(begudestosca.com) Do you want yet another new flick based on the ‘Wizard associated with Oz’? Hopefully you’ve said yes, because another film is being cast onto the ever-growing pile. If not, put on those ruby red slip-ons and click your heels jointly until the wizard grants your current wish. (Though we’re not positive he has the power to wipe out Hollywood!)
Variety reports which Mike Johnson, who co-directed ‘Corpse Bride’ alongside Tim Burton, will helm a stop-motion/CG film named ‘Oz Wars’ for Vanguard Films. Written by Take advantage of Moreland and Athena Gam, this is another re-jiggling from the Oz story. This time, Dorothy gets caught up in a whirlwind regarding warrior witches, black magic, martial arts and monsters against a contemporary backdrop.
Vanguard head Bob Williams says the film is going to be for kids and adults, the world of Oz reimagined using stop-motion to create a globe that’s dark, slick, attractive and dangerous. According to him or her, the film will also be able to be whipped up at an unprecedentedly economical cost point due to fresh stop-motion software. That, naturally, signifies that this new project is pretty close to a sure point. The only question that remains is whether or not Johnson has the same achievement without Burton. ‘Bride’ is the only function film on the man’s continue, though it’s one that earned your ex an Oscar nomination.
But wait, there’s one more thing. This project will be, as previously mentioned, another Oz of movie. Usually when we supply a long list of battling productions, they’ll span over a year as dojos rush into different levels of development, but in The year 2010 alone we’ve had media bites for ‘Oz’ planning to struggle ‘Wicked,’ plus ‘Dorothy of Ounce,’ ‘Oz: The Great and Potent,’ ‘Surrender Dorothy’ and Robert Zemeckis tease with an all-out ‘Wizard of Oz’ remake.
‘Rango’ Win a Big Nod to ILM Singapore
(nscreenasia.com/) ILM Singapore contributed 25% of the VFX work to Oscar’s Best Animated Feature for 2012.
Singapore – The unique "photographic" look and top-notch animation by Industrial Light & Magic helped Rango clinch the Best Animated Feature at the 84th Annual Academy Awards held earlier this week.
Gore Verbinski's Rango is the director and ILM's first-ever animated feature. The company best known for its visual effects work previously collaborated with Verbinski on the blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. Each film earned an Academy Award nomination, and won Best Visual Effects with the second installment, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
Rango follows the transformative journey of Rango (voiced by Johnny Depp), a sheltered yet dramatic chameleon living as an ordinary family pet who, through a set of circumstances, is thrust into the hard realities of a Mojave Desert town called Dirt.
For a project of this scope, ILM adapted the traditional visual effects pipeline for an animated feature, and developed new tools to help create the look and feel of the film.
“It's our approach as live action filmmakers that gives this film such an interesting look, one that I don't think we've seen in animation before. We created everything in the world of Rango the only way we know how, with a level of detail, texture and lighting that we traditionally put into our live action films,” says Tim Alexander, ILM Visual Effects Supervisor.
While the bulk of the work for Rango was done at ILM's San Francisco headquarters, ILM's studio in Singapore also contributed to 25 percent of the movie.
Production work in Singapore ranged from modeling, to rigging, animation, FX, creature simulation, digimatte painting, lighting, compositing and rotoscoping and involved over 100 artists, technical staff and production support.
“One of the largest challenges for ILM Singapore was to assemble an entirely new team, most of whom had never worked on a feature production, and fast track them through an intensive training program to deliver the work within one year,” says Patrick Cohen, Singapore CG Supervisor.
The Oscar is the icing to the cake for Rango, after it took home five awards at the Annie Awards, swept the animated film categories at VES Awards and was honored with the BAFTA for best animated feature.
Source: http://www.onscreenasia.com/
Defend John Carter - Tweet For The Sequel!
