(ComingSoon.net)
Summit Entertainment's The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 has earned a massive $283.5 million worldwide since opening internationally on Wednesday. Based on the Stephenie Meyer book, "Breaking Dawn - Part 1" grossed $139.5 million domestically from 4,061 theaters this weekend and added another $144 million overseas for the five days in 54 markets. The $139.5 million domestic opening is the fifth-best ever, trailing just The Twilight Saga: New Moon's $142.8 million, Spider-Man 3's $151.1 million, The Dark Knight's $158.4 million and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2's $169.2 million. The $283.5 million worldwide opening is the 10th largest ever and a franchise best, passing up "New Moon's" $274.9 million launch.
Directed by Bill Condon from a Melissa Rosenberg script, the $110 million-budgeted "Breaking Dawn --- Part 1" stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Peter Facinelli, Ashley Greene, Kellan Lutz, Jackson Rathbone, Elizabeth Reaser, Nikki Reed and Billy Burke. "Part 2" will hit theaters on November 16, 2012.
Transformers The Ride - Unveiling the Preshow Video Preview
Thanks to Resorts World Sentosa blog we have some new looks at The Ride via a new video previde that transports us into the Transformers universe when you step into the NEST facility.
Transformers The Ride will be opening first at Universal Studios in Singapore on December 3rd, 2011.
The storytelling starts from the queue lines at TRANSFORMERS The Ride. Get transported into the TRANSFORMERS universe when you step into the NEST facility at Universal Studios Singapore. If you have not seen a the blockbuster movie franchise, fret not, the preshow segment of the queue lines will prepare you for the ultimate 3D battle.
The ride is in undergoing technical rehearsal now, so if you happen to be one of the lucky ones who took the ride, share your experience with us on this blog, twitter or our Facebook page!
Even if you have never owned a TRANSFORMERS action figure, or watched a single installment of the TRANSFORMERS films, don't fret! The queue lines are built to transport you into the world of TRANSFORMERS and immerse you into the story from the moment you step in. That's why we call it the Pre-Show!
The world's first TRANSFORMERS ride will open at Universal Studios Singapore on 3 December 2011.
VIDEO - Take a look: http://tformers.com/transformers-the-ride- unveiling-the/16798/news.html
Special Effects Master Phil Tippett Comments on Commercial Film Industry
(dailycal.org)Northern California during the 1970s served as a bastion of cinema with such enduring filmmakers as Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas and Philip Kaufman basing their projects in the San Francisco Bay Area. Seen as a practical alternative to the established hierarchy of Los Angeles, Northern California attracted a multitude of technical talent disillusioned with the business of Hollywood, from writers to film editors to sound mixers.
Of course, the ’70s were an era long past. Now, only the remnants of the period remain in the form of LucasArts and Industrial Light & Magic in San Francisco’s Presidio District as well as Coppola’s relatively meager American Zoetrope (not to mention his multitude of restaurants, cafes and wine estates all over the North Bay).
However, nestled only a few blocks away from Berkeley’s San Pablo Park stands special effects wizard Phil Tippett’s very own Tippett Studios. Established in the 1980s after the runaway success of the original “Star Wars” trilogy, Tippett Studios is at once a relic of the past as well as evidence of an industry that has experienced tremendous change in its last 30 years.
In his recent presentation as a part of the Pacific Film Archive’s “Behind the Scenes: The Art and Craft of Cinema” series, Tippett focused on his early memories of movies, his involvement with the “Star Wars” films, and the massive changes that have taken place in the special effects business in the last 20 years. Disillusioned yet surprisingly funny in a blunt manner, the joy he infuses in his work translated to his lecture as a packed audience burst into laughter with every story.
Citing the works of Willis O’Brien (“King Kong”), and especially Ray Harryhausen (“The 7th Voyage of Sinbad,” “Jason and the Argonauts,” “Clash of the Titans”) as direct influences, Tippett stressed the importance of mentors in his life, while recalling the day he had a beer with Harryhausen as one of the greatest moments of his life. Childhood experiences continued to play a major role in his life, leading to one of his major goals of wanting to work on a dinosaur movie. “Every boy is either into dinosaurs or trucks,” said Tippett. “I was into dinosaurs.”
