(houmatoday.com)
LOS ANGELES — The skies may be darkening in the third dimension.
Once hailed as a technology that would revolutionize filmmaking the way sound and color did, 3-D has become as much an albatross for some films as a lure. And studios are noticing.
According to a study by Exhibitor Relations, which tracks trends among theater owners, the number of big-studio 3-D films will drop by at least 25 percent a year through 2013. There were 40 new 3-D movies this year. Next year, 30 releases are slated for the big screen. That number dips to 15 in 2013, though that schedule remains incomplete, and studios shuffle release dates. The study also found that some high-profile 3-D conversions are planned for classic films, including Finding Nemo and Beauty and the Beast.
” We might see a few more 3-D movies in 2013, but I’d be surprised if the number was more than 20,” says Jeff Bock, box office analyst for Exhibitor Relations. ” People are feeling burned, the studios are feeling burned. Everyone is pulling back.”
The technology has been under fire after some high-profile flops like this summer’s Conan the Barbarian ($21 million at the box office) and Fright Night ($18 million) prompted critics to question whether 3-D was already on the way out.
Will This Be the Last Year for Best Animated Feature at Oscars?
(goldderby.com)The Academy's Best Animated Feature category started with noble intentions, but 2011 could easily be its final year as animated films make stronger showings in the top categories.
The initial reasoning for the category was that animated films weren't taken seriously enough to break into major races. In the Oscars' first 74 years, only "Beauty and the Beast" (1991) ever broke into the Best Picture race and only "Toy Story" (1995) had been nodded for its screenplay. In the first year of the Animated Feature category, the winner "Shrek" (2001) was also nominated for screenplay. The scripts for Animated Feature winners "Finding Nemo" (2003), "The Incredibles" (2004), "Ratatouille" (2007), "Wall-E" (2008), "Up" (2009), and "Toy Story 3" (2010) all followed suit.
This year, only 18 films qualify for Best Animated Feature, yet those can yield five nominations (a success rate of 28%) if they score at least 7.5/10 with a screening committee. Compare that to the Best Picture category where 248 films fought for ten slots last year (a success rate of 4%). One of those Best Picture nominees was "Toy Story 3." The year before that, "Up" contended for Best Picture.
A solid third of this year's 18 qualifying titles are direct sequels including Pixar's critical disappointment "Cars 2," Happy Feet Two," and "Kung Fu Panda 2." While each film's first installments reaped Oscar nominations, none of these sequels are sure things for the final ballot.
The only original titles that are truly in the mix are the upcoming "Arthur Christmas" and well-received releases "Rio" and "Rango." Other films with buzz include "Shrek" spin-off "Puss in Boots," which clawed its way to the top of the box office for a couple weeks. A charming feature-length version of "Winnie the Pooh" would be a pleasant nominee, but has only an outside shot. And Steven Spielberg's forthcoming adaptation "The Adventures of Tintin" seems more and more like a sure thing.
Fortunately, no one is talking about other qualifying titles like “Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil,” Razzie contender "The Smurfs," and “Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked.”
A vocal minority on the board has pushed for the elimination of this award in recent years. A specialized category may not be needed as animated films are now viewed by Academy members as a more serious medium. The Best Animated Feature award becomes a consolation prize when these films might have otherwise won for their screenplays or even Best Picture. And with scores of animators admitted into the Academy in recent years, it is certain their genre will continue to contend in the top category.
The Academy would be wise to follow the Grammys' lead after they recently cut and condensed dozens of categories. An actual competition between quality nominees is more respectable and engaging.
Useful iPhone Apps for VFX & Film Makers
(buzz-videos.eu) Here is a quick overview of useful iPhone Apps for vfx and guerilla film makers. The list could be extended to remote login tools and the like but this is my overview.
I am sure there are similar Apps for windows and android phones.
VIDEO - Take a look: http://buzz-videos.eu/video-film-useful-iphone-apps-for- vfx-and-film-makers/
The Special Effects in Chinese Films
(wildgrounds.com)People usually complains a lot about the quality of special effects in Chinese blockbusters. Take Tsui Hark’s Detective Dee for example, some said special effects were “blatantly noticeable“, looked “a little cheap” – of course, some others described them as “flawless” or “nifty“. In fact, the film even took the Best Special Effects award at the 30th Hong Kong Film Awards. It’s not perfect, but they did good. Wait! Who are “they”? Chinese companies? Nope, and that’s the interesting part.