Take a look: http://thejohncarterfiles.com/
Dan Aykroyd Confirms Bill Murray Won't Do Ghostbusters 3
(The Telegraph) Dan Aykroyd talked about this vaguely earlier this month, but he has now confirmed to The Telegraph that Bill Murray won't be a part of Ghostbusters 3, if the film gets made at Sony Pictures.
"I honestly don't know. At this point it's in suspended animation," he said when asked about the film's status. "The studio, the director Ivan Reitman and Harold Ramis feel there must be a way to do it, but Bill Murray will not do the movie. He doesn't want to be involved. He's got six kids, houses all over America. He golfs in these tournaments where they pay him to turn up and have a laugh. He's into this life and living it. I know we'd have a lot of fun [but] I can't be mad at him. He’s a friend first, a colleague second. We have a deep personal relationship that transcends business and he doesn’t want to know."
Aykroyd previously said that one possibility would be to recast Murray's role, but he adds that they are "not going to do a movie that exploits the franchise. The script has to be perfect. I'm the cheerleader, but I'm only one voice in the matter. It's a surety that Bill Murray will not do the movie, however there is still interest from the studio."
SIGGRAPH 2012 Calls for Real-Time Content
(animationmagazine.net)
CG animation confab SIGGRAPH 2012 is looking for cutting-edge Real-Time Live! content to be presented as part of this year’s prestigious Computer Animation Festival. Examples of accepted real-time simulations and graphics submissions include computer games, graphics & demos, interactive animation, simulations & rendering techniques, military, industrial or scientific visualizations , research projects, r eal-time art explorations , interactive data visualization and information graphics.
All content that is interactively controlled and rendered in real-time will be considered. Submissions must be able to be demonstrated in front of a live audience.
“Since its debut in 2009, Real-Time Live! has featured some of the most innovative work presented as part of SIGGRAPH’s Computer Animation Festival,” said Jason Smith, SIGGRAPH 2012 Real-Time Live! Chair and Digital Production Supervisor at LucasArts. “Each year the quality and diversity in real-time submissions showcases the best work occurring in the industry.”
The Real-Time Live! submission deadline is April 2, 2012. All real-time work will be reviewed by a professional jury of industry experts from traditional computer graphics, video games, and research organizations. Entries will be judged on creativity, innovation, performance, and most importantly, the ability to render in real time in front of a live audience as part of the Computer Animation Festival. The top selections will be played and demonstrated live on a PC or game console.
SIGGRAPH will take place at the Los Angeles Convention Center August 5 -9, 2012.
Paramount Mounts New Anim Project In Wake of "Rango" Oscar Win: "Spongebob SquarePants 2"
(darkhorizons.com)Paramount Pictures has announced plans to release a second "SpongeBob SquarePants" movie in late 2014, ten years after the first one says The Hollywood Reporter.
Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman made the announcement today confirming the project as the kickoff to their new animation unit which will produce one animated release a year. The announcement follows in the wake of the Oscar winning success of "Rango", the studio's first fully-owned CG animated effort.
An adaptation of Penny Arcade's science fiction comic "New Kid" is also in the works at the studio with Gary Whitta penning the script.
Pittsburgh Ready for Animated Closeup
(PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW)Major movie studios are cashing in with increasingly popular digital animated movies.
And Michael Kadrie believes Pittsburgh's zoetifex Studios LLC can join those Hollywood heavy hitters as he works to establish an animation production studio here.
"We're not going to be a little boutique animation studio," said Kadrie, who founded zoetifex and works as art director for a Strip District advertising agency. "We want to compete with Pixar and Dreamworks."
It's a bold statement. But a number of factors are working in zoetifex's favor.
Tax incentives are drawing producers. With more than a dozen movies shot in Western Pennsylvania in the last two years, the region is among the top 10 U.S. locations, according to the Pittsburgh Film Office.
Advances in computer technology and Internet speeds mean animation work can be done anywhere, and often at lower costs than in California.
A number of people in the industry who live in Pittsburgh or have ties to the region are supporting Kadrie's efforts.