It was once Tippett met George Lucas and Steven Spielberg that his career really took off. “These guys understood how to get people to come back to theaters. They knew the importance of spectacle in movies, and we had similar influences,” said Tippett.
Although Tippett wouldn’t work with Spielberg until the early ’90s, his involvement with the “Star Wars” films would rewrite the possibilities of films heavy on the special effects in the future. “There weren’t a lot of people working in the field at the time, very different from today,” he explained. As technology progressed, so did the filmmaking process with more and more directors relying on special effects. Tippett alone worked on such box office hits as “Dragonslayer,” “Robocop” and “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” through the ‘80s.
1993 marked another turning point in the history of the spectacle (or now considered the blockbuster) movie with the release of Spielberg’s seminal film, “Jurassic Park.” The picture marked the end of physical special effects through models and stop-motion and the start of the CGI revolution. “Spielberg decided all his movies would be done this way [with CGI]. I didn’t get depressed, but I got sick,” said Tippett. So began what Tippett called the “corporatization” of the film industry, something he blames the lack of quality blockbusters coming out of Hollywood on. “Even the layperson asks, ‘Why is everything so bad after Jurassic Park?’ It’s because it’s all been corporatized.”
Since then, Tippett Studios has been responsible for the special effects on some of the biggest box office and critical bombs of the CGI-era, including “Evolution,” “The Spiderwick Chronicles,” and the “Twilight” franchise. While admitting the shortcomings of these films and the industry in general, Tippett ended his program with a glimmer of hope by showcasing an animated trailer he’s been working on for the last 20 years entitled “Mad God.” As usual, it all depends on financial backing and marketability, but the passion Tippett exudes for this long-gestating project further illustrates the immense level of joy a disillusioned master can still hold for his work.
Red Digital Cinema Releases Scarlet-X
(dpreview.com) Red Digital Cinema has released the Scarlet-X professional video camera with Canon EF or PL mount. With 4K video from 1-30 fps and burst modes up to 12 fps at 5K resolution, it enables users to capture motion footage and still content simultaneously. Available for pre-orders, the basic kit (which is primarily the body, or as Red calls it "The Brain") is priced at $9750 while the Scarlet-X AL Canon Mount Package is priced at $14,015 and includes such essentials as a power adaptor, 5" touch LCD, and hand grip.
Launched the same day as Canon's new EOS C300 Digital Cinema Camera, the Scarlet-X appears competitively specified and priced. Whether an amateur or professional film-maker should use the Scarlet-X or the lower resolution Canon C300 (or perhaps Canon's forthcoming 4K DSLR) will become an interesting debate in the coming year.
Dwayne Johnson Takes The Monster Hunter's Survival Guide
(Deadline) Dwayne Johnson has just signed on to headline The Monster Hunter's Survival Guide, Deadline reports. It will be based on the comic book series by John Paul Russ (and published by Zenescope), officially described as follows:
Monsters surround us. They're everywhere; on TV, in movies, they haunt our nightmares... But are they real? Do Vampires, Werewolves and Zombies really exist? And if so how can we survive against them? At last here is the comprehensive guide every Monster Hunter must have! Whether youre a weekend Bigfoot hunter or a hardcore Vampire slayer you simply cant afford not to own this book.
Johnson, who earlier this year starred in Fast Five, will appear in 2012 in Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, G.I. Joe: Retaliation and Snitch.
Digital Domain Declines 15.9% Post-IPO
(online.wsj.com)Digital movie production company Digital Domain Media Group Inc. (DDMG) declined nearly 16% on its first day as a public company Friday.
The company's stock closed at $7.15 a share on the New York Stock Exchange, down 15.9% from its initial public offering price of $8.50. It sold 5.5 million shares at a price below its expected $10 to $12 range.
The company's debut was the worst first-day performance since dating site operator FriendFinder Networks Inc. (FFN) lost 21.5% of its value during its May IPO launch.
Based in Port St. Lucie, Fla., Digital Domain Media provides computer-generated animation and digital effects for movie studios and advertisers, and converts two-dimensional imagery into 3-D effects, which generates substantially all its revenue. The company is also establishing an animation feature film business to develop original animated films, and a for-profit post-secondary training school with Florida State University.