What do these films share in common; John Woo’s Red Cliff, Tsui Hark’s Flying Swords, Peter Chan’s Wu Xia, Daniel Lee’s White Vengeance or Feng Xiageng’s Aftershock…?
Their special effects were made-supervised by South Korean companie! This insightful article brings some answers about this (surprising) reality. If Chinese productions work with Korean companies, it’s mostly because they can provide “Hollywood-level quality at competitive prices” compared to Chinese companies, who lack know-how & experience in this field. There’s a simple explanation to that, “Chinese film technicians are only used to doing historical dramas“, so they can only provide limited options and don’t know (yet) how to deal with explosions for example.
To give you a better idea about all that, here’s the VFX demo reel from Korean company Digital Idea, showing you lots of before/after footage. It really covers many type of visual effects; from the most visible things – 3D models – to the smallest & almost unnoticeable details – visual corrections, matte paintings. And you may be quite surprised to see examples taken from Kim Jee-woon’s I Saw The Devil – the taxi cab scene! Anyway, this should help you understand how VFX works;
With all that in mind, watch also this VFX video for Detective Dee – it was made by another Korean company named AZ Works. It focuses on the most important & visible things like the giant Buddha, how it was created, and other interesting stuff – the fight against the talking deer. Quite informative, even though it doesn’t answer why some of the effects in the film look “cheap”. One can guess, the overall quality of VFX depends on many factors; time, money, know-how, what directors want, shooting preparations, schedule constraints… But as Tsui Hark said, “special effects as a tool are quite convenient as an ability to enhance the story when they are necessary“.
VIDEO - Take a look: http://wildgrounds.com/2011/11/22/the-special-effects-in- chinese-films/
Here’s The Future for Disney’s Digital Strategy
(wallstcheatsheet.com)Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) is making a splash in the apps game with “Where’s My Water” — a mobile game that stars Swampy the alligator living in a sewer. Sound slimy? Apparently not to app gamers. The app launched on Sep 22 and raced to the top of Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) top paid apps chart – displacing permanent resident Angry Birds for three weeks.
The app was produced by a crew of just seven people in seven-and-a-half months. Contrast this with a newly released movie that takes three to five years to make and hundreds of millions of dollars.
Investing Insights: Salesforce Shares Return from the Clouds.
Disney’s (NYSE:DIS) strategy to create million-dollar franchises in the app world may be working. “This is a very, very cost-effective way to develop characters,” said Tim Nollen, an analyst at Macquarie Capital USA Inc. in New York. “It’s a new way of doing things.”
Swampy will also be aired on Disney.com and on YouTube (NASDAQ:GOOG) in a 12-part series in 2012. A book and a movie may follow. Welcome to the future for Disney.
Kristen Stewart's Extreme 'Twilight' Transformation
(latimesblogs.latimes.com)Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson in "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1"
The fans who lined up over the weekend to see "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1" — and there were a lot of them, considering that the fourth installment in the franchise adapted from Stephenie Meyer's bestselling young-adult novels raked in an estimated $139.5 million — witnessed some pretty radical upheaval in the lives of young Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and her vampire beau Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson).
The couple marries, and during a romantic honeymoon getaway, they finally consummate their relationship. But Bella unexpectedly becomes pregnant and fights to carry the child to term, though the fetus is seemingly incompatible with her body.
To depict the great physical toll the pregnancy takes on Bella's body — she's unable to eat and essentially is withering away as her stomach swells — the "Breaking Dawn" filmmakers looked to Lola Visual Effects, the company responsible for downsizing muscular Chris Evans to a pre-transformation weakling in this summer's comic book superhero film "Captain America." The results are certainly eyebrow-raising, with Bella becoming increasingly pale and extremely gaunt.
"The idea was to leave you with a question mark about how they did it," said the film's director, Bill Condon. "We wanted you to think it was possible that Kristen actually lost a lot of weight for it."
The visual-effects team added prosthetics to Stewart's face (a process that took three hours of application) to make her eyes look more sunken and her ears larger. Stewart likened wearing the prosthetics to having a "big, skinny head" for the scenes. Still, the 21-year old actress was game for the transformation.
"I'm so happy that they were not afraid of it — to have your main character look so awful for half of the movie is a bold choice for a huge film," Stewart said. "It was the one thing I wasn't fully responsible for concerning Bella and it made me really nervous. I didn't know what it would look like until I saw the movie."