And in a deal that further raises Pittsburgh's profile, 31st Street Studios this week announced it will establish in Lawrenceville the nation's only high-tech "motion-capture" studio outside Hollywood.
"The reputation of the city is becoming huge," said Todd Eckert, who will run the motion-capture studio and also serves on zoetifex's advisory board.
"I think the work that zoetifex is doing is timely," Eckert said. "It is another piece in a comparatively large puzzle. Maybe 10 years ago it might not have been a great idea, but today it's perfect."
The studio's history goes back to 2007, when Kadrie ran a design company and wanted to branch out into animation. He formed zoetifex and created a website as a marketing tool, he said.
In 2009, Kadrie began hearing from animators from around the country with Pittsburgh ties who had found zoetifex's website and were interested in moving home. With the help of some unemployed animators, Kadrie said, zoetifex created a demo for a New York producer who was interested in setting old radio broadcasts to animation.
While the project never got off the ground, the demo of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Birds" can be seen on the company's website and YouTube.
The experience and the large number of animators who were looking to work on movies in Pittsburgh convinced Kadrie he could create a studio.
"There was so much interest it sparked the idea to build a studio from ground up with artists," he said.
It has taken a few years, but Kadrie made a breakthrough recently by securing rights to several creative works that he plans to turn into animated features. Kadrie said he signed deals this month for the rights to two children's books by Michael Garland, a New York Times best-selling author, and to a concept album by 1980s metal band Queensryche.
The Garland books, "Christmas Magic" and "Icarus Swinebuckle," will be made into a television Christmas special and a short movie for the web, respectively, Kadrie said.
The Queensryche album, "Operation: Mindcrime," tells the story of a drug addict who's convinced by an underground movement to become an assassin. It would be a movie with a "serious, darker theme," Kadrie said.
And in addition to the feature-length movie, the "Mindcrime" rights also give zoetifex the ability to spin off a video game and popular soundtrack, he said. Discussions are underway with modern-rock bands to record updated versions of the Queensryche originals, he said.
The projects could bring Pittsburgh "close to 150 jobs for the next two, two and a half years," Kadrie said. This week, zoetifex hired Osnat Shurer as executive producer for "Mindcrime." Shurer was an executive producer for "Arthur Christmas," released last year, and previously worked in Pixar's shorts division, Kadrie said.
While momentum is picking up, he said, challenges remain, not the least of which is fundraising to find studio space, hire animators and purchase equipment. Kadrie has estimated it could cost about $2.5 million to produce the two Garland projects. "Mindcrime" could cost $20 million, he said.
But Kadrie and others argue the pricetags are significantly less than on the West Coast where high cost of living drives up the salaries of animators.
"Pittsburgh has all the pieces," said Alex Lindsay, who worked for Lucasfilm Ltd. and Industrial Light & Magic, the special-effects studio behind the Star Wars films, before starting his own production company Pixel Corps. in San Francisco. "What it will take is someone like Mike to spearhead it. You need somebody to create a flashpoint and that's what he is doing."
Walter Lantz Foundation Gives $540,000 for LMU Animation Lab
(PRNewswire) Loyola Marymount University will outfit its new Animation Lab with state-of-the-art digital equipment and technology, thanks to a grant of $540,000 from the Walter Lantz Foundation to the university's School of Film and Television.
The grant is one of the largest gifts by the Foundation to a university animation program, and will allow LMU students to use the same kind of computers, software and equipment that professional animators use in Hollywood.
"Animation has transformed from simple cartoons into a medium, language, and mode of thought that crosses multiple disciplines in the art of filmmaking," said Stephen G. Ujlaki, dean of the School of Film and Television. "This grant from the Walter Lantz Foundation will help our students bring the traditions of animation into the 21st century and beyond."