Since it began in 1993, the company says it has established relationships with major Hollywood studios, working with each of the six major studios, and many of the industry's leading directors and producers. It has won three Academy Awards for best visual effects and four awards for scientific and technical achievement. Movies it has worked on include "TRON: Legacy," the "Transformers" trilogy, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "Apollo 13" and "Titanic."
The company says it is benefitting from increased demand for digital visual effects, including 3D content, in Hollywood films and advertising.
Digital Domain Media is the parent to Digital Domain, which it acquired in 2009. That subsidiary attempted to go public in 2008 before throwing in the towel during a difficult period for IPOs amid the global economic crisis.
In the first half of 2011, total revenue rose 39% to $61 million; it booked a net loss of $11 million compared to a loss of $6.4 million in the same period of 2010.
The company warns that it has a history of losses, and that the visual effects industry is highly competitive with rivals located in low-cost countries such as South Korea, China and India having access to a lower-cost pool of labor. A substantial part of its business relies on the success of films made in 3D, so it is dependent on that area of entertainment growing.
Happy Feet 2 Stumbles
(sfgate.com) "Happy Feet 2" stumbled, pulling in just $22 million over opening weekend. That's barely half what the first film did in its 2006 opening.
The comparison is even worse considering the original did not have the sequel's price advantage for 3-D screenings, which cost a few dollars more than 2-D shows.
Cronenberg: No "Fly 2"
(darkhorizons.com)A little while back "A History of Violence" and "A Dangerous Method" director David Cronenberg revealed that he has working on a script for a part remake/mostly sequel to his 1986 body horror classic "The Fly".
The original followed a scientist (Jeff Goldblum) who accidently crosses his DNA with a humble housefly. The results are disturbing, disgusting and twisted in a way you'd expect from the director of "Dead Ringers," "Videodrome," "Naked Lunch" and "Scanners". Yet it was also one of his biggest crossover hits.
Cut to this week and Cronenberg tells The Playlist that he completed said script and submitted it to Fox but they are "not wanting to do the project" presently.
Motherlode of Dark Crystal and Labyrinth Art Comes to New York
(io9.com) Faerie artist Brian Froud is one of our favorite illustrators of the weird and fantastical — but we're especially fascinated by his design work on The Dark Crystal. Now a new exhibition is opening in New York that showcases the work of Brian, Wendy and Toby Froud, plus some "lost" Labyrinth concept art.
Check out an exclusive gallery of some amazing Dark Crystal and Labyrinth art from the exhibition!
The exhibition Brian Froud: Visions for Film & Faerie opens Dec. 2 at the Animazing Gallery in SoHo, New York. In addition to all the Dark Crystal art, there's a site-specific installation — and Wendy Froud has recreated Kira, Dark Crystal's Gelfling, for the exhibition. Kira stands 33 inches tall and was sculpted using hair and beading from the original film production.
with a signing featuring the Frouds on Dec. 3, with some proceeds going to the Jim Henson Foundation. There's also a screening of The Dark Crystal, introduced by Brian and Wendy Froud, on November 20, and a special talk at the American Society of Illustrators on Dec. 2.
Here's the complete press release:
This December, Animazing Gallery will be presenting the first U.S. exhibition of Brian Froud's paintings and drawings, including original artworks from his published, international best-selling books and all of his concept drawings from Jim Henson's film Labyrinth. The exhibition will be open to the public daily. Animazing Gallery is located at 54 Greene Street (at Broome) in SoHo. For more information: 212-226-7374 or visit www.animazing.com
Brian Froud is regarded as the pre-eminent fairy artist of today and has redefined the image of Faeries in the 21st century. Froud is part of a long lineage of faerie painters and illustrators including Arthur Rackham, Richard Dadd, Walter Crane and Edmund Dulac and his work has hung alongside these exceptional artists - the greats of the genre - in museum exhibitions throughout the U.K. Froud's imagery; sensual, humorous and at times frightening, has rescued fairies from the Victorian nursery, to which they were relegated for so many years, and returned them to the dark, elusive and mysterious world of Faerie where they belong.