Animated Features; Stop Mo vs CG
(kimemsonanimates.wordpress.com) Think stop motion, think Aardman, they are the top of stop motion. It is interesting that they are one of few studios that have tackled both stop motion and CGI for animated features. An AWN interview with Peter Lord explains: The decision was certainly not a question of cost, he declares. “Flushed Away is way more expensive than any previous feature we’ve done.” Flushed Away may have been CG, however had the charm and feel of stop motion (through texture, animation techniques, etc) and was very well received. Is money king again or is it more practical reasons related to story? Is the reputation of which medium is more expensive prevailing? What we also need to examine is profit margins- that is more relevant than the actual expense. Which medium really is more expensive? This is part 3 of this discussion, part 1 examined film effects and part 2 examined children’s series.
Profitability
For now, lets compare some films of differing mediums in simple terms: I got this information from IMDB, wikipedia and the-numbers.com it is not clear if the budget is the real cost or just the initial forecast of what they thought the project would cost, there is not a consistent way that these figures are collected or presented. I think companies will try and hide some of the true figures so I can’t be certain these websites offer accurate data, but I think this is all we have for a comparison.
See the results: http://kimemsonanimates.wordpress.com/2011/11/18/ animated-features-stop-mo-vs- cg/
Prometheus Creature Concept Designer Neville Page Interview
(ShockTillYouDrop.com)Even if you don't know his name, you've seen his work and in an exclusive interview with ComingSoon.net's ShockTillYouDrop.com, Concept Designer Neville Page discusses his world-building past, present and future.
The artist is responsible for sundry movie monsters, and other creations, such as the giant beast that rampages through New York City in Cloverfield, the hungry fish of Piranha 3D, the otherworldly creatures of Avatar, Star Trek and Green Lantern, or, the alien visitor of this summer's Super 8. Thanks to the latter's forthcoming DVD and Blu-ray release, the opportunity sprung up to be able to speak to Page about the film and his career. Being such a fan of the concept design process myself, Shock jumped at the chance to pick the man's brain about his previous works and the directors he has worked with, including Ridley Scott. Yes, Page contributed to the super-secret Alien prequel, Prometheus.
Full Interview: http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/interviewsnews.php? id=22006
I Cannot Own A Company Burning Through This Much Cash. Period, End of Story.
(seekingalpha.com)Digital Domain plans to use IPO monies to begin producing their own large scale live-action films. I'm never a proponent of investing in start-up motion picture production companies. The risk reward is rarely favorable to outside investors. DDMG's first co-production (with Oddlot Entertainment) is for a film to be titled 'Ender's Game'. DDMG will be a primary investor in the film and will lead the digital production.
2011 - Really shaky 3rd quarter. Bad enough that the company noted outright in the prospectus it was a light quarter. Full year revenues should be in the $105 million range. Gross margins here are ultra-slim. Much too slim for a company that has been around for nearly 20 years. Even back in 2008(before embarking on new lines of business), gross margins were weak. Gross margins should be in the 15%-20% range. Losses staggering as 1) gross margins eat most of the revenues and 2) DDMG has been spending heavily on their primary production and education plans. Losses should be in the $1.50+ range. I cannot own a company burning through this much cash. Period, end of story.
2012 - Losses should continue to be staggering. DDMG will need a major hit with their first film to make this IPO look even average in range.
This is a successful visual effects company that is un-investable due to ugly earnings statements. By all accounts DDMG is quite good at what they do: visual effects for the motion picture industry and advertising. Lot of risk here as DDMG embarks on feature film primary production responsibilities (with the implied financial risks) as well as a for-profit educational center. DDMG couldn't put money on the bottom line for years before embarking on these plans. Now? Losses of $1.50+ per share. Not interested.
Full Article: http://seekingalpha.com/article/309496-digital-domain- media-group-ipo-beware-of- ugly-earnings-statements
DreamWorks Animation Outsources Animation To India
(articles.latimes.com)'Puss in Boots' marks the first time DreamWorks has relied on Indian animators to help produce a full-length feature film. The Bangalore, India, animation studio has become an increasingly important piece of DreamWorks' production pipeline.
* For Puss in Boots, a new feature film about a cat bandit, a team of about 100 animators in Bangalore spent six months animating three major scenes.
For Puss in Boots, a new feature film about a cat bandit, a team of about 100… (DreamWorks Animation)
October 29, 2011|By Richard Verrier, Los Angeles Times
When the cat bandit "Puss in Boots" strides onto the big screen this weekend, Vanitha Rangaraju and her colleagues in Bangalore, India, will take special pride in the feline's starring role on the global stage.