The technology funded by the grant represents a quantum leap beyond the inked and hand-painted cels used by Walter Lantz in the 1940s to produce the cartoons starring such classic characters as Woody Woodpecker, Chilly Willy, Andy Panda, and others.
LMU is the only film school in Los Angeles to provide university-level courses in pre-visualization and virtual cinematography, which is the use of computer-generated worlds and characters to achieve shots and camera angles that would be impossible with traditional moviemaking tools.
The equipment supported by the grant also includes computers for LMU's newly created motion capture stage, a 3D scanner, lighting for stop-motion animation, and upgraded and networked computer workstations that will allow students to collaborate with ease.
"We're proud to be able to support the work of LMU's School of Film and Television," said Edward Landry of the Walter Lantz Foundation. "There's no better tribute to Walter Lantz's memory than helping to train the next generation of animators."
DreamWorks Animation's Fourth-Quarter Earnings Drop Sharply
(latimesblogs.latimes.com)DreamWorks Animation saw a sharp decline in profit in the fourth quarter of 2011 compared with a year earlier, reflecting weak holiday DVD sales.
The Glendale studio reported that it earned net income of $24.3 million, or 29 cents a share, in the quarter, versus a profit of $85.2 million, or 99 cents a share, in the fourth quarter of 2010.
Revenue during the quarter totaled $219 million, down 21% from the same period in 2010, DreamWorks reported after markets closed Tuesday.
For the year, the company logged net income of $86.8 million on revenue of $706 million, compared with net income of $170.6 million on revenue of $784.8 million in 2010.
Part of the reason for the decline was that DreamWorks released two movies last year, "Kung Fu Panda 2" and "Puss in Boots," compared with three films in 2010.
DreamWorks recently announced plans to build a studio in Shanghai, which it billed as a landmark agreement with two state-owned Chinese media operations.
Oriental DreamWorks, a joint venture with China Media Capital and Shanghai Media Group in concert with Shanghai Alliance Investment -- an investment arm of the Shanghai municipal government -- is to establish a family entertainment company in China.
With an initial investment of $330 million, the Shanghai studio would develop original Chinese animated and live-action movies, television shows and other entertainment catering to the Chinese market.
'Harry Potter,' 'Hugo, & 'Captain America' Lead Saturn Awards Nominations
(hollywoodreporter.com)Warner Bros.’ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 and Paramount’s multiple Oscar winner Hugo led the pack for the nominations of the 38th annual Saturn Awards, the recognition given out by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films.
And in what may be a first for Woody Allen, the quirky filmmaker saw his time-travel dramedy Midnight in Paris score a nomination for best fantasy film and best writing from the organization that honors achievement in so-called “genre” movies.
Genre movies encompass sci-fi, fantasy, comic book adaptations and horror films, all of which were once looked down upon as inferior forms of entertainment but now form the foundation of Hollywood fare. Still, most genre movies are still given second-class status by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences
Potter and Hugo received 10 nominations each followed by Super 8 with eight and Marvel Studios’ Captain America: The First Avenger with seven. The Adventures of Tintin and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol snagged six nominations while Rise of the Planet of the Apes garnered five.
In the television categories, AMC's Breaking Bad received six nominations while FX's American Horror Story scared up five. Fox's Fringe, Showtime's Dexter, TNT's Leverage, HBO's Game of Thrones, AMC's The Killing and Torchwood: Miracle Day garnered four each.
The nominees in for best science fiction included Universal’s The Adjustment Bureau, Marvel Studios/Paramount’s Captain America, Relativity’s Limitless, Fox’s Apes, Paramount’s Super 8 and Fox’s X-Men: First Class.
The best fantasy film category includes Harry Potter, Hugo, Relativity’s Immortals, Sony Pictures Classics’ Midnight In Paris, Disney’s The Muppets, and Marvel/Paramount’s Thor.
Best horror/thriller film was very much a grounded and gritty category, with Warners’ Contagion, Lionsgate’s The Devil’s Double, Sony’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Open Road’s The Grey and SPC’s Take Shelter joining the more traditional horror movie, The Thing, from Universal.