In November, 1998, Sotheby's "Realm of the Mind: Fantasy Art and Illustration" featured the work of such artists as; Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Bell Scott, Richard Doyle, John Anster Fitzgerald, Walter Crane, Simeon Solomon and George Cruikshank. Brian Froud's painting from Good Faeries/Bad Faeries was chosen for the auction catalogue cover.
With over 30 books in publication and over 8 million books sold to date, Brian Froud's best sellers include Good Faeries/Bad Faeries (Hugo and Chesley Awards), Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book (Hugo Award), the Faeries' Oracle and Lady Cottington's Fairy Album. His international best-selling book, Faeries with fantasy and Tolkien illustrator Alan Lee, published in 1978 and reissued in 2002 and again in 2010, is considered a modern classic and has sold more than 3 million copies.
Brian Froud has influenced a whole new generation of magical painters, book illustrators and filmmakers. Froud's landmark work with Jim Henson as conceptual designer on feature films The Dark Crystal (1982) and Labyrinth (1987), set new standards for design, puppeteering and animatronics in film and are, today, considered landmarks in the evolution of modern day special effects. Both films have achieved an international cult following.
The Animazing Gallery, NY exhibition entitled, BRIAN FROUD: VISIONS FOR FILM & FAERIE, will be comprised of original paintings of creatures from Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal, concept drawings from Jim Henson's Labyrinth and original material from the published Faerie books: How to See Faeries, Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book and Good Faeries/Bad Faeries.
BRIAN FROUD: VISIONS FOR FILM & FAERIE will be in collaboration with a site-specific installation by Wendy Froud and their son, Toby Froud; both renowned doll and puppet-makers. Toby was the baby "Toby" in Labyrinth and is presently a puppet fabricator and sculptor at Laika Entertainment, the celebrated studio specializing in stop motion/animation film and television.
Wendy is the fabricator of "Yoda" from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. She sculpted and fabricated "Kira" & "Jen" from The Dark Crystal as well as some of the Pod People, and sculpted and fabricated some of the goblins in Labyrinth. For this inaugural exhibition, Wendy Froud has recreated the Gelfling, Kira from The Dark Crystal. Kira stands 33" tall, and was sculpted using original hair and beading from original The Dark Crystal production.
Mentor of the Day: Chris Alzmann
(motivarti.org)If you’ve ever watched a major block-buster summer hit, you’ve probably seen the work of Christian (Chris) Alzmann at some point. (Be sure to check out his extensive list of credits at the bottom.) After graduating from Art Center College of Design, Chris began working for the Academy Award-winning motion picture visual effects company, founded by George Lucas, Industrial Light Magic (ILM) For over twelve years, he’s worked his way through the ranks and currently sits as a Senior Art Director.
In an interview with The Gnomon Workshop, Chris spoke a little bit about being an Art Director compared to a concept artist- “Well now [as an art director] it’s about designing for the whole picture. So you have to keep an eye on the production designer’s vision. For every design you have to art direct someone building that asset. Also depending on the size of the production you might have a crew of artists working with you that will need direction and schedules for their time. All of that and you have to produce a bunch of artwork.”
In both interviews with the SFGate and Gnomon, Chris expressed the need for young artists to develop strong “foundation skills like drawing, sculpting, perspective, anatomy, life drawing and painting. Learning software is great but there will always be new and better software to learn. It will always be changing. The basics will always be the same. Also, look at the world around you for inspiration and ways to set your design sensibilites apart. It’s sad and true, but a lot of great designs can get ovelooked if they are executed poorly. A portfolio or reel always stands out when the foundation in it is strong.”
Currently, Chris Alzmann is willing to take up to 2 mentees for our SPRING 2012 mentorship program and open to mentoring internationally. Chris is looking to help his mentee advance to the next level in their work, whether that’s improving foundation skills, design skills or just organizing a better portfolio. So if you’re looking to give general career advice for those looking to get into concept design for live action film or animation Chris Alzmann is your man!
'Immortals' Director To Commit A 'Killing On Carnival Row'
(latinoreview.com)'Immortals' Director To Commit A 'Killing On Carnival Row' Despite telling THR that he wants to tackle something different because "all everyone wants to think is that I want to do visual films," Deadline reports that director Tarsem Singh has signed on for something that sounds to be in line with his previous work, a film titled 'Killing On Carnival Row.'