A spinoff of the hit "Shrek" movies, "Puss in Boots" represents a milestone for DreamWorks Animation and for the fledgling animation industry in the world's second most populous nation.
The film, starring Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek, marks the first time that the Glendale studio has relied on a crew of Indian animators to help produce a full-length feature film. Until now, DreamWorks Animation had used the studio it operates in Bangalore to produce mainly TV specials and DVD bonus material. But after investing more than $10 million over the last three years, DreamWorks has turned the Bangalore studio into an increasingly important piece of its production pipeline.
The investment underscores how Hollywood is increasingly farming out animation and visual effects work to India, both to capitalize on the country's low labor costs and to tap into a large pool of English-speaking workers with sought-after computer skills. The pace of production also is accelerated because of the 24-hour cycle that can be maintained by pairing the Bangalore workers with their counterparts in Hollywood.
"We're very excited because we've been working toward this for three years,'' said Rangaraju, head of lighting for the India animation unit. "This is the first time this has happened in India, and it's going to encourage a lot of people to move into the industry."
DreamWorks is among several studios tapping into the labor pool in India. Sony Pictures Entertainment and Rhythm & Hues, the Los Angeles animation and visual effects house, each have facilities in India that have done work on such feature films as "Yogi Bear" and "Alvin and the Chipmunks." Walt Disney Studios partnered with Mumbai-based Prana Studios to produce its 2008 computer-animated movie "Tinker Bell." Additionally, several large Indian companies, such as Reliance Group, Tata Elxsi and Prime Focus, have established beachheads in Hollywood to do visual effects and 3-D conversion work on films such as "Spider-Man 3" and "Clash of the Titans."
Traditionally, much of the film and TV work Hollywood has outsourced to India has involved low-skill, labor-intensive tasks such as wire removal — the tedious process of digitally erasing wires used to suspend stunt people and stars in action movies. The animation work has been confined mostly to TV series or made-for-DVD movies. But that's beginning to change, as evidenced by "Puss in Boots."
A team of about 100 animators in Bangalore spent six months animating three major scenes in the feature film — including one complex sequence in which Puss, Humpty Dumpty (Zach Galifianakis) and Kitty Softpaws (Hayek) enter a giant's castle surrounded by a lush jungle in the clouds. "Except for the story boarding, we did everything from start to finish," said Philippe Gluckman, creative director for the DreamWorks India unit, housed on the eleventh floor of a building in a high-tech park in a suburb of Bangalore. "I would hope nobody would be able to tell which sequences came from India."
DreamWorks launched the India studio in early 2008 as part of a partnership with Technicolor, which acquired the Indian animation company Paprika Animation Studios. Technicolor owns the facility but has tapped DreamWorks to hire and train 220 illustrators who work there. DreamWorks sent staff members to India to train the crews and hold master classes on topics such as how to properly shape mouths.
Before embarking on a full-length feature film, the DreamWorks India unit started with smaller projects, such as holiday TV specials including "Merry Madagascar" and "Scared Shrekless" (a separate unit with the Technicolor studio animated the successful Nickelodeon TV series "The Penguins of Madagascar"). Currently, the group is working on its next film projects, including "Madagascar 3," due out next summer, and is expected to have a role in the upcoming Bollywood-style musical "Monkeys of Mumbai."
"It has been a very steep learning curve for all of them," Gluckman said.
"Puss in Boots" Director Chris Miller said he was impressed with the quality of the work from India. "The work that came out of it was terrific and stands up to anything that was done here," said Miller, who also directed "Shrek the Third."
The ability to farm out even a small portion of the work to India has obvious financial advantages to DreamWorks, given the substantially lower labor costs — about 40% less than in the U.S. — and the increasingly competitive market in the U.S. The typical DreamWorks film costs about $130 million to produce.
If You're in New Mexico, 'The Lone Ranger' Wants You
(latinoreview.com)If You're in New Mexico, 'The Lone Ranger' Wants You "The Lone Ranger" may have gotten in trouble over its budget, but they still have the spare cash to hire the neccessary extras. The production is currently hiring Native American actors (men and women!) in New Mexico, with preference given to anyone who can ride a horse. (A neccessary thing for a Western.)
They're also looking for a young Native American boy, aged 9-11, for a speaking role. If you have a little brother or a cousin that fits the requirements, haul him in! He'll thank you.