The films fighting for the best action/adventure film awards are Universal’s Fast Five, Lionsgate’s The Lincoln Lawyer, Mission: Impossible, Fox and Lucasfilm’s Red Tails, Warners' Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, and Disney/DreamWorks’s War Horse.
For best director, the nominees included J.J. Abrams (Super 8), Brad Bird (Mission: Impossible), Martin Scorsese (Hugo), Steven Spielberg (Tintin), Rupert Wyatt (Apes), and David Yates (Harry Potter).
The Saturns are awarded in 19 film categories, nine TV categories and four in home entertainment. Also, Scorsese will receive the Academy’s George Pal Memorial Award “for his brilliant ode to the triumphant spirit of early cinema in Hugo.”
The 2012 Saturn Awards will be presented Wednesday, June 20, in Burbank.
The Motion Design Business Practices
(commarts.com) Motion design is a rapidly growing category of creative work. Motion components (both high- and low-end) are being integrated into online projects, television programs and commercials, feature films, games, applications and content for mobile phones and tablets, as well as three-dimensional installations and kinetic displays in public places.
This diversity of projects has led to quite a bit of confusion and inconsistency about motion design business practices and contract terms. To add to the confusion, the work is being done by people who have come from very different professional backgrounds, bringing with them different industry expectations.
FILM AND TELEVISION INDUSTRY
For years, it was the norm in film studios and television networks for motion design to be created by staff members. Employees were trained to use specialized equipment (for example, the Quantel Paintbox in the 1980s), and many of them were members of entertainment unions. The unions negotiate and enforce collective bargaining agreements that govern the hours, working conditions, minimum wages and benefits for members employed at companies that have accepted the agreements (usually referred to as “signatories”). Because motion design has not had its own union, practitioners have been members of related organizations such as IATSE Local 839 (The Animation Guild) or IATSE Local 16 (which represents a variety of stagehands and technicians, including many who create computer graphics). However, a labor organizing effort is currently underway by IATSE with the objective of forming a new union specifically for motion design and visual effects (VFX).
On film and television projects, a clear distinction is usually made between the production and post-production phases. The production phase includes preparation of all live-action footage, whether it’s shot on location or in a studio. Action that will later be combined (composited) with motion design is usually shot in front of a green screen. The post-production phase includes all editing and the addition of computer-generated graphics, animations and VFX. Post-production also includes preparation of the soundtrack and the addition of title sequences and end credits.
In the past, it was typical for major studios to do much of their own post-production. In recent years, however, most post-production work has shifted from in-house staff members to outside specialists. There is now an ecosystem of specialized post-production companies providing various services to the film and television industry, and it must be noted that some of the smaller companies involved in motion design blur the line between production and post-production. Creative boutiques often say that they can shoot and edit, as well as design.
ADVERTISING AND GAMES
The skills required for making feature films and television programs are also directly applicable to the making of television commercials. The traditional approach in the advertising industry has been for agency staff to develop concepts for campaigns, and then buy production and post-production from the outside. More recently though, as the overall creative process has become primarily digital, the trend is to do more of the work in-house. For strategic reasons, digital services are being more fully integrated into the agency itself—exactly the opposite of the predominant trend in film and television.
Lastly, motion design skills are also in great demand in the game industry. Most game development studios and publishing companies divide their workload between employees and a network of outside talent. Projects include major releases for consoles as well as the rapidly expanding category of casual games for smart phones.
COMMON GROUND
With so many people doing so many different things, we have to ask ourselves—what if anything do all of them have in common? For the most part, this boils down to two important things:
First is the use of a shared set of digital tools. Although there are still some higher-end systems (such as Autodesk’s Flame for compositing), technical advancements over the last twenty years have brought many motion design capabilities to the desktop. The current tool set includes applications like Adobe Flash and After Effects, as well as Apple Motion and Final Cut Pro. The steadily decreasing cost of equipment and soft-ware has made motion design affordable enough for more people to incorporate it into more projects.