Scripted by Travis Beacham, ('Dog Days of Summer,' 'Clash of the Titans' 'Pacific Rim') the film is said to take place in the futuristic city of Burgue that is very remincent of 18th century London. The inhabitants are a combination of creatures and humans. As the title implies, among them is a serial killer.
Of Singh taking the position, producers working on the film, Arnold and Anne Kopelson
said:
"I am thrilled that Tarsem will direct Carnival Row, which we’ve been developing over the past six years. His extraordinary visual sense and use of light and color can be compared to that of the great 16th Century Italian painter Michelangelo Caravaggio."
Big Screen Backs Tax Breaks for Game Developers
(theaustralian.com.au)IF Happy Feet 2 the movie is eligible for tax breaks then Happy Feet 2 the computer game should be eligible for something similar.
This is the thinking behind a campaign by the $100 million computer game development industry that yesterday received an endorsement from Screen Australia chief executive Ruth Harley.
Ms Harley told an audience at the Game Connect Asia-Pacific conference in Melbourne that the sector was being constrained by lack of investment that could be overcome with federal assistance.
A new report by PricewaterhouseCoopers says: "Over a five-year period from the introduction of the offset there would be an additional investment in the interactive entertainment industry of $146 million, of which $100m would come from foreign sources."
This would add $76m to the GDP and create 383 jobs.
Free trial
The Interactive Entertainment (Games) Offset report says: "Modelling indicates games developers deserves access to funding offsets, such as those available to film and television makers."
Ms Harley told The Australian the new data reinforces Screen Australia's support for game developers, as outlined in its submissions to both the Convergence Review and the National Cultural Policy. As a statutory body fully funded by the federal government, Screen Australia cannot lobby government but does offer advice.
Ms Harley said one way that game developers could be helped was by making them eligible for the tax offsets available to foreign film and television makers where the game was considered part of the budget.
If the game was not related to a film, the developer could be eligible for offsets in the same way post-production and digital effects work is eligible regardless of whether physical filmmaking takes place in Australia.
Film and television funding in Australia has always been justified by virtue of its economic and cultural impact.
Tom Crago, chief executive of games developer Tantalus Media, said there was no cultural imperative to game-making.
"Certainly there are games that feature Australian content and stories but we're trying to make games that resonate around the world," he said.
FX Tentpoles Exposed by Software Bugs
(zdnet.com.au)Hollywood studios could be exposed to serious intellectual property theft via basic vulnerabilities in the software used by the likes of director James Cameron and CGI house Lucasfilm to produce blockbuster hits such as Iron Man 2, Avatar and Star Trek.
A security consultant at Security-Assessment.com, Nick Freeman, was interested in exploring the holes that exist in the production process of his favoured form of entertainment, including software used to perform a range of tasks such as script writing, story boarding, CGI, rendering and editing.
In a simulated demonstration at the Ruxcon conference in Melbourne yesterday, Freeman showed how an end-to-end attack could provide access to a post-production film file.
"I took a wide sample, cast the net really wide to see how easy it is to find bugs in [the] film-making process," Freeman told ZDNet Australia. "And it was really easy."
"The bugs I've shown, if you chain them together to exploit different people with access to different parts of the network, you could be able to get to the end point."
After downloading software he identified bugs and found most could be easily exploited by corrupting the application's memory and forcing it to run code.
"A rudimentary bug like memory corruption vulnerability has been around forever and is well documented since the early mid-90s. It's definitely not new attacks, there's no mad ninja skills, pretty basic stuff.
"I took on this project as a way to broaden my skills in exploiting memory test applications and to learn something new, but everything I found here is at a beginner's level of exploitation.
"I can understand not having security awareness, but it shouldn't be this easy."
Full Story: http://www.zdnet.com.au/hollywood-exposed-by-software- bugs-339326524.htm
Motion Capture Perfs Under Review
(variety.com)British actor Andy Serkis, a previous SAG Award winner, has cemented a reputation for bringing emotion to his technology-enhanced roles.
When actor Andy Serkis approaches the security gate on a studio lot, he probably should have his photo ID ready.