If you do happen to be in New Mexico over the coming months, it seems the production is filming under the code name "Silver Bullet." Some have taken this as an indication the script is still hiding its werewolves under a lower budget, but as Lone Ranger devotees know, the white-hatted crusader uses silver bullets as his trademark. I think we can see where the scriptwriters got the idea, though -- they thought he needed something other than bandits and corrupt railroad tycoons to aim them at!
The 10 Best Special Effects Movies Ever
(furiousfanboys.com)Ask any fanboy and they’ll tell you that one of the big reasons they go see a science fiction or genre movie is to have their face melted off by awesome special effects. Over the years there have been some amazingly convincing effects created, and we’ve compiled a list of the 10 movies that pulled off their special effects so well that they still hold up years after the original release.
Take a look: http://furiousfanboys.com/2011/11/the-10-best-special- effects-movies-ever/
VFX Artist Stuck Abroad Tweets: #fuckYouSubsidies
(animationguildblog.blogspot.com) The latest news from the realm of entertainment tax breaks is that London and Michigan have reaffirmed their commitment to tax incentives designed to lure production to their corners of the world. Entertainment tax incentives are all the rage these days. People are convinced that without them, Hollywood will find more "lucrative" pastures to host production work.
What astounds me is how little tax payers understand where the incentive money is going and how much they believe those incentives are actually helping their cities.
The basic premise of the tax credits sounds logical: incentivize Hollywood conglomerates making the films to come to your locale, and seed an industry that wasn't previously there. Films are made all the time. Bringing the production work to your constituents means more employment, more local revenue, and happier voters.
Right?
But, once one region benefits from paying Hollywood to play inside its borders, other regions take notice. They initiate incentives that offer more than their neighbor to win the next contract. Then, the other state takes notice and does the same.
.. and so on, and so on.
Every state in our nation now has some kind of incentive. Each state is vying for the same piece of the hollywood pie and by working against each other. Who is really benefiting in the race to be the place with the biggest kick-back? More importantly, who is paying the studio to be there?
Another important factor? The labor force that is brought in to do the work. Production companies regularly bring workers from other states when they make their movie in IncentiveLand. This is prevalent in the visual effects industry. VFX shops have opened satellite locations in areas that offer tax incentives so they can be awarded jobs that pay the hollywood studio a tax credit for having the work done at that location. These satellite locations are staffed mostly by artists from elsewhere as the demand for work done exceeds the amount of local talent available.
Los Angeles born visual effects artist David Stripinis tweeted on the anniversary of his working in London:
Two years ago today I left Los Angeles for what I thought would be one year. Now I don't think I'll ever get back. #fuckYouSubsidies
Regional tax incentives, paid by the local population, don't kick-start a local entertainment industry. Instead, these incentives drain municipal coffers to lure Hollywood studios in to temporarily squat in their provinces and make with the Movie Magic. Artists and craftspeople are flown in by production companies eager to be paid by the local population to do their work.
Then, when the work is done, they fly back to their lives and families in lands across the globe.
I'm reminded of the movie line from a supercomputer who tried to figure out the best way to win a Global Thermonuclear War
The Countries Most Threatened By VFX Outsourcing Are India And China
(vfxsoldier.wordpress.com)When I first started this blog, I asked a rhetorical question:
when I look at the evidence and get asked which countries are most threatened by outsourcing of vfx work you know what my answer is?
India and China
Most would think the US is at most risk but much of that is due to government film subsidies used as a lure to artificialize the price of VFX.
For India and China, their bread and butter is having the cheapest labor. However the double edged sword is in the reality that wages are rising in both countries, the quality is stagnant, and other cheaper labor pools are joining the market to compete as bottom feeders.
Still Don’t Believe Me? Look At Indian Animation
I wrote another post linking to an Indian article about the demise of it’s animation industry. The hope was that a new film called Delhi Safari would turn things around. It was supposed to be released last month but then nothing. No mention of when it will be actually released. You’d figure the claim that this was India’s best animated film to date would at least have a release date. No show radio!
If you still believe that India will soon catch up and dominate the VFX and animation industry then do me a favor: Put your money where your mouth is.
Last week Digital Domain was lampooned for trying to become a publicly traded stock. It turns out India’s Crest Animation which made last year’s Alpha & Omega has been a publicly traded stock in India for the last 12 years. Take a look at their historical stock price which was $US 23 a share at one point. It’s now hovering at around 55 cents a share.
Would you put your money in an Indian animation company? Given the return on investment, you might be better off outsourcing that decision to a table in Las Vegas.
Full Article: http://vfxsoldier.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/is-it-over-for- indias-outsourcing-model/
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