The second thing that all motion designers have in common is the important legal issue of “work made for hire” (sometimes shortened to “work for hire”). This phrase comes from us copyright law. In most instances, it refers to original work made by an employee within the scope of his or her job, in which copyright ownership automatically belongs to the employer. However, it can also refer to original work made by an independent contractor or an outside firm, in which copyright ownership might automatically belong to the client. This is only true if the work meets very specific criteria—it must be specially ordered or commissioned, it must fit within certain categories of work (motion design fits into a category that covers work that is “part of a motion picture or other audio-visual work”) and a written agreement to that effect must be signed by both parties. (We’ll talk more about written agreements in just a moment.)
More:http://www.commarts.com/columns/needs-author-motion- design.html
70-Teraflop Supercomputer to Boost Animation Output in Taiwan
(gmanetwork.com) A new Taiwan-developed supercomputer is being eyed to help speed up the production of animation and special effects.
The machine is being developed by the National Center for High-performance Computing (NCHC), according to a report on Taiwan's Central News Agency.
CNA quoted Alpha Wang, manager of the planning and promotion division at the NCHC, as saying the supercomputer dubbed "Formosa 4" is Taiwan's largest self-built cloud-computing system.
Wang said the system uses a graphic processing unit (GPU) cluster and is located at the Tainan branch of the NCHC.
She said the machine is expected to come online in mid-June.
"Usually it takes about one year to finish the computation of some complicated animations and special effects ... Formosa 4 will be able to shorten the time and help companies introduce their works earlier," she said.
Formosa 4 costs NT$37 million (US$1.25 million), and uses a hybrid computing framework combining a central processing unit (CPU) and GPU to further reduce construction costs and increase energy efficiency.
It has an optimal performance of 70 teraflops (trillion floating point operations per second), nearly nine times faster than the 8 teraflops of Formosa 3, which was launched in August 2011.
The CNA said Formosa 4 was ranked 234th on the 38th TOP500 supercomputer list released in the SC11 Conference in Seattle in November 2011.
Render farm
The CNA report said the Formosa series has established a "Render Farm" platform to provide cloud-based animation and special effect rendering services for local film and animation industries.
Launched in November 2011, the Render Farm has also integrated a dynamic simulation system and animation software to cultivate rendering techniques for special effects.
"Some companies are using the previous generation cluster computer, Formosa 3, to compute their animations," Wang said.
Supernatural "A Winter’s Tale" Moves Forward
(darkhorizons.com)Akiva Goldsman's supernatural period thriller "A Winter’s Tale" at Warner Bros. Pictures will begin testing for its lead actors from next week in New York says Heat Vision.
Benjamin Walker ("Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter") and Tom Hiddleston ("Thor") are among several actors trying out for the male lead next week. The following week Lily Collins ("Mirror Mirror"), Bella Heathcote ("In Time") and Jessica Brown Findlay ("Downton Abbey") are all up for the female part.
The story is described as a sweeping drama about reincarnation set in the early 20th century. The male lead is a fugitive thief who strikes up a relationship with the terminally ill daughter of a man whose house he has broken into. A flying horse and a time-shift also figure into the story.
Russell Crowe is already cast as a ruthless mobster while Will Smith may cameo as a judge. The project marks "A Beautiful Mind" scribe Goldsman's directorial debut.
Meet Moonbot, the Tiny Startup that Won an Academy Award
(technology.plidd.com)At last Sunday night’s Academy Awards ceremony, a startup studio that makes animations, apps, and ebooks won the Best Animated Short Oscar for its film “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.” The 14-minute movie was the first from Shreveport, La.-based Moonbot Studios, a multimedia company that is making a splash far from Hollywood, Silicon Valley, and Pixar.