Serkis may be the most famous film actor people don't recognize. He played Gollum in "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, the namesake gorilla of "King Kong" and, most recently, the chimpanzee Caesar in "Rise of the Planet of the Apes."
All of which should make Serkis the poster boy for motion capture -- the technique of digitally capturing actors' movements that become the basis for animated characters.
This year it will be hard to ignore what Serkis has achieved: His poignant performance as Caesar was pivotal in "Apes," and he plays a major role in "The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn," for which Steven Spielberg used motion capture to transform the drawings of Herge into stylized animation. These two uses of motion capture couldn't be more different.
Now the question is whether voters will consider motion capture performances worthy of awards attention.
"It's very gratifying," Serkis says about those who believe his work should be noted during kudos season. "People were emotionally engaged with Caesar as a character; he just happened to be an ape."
The actor admits, though, that "from an acting perspective, it's taking a while. For 'Avatar,' Jim Cameron wanted support for his actors, and I think that opened people's eyes. The biggest block at the moment is convincing the acting community that performance capture is just acting."
The Screen Actors Guild has embraced this view, honoring Serkis' Gollum along with the rest of the cast in its 2004 film ensemble nod for "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King." SAG now has a performance capture committee, chaired by Woody Schultz, whose credits include "Avatar" and "Tintin."
"I understand the confusion on the part of some actors about honoring these kinds of performances," says Schultz. "Especially when a character isn't human, it's difficult for people to recognize the acting."
Schultz notes capture technology was used in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," and Brad Pitt landed a lead actor Oscar nom.
Serkis sees signs of growing awareness. "People used to say, 'Andy Serkis lent his movements to Gollum,' and now they say 'Andy Serkis played Caesar.' That's a significant leap," he says. But greater acceptance among actors voting on acting honors may ultimately depend upon more of them getting comfortable with the process, especially as motion capture becomes physically less cumbersome.
On "Apes," the actors were captured by motion capture cameras right alongside film cameras, which Serkis thinks makes the process easier.
"Every single moment was crafted by actors on a live-action set, so we could capture the intensity of a scene," he recalls. "That's becoming more of an industry standard now. I'm currently doing 'The Hobbit,' and actors are coming on set and knocking performances out of the park."
When it comes to parsing eligibility for awards, there will be continued debates about what part of a character's performance is actor-driven and what part is "authored" by animators.
"It's a slippery slope," says Richard Edlund, longtime member of the AMPAS board of governors and of its VFX branch. "Motion capture is always tweaked by animators, sometimes to a great extent, but if it's a character performance, it's acting."
Stealing Demo Reels?
(vfxsoldier.wordpress.com)Apparently that’s what happened to a compositor/roto artist based in California after he found out an Indian VFX Crew was using his demo reel (which has been taken down) to market VFX services with the following message:
hi….
am thilak working as a compositor in inida and I have 25 person team in india.Am strong in rotoscopy and chroma keying and cleanups ,
and i do have an experiance of 5 years in roto and touch up .i have attached my demoreel and resume with this mail .so kindly have a look at this, contact me if u have any freelancing jobs…like roto or cleanup, looking forwrd for your reply
my contact number +919789855744
This is my online Demoreel link
http://vimeo.com/24981689
regards
I find this impossible to believe. Afterall as we all know VFX has left California to all go to India and why would anyone have to resort to stealing another artist’s reel when the work they do there is just as good and it’s cheaper too! ;)
But seriously, if you read the thread there are others who claim to have the same thing done to them by some artists in India and I’m not surprised. I once was going through demo reels where many of them came from India and found some of the claims of work performed to be flat out ridiculous.
Just a few weeks ago I did a post on a video that was marketing Technicolor India’s work for DreamWorks Animation. I questioned the claim of some of the work they did after some comments at the TAG blog about the inability to finish work in India. Now even that promotional video was taken down.
What sucks about this is that is taints the work of legitimately good VFX artists in India.
Also what’s funny is that I’ve heard of a similar story of US artists stealing shots that they did not work on. An acquaintanceship applied for a job at a very large facility and it turned out he was using shots on his reel that belonged to one of the supervisors reviewing the demo reel! What’s crazy is he still got hired! I couldn’t believe it.
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