including the mysterious Brave, set in the Scottish Highlands, the much anticipated sequel to Monsters, Inc.: Monsters University, and untitled projects; one about dinosaurs, and another that will take you inside the mind! We can’t wait!
Flying Monsters Reborn in 3-D
(cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com) The way David Attenborough sees it, pterosaurs and 3-D documentaries were made for each other, even though they're separated by 65 million years.
"You want to have something that moves not just in 2-D across the ground, but goes up as well," he said. That makes the flying reptiles an "obvious subject" for a 3-D movie, Attenborough added.
He should know: The 85-year-old British broadcaster and naturalist has been doing nature documentaries for the BBC for more than 50 years — and what's more, he's the brother of Richard Attenborough, the actor who welcomed scientists to "Jurassic Park" in that classic 1993 dino-flick.
So it's hard to think of anyone better-suited to be the writer and narrator of "Flying Monsters 3D," a big-screen documentary due for its North American opening on Oct. 7.
The movie, which had its British theatrical release earlier this year, blends computer-generated graphics with field trips to fossil beds and laboratories. In the process, a wide variety of pterosaur breeds are virtually resurrected.
Paleontologists say the creatures came to dominate the skies of the Cretaceous era, just as dinosaurs dominated the land below. "The story of how that came about, and why eventually they died out, is what the film is about," David Attenborough told journalists during a Monday teleconference.
The 3-D special effects in "Flying Monsters" take their cue from "Avatar," but there's much more mixing of the Cretaceous and the modern world. At one point, pterosaur bones laid out on a table assemble themselves and take off. And during one of the movie's concluding scenes, a Quetzalcoatlus with a 40-foot wingspan pulls alongside Attenborough as he's sitting in the cockpit of a glider.
A long-extinct pterosaur known as Quetzalcoatlus seems to fly alongside host David Attenborough in a digitally created scene from "Flying Monsters 3D."
"I originally thought I might do that in a hang glider. ... Unfortunately, the insurers wouldn't let me do that, so I had to do it in the glider," he quipped.
Attenborough said one of the challenges of the project was to make sure the movie stuck to the scientific story instead of turning into a 3-D monster chiller horrorfest. "It's no good just doing a film to say, 'Oh, yes, it's wonderful in 3-D,' but have no story behind it," he said.
The scientific story
Pterosaurs have been the subject of scientific debate for decades: Paleontologists have argued over whether they were cold-blooded or warm-blooded, whether they bore feathers or fur, whether they could take off from a runway or had to jump off a cliff in order to take flight. (One of the places Attenborough visited during the making of the movie was the famed "pterosaur landing strip" in southern France, which he compared to "a prehistoric Heathrow" airport.)
The creatures shown in "Flying Dinosaurs 3D" aren't your father's pterosaurs: They use their folded wings as forelimbs when they walk around on all fours — or when they launch into the air. Some have a coat of fine hairs known as pycnofibers, which serve as evidence that they were warm-blooded. And most of them sport colorful crests, which Attenborough considers a "reasonable" hypothesis.
"They were almost certainly colored, and they had structures on their heads which can best be explained as being like the crest of a bird, and were used in courtship," he said.
Atlantic Productions / ZOO
A crested pterosaur known as a Tapejara uses its folded forelimbs as it prepares for take-off in a scene from "Flying Monsters 3D."
Were pterosaurs actually birds? Pterosaurs had wings. (Check, although their wings could spread wider than bird wings.) They laid eggs. (Check, although their eggs were more like those of reptiles than modern-day birds.) They tended to group in colonies, as many species of birds do today. Pterosaurs and early birds co-existed during the Cretaceous ... but the mainstream view is that they came from different lines of the evolutionary tree.
Why did birds survive while pterosaurs die out? That's the 65 million-year question.
"Birds had feathers, stiff quills, but pterosaurs didn't have feathers," Attenborough said. "They didn't evolve feathers."
Instead, pterosaurs got their lift from membranes that were attached to their limbs and spread out during flight. Those membranes made it "very difficult to move around on the ground in a nimble sort of way," while birds "were able to run on the ground very well," Attenborough said. The way he sees it, that was a "crucial element" in the fight for survival when the era of the dinosaurs ended.
The rest of the story
Is that the way paleontologists see it? Mark Witton, a pterosaur expert at the University of Portsmouth, was one of the scientists who served as consultants for the film — and he was invited to a screening when the British version was ready for its release. "My hopes were high that everyone's favourite leathery-winged beasties were about to get their moment in the media sun," he wrote on the Pterosaur.net blog.
Dimorphodon flies through a jungle setting in a scene from "Flying Monsters 3D."