What began with three partners — well-known illustrator and author William Joyce, and industry vets Lampton Enochs and Brandon Oldenburg — has grown into a bustling company with 35 employees. The studio started with minimal funding, and that DIY spirit has infused both its aesthetic and its business practices.
“Everything we’re doing is bootstrapped and frugal, and seat-of-our pants in a MacGyver kind of way,” said Oldenburg, in an interview with VentureBeat the day after being nominated for best animated short.
From the $5 interactive ebook iPad app.
Part of what makes Moonbot unique is its tech savvy and the variety of mediums it embraces. Now, in addition to animated movies, the studio is creating and selling mobile apps, interactive ebooks, games, and old-fashioned paper books.
By starting with a story instead of a set end-product, the studio has more options for ways to package all the resources it creates. “It’s this gift we didn’t know was sitting there,” Oldenburg said of the “Lessmore” assets. “We just took a little effort and re-purposed things.”
The studio even puts on live puppet shows.
“Live audience interaction is great way to develop stories,” explained Oldenburg. The studio has tested stories and characters by building puppets and staging live shows for local audiences in Shreveport. “It’s this whole new revolution of handmade. Etsy and Kickstarters, they’re all underdogs in a way, but they’re also beautiful and pure in a way too. We want to continue down that path for ourselves.”
Naturally, the underdog studio picked an underdog town. Shreveport may seem like an unlikely place for a studio to set-up shop, but Moonbot’s founders were drawn in by great tax incentives offered by the state of Louisiana and the city of Shreveport in an attempt to bolster the local economy. It’s also Joyce’s hometown, and Louisiana is the setting for “Lessmore.” Louisiana is the third-largest state for film production in the U.S., following California and New York. While most of that business is focused in and around New Orleans, some is trickling into Shreveport and other Louisiana cities, where creative companies such as Moonbot are embraced.
“If you’re looking to create a startup, go someplace where you have a whole town to back you up. Here we’re the only fish in the pond,” said Oldenburg.
Moonbot Studios
Working outside of traditional production areas also has its challenges, like staffing; seventy percent of Moonbot’s staff have been relocated to Shreveport from other locations. However, it is working with two local universities on job training programs, and more talent could start moving to the area as the industry grows. Already, two of Moonbot’s mobile-app developers have ventured out and started their own engineering firm in Shreveport, called Twin-Engine Labs.
Moonbot may have won a huge award for a movie, but its business model isn’t that of a traditional film studio, perhaps because it recognizes movies aren’t where the money is being made. The company (which calls itself “An interplanetary creative expedition of story and art”) is half focused on fostering and developing its own intellectual properties, and half on collaborating with clients on the stories they want to tell.
“We are a story-telling company and we like to innovate in new ways of telling stories,” said Oldenburg. “Short films don’t make any money really, they just become calling cards for who you are and what you’re about.”
An Academy Award for your studio’s first film is quite the calling card.
Young Kiwi Jedi Dream Trip to Skywalker Ranch
(3news.co.nz) Easily one of the coolest and most surreal moments this job has afforded me thus far, was walking through the entrance of The Skywalker Ranch, for the very first time, the bronze wise Yoda looking down on me benevolently from his perch, as I began a two day adventure which included an interview with George Lucas and a tour of ILM at Presidio. It was EPIC.
So when the lovely Sue May, publicist at Fox, approached me with an idea she'd had, about taking a young Kiwi Star Wars fan back to The Skywalker Ranch, there was of course only one response available - when so we leave?!
Sue and her team suggested we mount a hunt for a Junior Jedi Journalist, who would travel to the ranch just as Fox prepared to release the Star Wars series in 3D, kicking off with Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, GENIUS!
So we searched far and wide, and found many a worthy contender - instilling in me an awesome feeling of relief and happiness that the force was indeed in good hands for generations to come.
Picking a winner was a tough job, and Juliet Glasgow was STOKED to discover she was it! From Auckland's North Shore this ten-year-old has to be one of New Zealand's BIGGEST Star Wars fans, seriously. She has been dressing in Star Wars costumes since she was three, and her parents are just as committed to the cause.
So, Juilet, her dad Matt and I jumped on an Air New Zealand flight bound for San Francisco (thanks Air NZ Grabaseat) and her adventure began. Here's her account of the trip, and her resulting 3 News story:
I really enjoyed making my audition video for the Junior Jedi Journalist competition. There were lots of neat entries! When Mum got a phone call about the competition, I was really nervous, but when she told me that I had won, I was so excited that I was actually going to San Francisco that I was jumping up and down in the kitchen! I was just so thrilled that I couldn’t even wait for one week and wanted to get started packing my suit case.
We arrived in San Francisco at the Ritz Carlton Hotel the day before the main Skywalker Ranch day. When I woke up I really started to realise that I was about to be going to Skywalker Ranch. We all got on a shuttle bus to head out.It was fantastic going over the Golden Gate Bridge and seeing all the neat things out in San Francisco that aren't in New Zealand.
When I arrived at Skywalker Ranch I was really excited to meet people who help make the Star Wars films. First we went to the gift shop at The Ranch and got some gifts for Mum and things for me and Dad. After that came the main part of schedule.
We went to see Matthew Wood, John Goodson and Obi-Shawn's demonstrations about each of their jobs working for George Lucas. They all really enjoy working at Skywalker Ranch, and I had a lot of fun listening to their talks (and learning about being a Jedi from Jedi Master Obi-Shawn). There were other kids from all around the world, and they all seemed to enjoy fighting with lightsabers.
After those demonstrations I practiced the lines that we had to film introducing my report. The cameras were set up to record us each on out on the deck looking out over the Skywalker Ranch fields and lake.
At lunch time, we even had a Star Wars meal! I had ‘Jar Jar Binks baguette’ for lunch. After that, all the junior reporters took turns asking their questions to Matthew Wood and John Goodson, while being filmed. I also got to fight with Obi-Shawn, an actual Jedi master. He explained to me about the "touch system" of practicing lightsaber fighting. If I touched his arm, he lost that arm... if he touched my leg I lost that leg, and so on. On the first round of lightsaber practice, the battle ended in a draw. On the second round I won! I took some time to ask him some questions about being a Jedi as well. The whole day was really exciting!
The next day I went to The Presidio. That is where Lucasfilm, LucasArts (who make Star Wars computer games) and Industrial Light and Magic (who do special effects for lots of different movies) have their offices and do their work. We had breakfast there first, surrounded by stormtroopers, and were visited by R2-D2.
Then we were taken on a tour of the offices and saw some really cool and interesting things like Han Solo in carbonite (as well as Jar Jar Binks in carbonite) and a model from other movies, like an upside down car from Jurassic Park.
At Industrial Light and Magic, there was a wall-of-fame that had posters from all of the movies that they had worked on, and photos of the groups of people that worked on each of them. After the tour we watched Episode 1: The Phantom Menace in 3D, in the Lucasfilm Premiere Theatre! It was so awesome that I wanted to watch it again and again (since I have been home, I have gone to see it a couple more times).
After the movie we went to get some lunch, which was all Star Wars-themed again. I took lots of photos with the stormtroopers there, and although it was a bit sad when it was coming to an end, I looked forward to sharing my stories and telling to all of my friends at school.
Out of the whole trip, my highlights included seeing the actual movie costumes at Skywalker Ranch. The staff had got them out of storage and put them on display for us. There was a beautiful dress of Queen Amidala's, one of her handmaidens, Gui-Gon Jinn's Jedi robes and Darth Maul's Sith costume.
Source with pics: http://www.3news.co.nz/Young-Kiwi-Jedi-writes-about-her- dream-trip-to-Skywalker-Ranch/ tabid/1182/articleID/244516/ Default.aspx
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