He came away impressed by the film's technical fireworks, but not so much impressed by the scientific claims. "Take, for instance, the way that we're explicitly told that pterosaurs were out-competed by birds and their ability to adapt to new ecologies, thus sealing the extinction of the more evolutionary-stagnant pterosaurs," he wrote. "Detailed analyses of bird and pterosaur diversity have either proved inconclusive on this issue ... or categorically stated that there's no evidence for bird-driven pterosaur extinction. ..."
Witton catalogs the movie's other scientific sins with the rigor that only a dedicated specialist could muster. "It really seems that, with a bit more care, this could've been as much of an achievement for effective scientific communication as it has been for 3-D technology, but it's really an enormous missed opportunity," he wrote.
Other pterosaur experts have provided more positive reviews. The University of Leicester's David Unwin, who was also a consultant for the film, praised the results in a video clip. "Films like this do a tremendous job of actually communicating in a really exciting way, and one that grabs your attention, the kinds of things that we've found out about pterosaurs," he said. "And what I really love is being able to see the animation and being involved in the process of trying to produce the best possible and most accurate animations."
What's a pterosaur fan to do? If you go see "Flying Monsters 3D," you'll want to sit back and enjoy the 3-D effects ... and then get the rest of the story from online resources such Pterosaur.net, or Dave Hone's Archosaur Musings, or John Conway's Palaeontography, or Pterosauria at the University of California Museum of Paleontology.
VIDEO: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/09/19/7844412-flying-monsters-reborn-in-3-d
How The NBN Will Effect The Australian Visual F/X Industry
(bhatt.id.au) The proposed National Broadband Network (NBN) will have an impact on many parts of our lives at work and home. I spoke with a variety of people in the Australian visual effects (VFX) industry about how the NBN could effect their industry.
Phil Sullivan is a classic example of how talented Australians in the VFX industry travel the world like a wandering albatross from project to project.
As a Motion Capture TD (Technical Director) and Animator his specialty is “synthesising life” and he’s applied this skill to movies and computer games such as Happy Feet 1 and 2, Heavenly Sword and LA Noire.
As much as he’d like to live in Australia near his family, the boom and bust nature of the VFX industry means he has to follow projects to the country they’re based in. So after completing his current contract working on Happy Feet 2 in Sydney who knows where he could be next, perhaps Wellington, Los Angeles, Vancouver or London.
Adelaide based Rising Sun Pictures (RSP) has recently finished work on the Green Lantern and Harry Potter 7 Part 2. Their previous success stories include blockbusters like Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Batman Begins and Watchmen.
RSP co-founder Tony Clark told me that the NBN will not substantially change what Rising Sun Pictures does in the beginning but once the network has been rolled out across a substantial part of Australia it could have an important impact on how people in the Australian VFX industry collaborate on projects.
Clark’s description of how the VFX industry worked historically, presently and potentially in the future made it clear how the NBN is one of the progressions required to try and stay competitive with overseas rivals.
In the past big film studios such as Disney had their own VFX department, then they started outsourcing parts of films and by 1990 movies like Terminator II had their VFX done almost solely by one company, in this case George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic. Today VFX work for movies is often shared across many companies, with each winning 5-10% of the budget.
Clark harked back to a time when he had to arrange data tapes for work in progress to be shipped overseas. The week long “lag time” between “packets” of a project was very frustrating as the VFX industry is all about creativity and it’s hard to be creative with such communication delays.
From 2000 onwards RSP sent Quicktime movies back and forth to customers. Files steadily grew larger in size and quality in parallel with the customer film studios expectations of creative communications moving to a practically immediate timeframe.
Even the fastest ADSL transfer speeds became too constraining so RSP setup a private high speed network called Cinenet with the financial assistance of the South Australian Government, using the services of Agile Communications (sister company to ISP Internode).
The launch of Cinenet in mid-2004 had played a critical role in RSP winning the contract for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire according to Clark.
“The speed of Cinenet, combined with Rising Sun Pictures’ sister company Rising Sun Research’s client review software cineSync, allowed our work to be reviewed in Los Angeles and London faster than work from suppliers based in those cities” he said. Cinesync won the Academy award for Technical Achievement in early 2011.
What Clark envisages is a future world where he can assemble best of breed group of VFX artists in small teams of individuals working from home. To enable that he needs these talented people to have access to highly reliable NBN type ultra-fast broadband internet speeds. This would be “revolutionary for distributed film making workflows” he said.
Even if it could be done at a cost premium to ADSL2+ of several hundred dollars per connection it would enable VFX talent outside the big cities to participate in RSP projects, for example a cluster of people who live on the north coast of NSW. At the moment they are willing and available but lack the necessary connectivity.
Clark said that “looking at the NBN wholesale price list it’s very much within the reach of a professional worker to have the kinds of speeds at their home office to compete with big companies on a level playing field”.
Animal Logic (AL) is another prominent Australian VFX company, working on projects such as The Matrix trilogy, 300 and Australia. AL recently won the lead role in a big 2 year project, the $65 million Walking with Dinosaurs 3D feature film which means a large portion of that production money will be spent in Australia.
Guy Griffiths Director of Research & Development at AL notes that a key characteristic of VFX digital animation is that it’s almost all in front of a computer. Specialist programs like Maya are used to make files that are handed on to the next person in the production chain.
The amounts of computer data generated during work on projects such as the recent Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole movie require backing up colossal amounts. It’s not surprising that VFX files are delivered to the customer at present via packing cases of hard disk drives as well as by network file transfers.
VFX work is project based and requires flexibility to scale up access to specialists in different areas at short notice. Ubiquitous consistent speed network file transfer capability would allow new ways to tap into VFX talent regardless of their location. Once there’s a distributed workforce Griffiths wonders how they can be managed, it’s not just about fast file transfers he said.
He told me that AL would need new innovative services to utilise the NBN in order to work and communicate more effectively. Perhaps by looking at an adjacent telepresence wall (immersive video conferencing) in order to talk to a remote colleague rather than initiating a cumbersome video chat through a computer program.
Griffiths is certain that when the NBN is in place imaginative solutions which we can’t imagine now will be created, however there is a fair way to go yet. The NBN could allow innovation and experimentation but companies like AL can’t make business decisions around it until it has a critical mass of availability.
If Australian VFX companies can leapfrog their overseas rivals by using the NBN to connect to talented staff offsite, it could be a factor that allows more projects to be won. These could employ talent within the industry like Phil Sullivan so they can spend more time living, working and spending their income in Australia.
AL Creative Director Bruce Carter told me that “talented people in the VFX industry are mobile nomadic artists who go from project to project around the world, balanced by a core group of older staff who stay put as they have families here … so clearly if there’s a deep talent pool nearby that’s good for AL” and by extension for the rest of the Australian VFX industry.
However it will take more than the NBN to do this because at present the high value of the Australian dollar and more generous tax breaks offered overseas are making it relatively expensive for big film studios to create movies in Australia.
Fantastic Model Miniatures Exhibit 2011
Figure Painters, Model Builders and Collectors come out on Oct. 1st and 2nd 2011 and support our hobby as The East Coast Figure Artists and the IPMS Patriot Chapter present the "Fantastic Model Miniatures" Exhibit at The National Heritage Museum in historic Lexington, MA.
This public exhibition will include: 300 miniatures , Historical and Fantasy Figures and Dioramas by Shep Payne, Bill Horan, Mike Blank, Steve Riojas, John Rosengrandt and works from five NewEngland area model clubs. ( If you or your club can make it, please contact me. ) Seminars on painting , sculpting and molding/casting will run both days.
This non-profit, educational event will present what we do as true artwork in a museum setting to the public who might never attend one of our regular model shows. With our hobby getting a bit smaller with each coming year, exhibits like this one are a solid step toward involving new people. For complete details the museaum will post a page as the date draws nearer. www.nationalheritagemuseum.org
GenArts, PixelFish Release Visual Effects to Engage Shoppers
(bizreport.com) As more people turn to online video to watch Primetime television, original programming and news clips advertisers are following. A new development in the video space may improve some advertisers' video results. From PixelFish and GenArts, the solution will use visual effects to scale video advertising.
by Kristina Knight
GenArts will power the PixelFish solution, offering better performance for local advertisers hoping to engage through video.
"Visual effects have been shown to increase audience engagement and purchase intent by up to 12% for advertisement spots on TV versus the same exact spot without the visual effects," said Katherine Hays, CEO of GenArts. "Traditionally, that level of engagement with video due to the targeted use of visual effects has been limited to blue-chip brands with large production and distribution budgets. Now, through the GenArts Solution, we are able to bring Madison Avenue results to everyone from an independently-run business to your local pizza shop."
Video ads now account for about 14% of the content in the online video space, but that isn't slowing consumer adoption of the medium. According to the latest data from comScore Americans watched nearly 7 billion video clips in July; 180 million Americans are now watching online video. Most clips are still viewed through Google's YouTube, but a growing number of viewers are going direct to sites like Hulu or network websites to find video content, including full-length television episodes and streaming entire movies.
Hulu continues to reach the most consumers with video ads (409 million ad minutes, 7.9% reach) followed by Adap.tv (396 million ad minutes, 20% reach) and Tremor Video (347 million ad minutes, 19% reach).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)