"Men In Black 3" Budget Runs $75m More Than "Men In Black 2"

(slashfilm.com)          That Men in Black 3 has had a very rocky road to the big screen is no secret, but a new report sheds still more light on exactly the kinds of problems that plagued Sony’s long-awaited sequel. According to The Wrap, star Will Smith‘s diva behavior was the cause of much of those troubles.

    Smith also had a set rebuilt in order to accommodate an improvised scene he filmed, according to two people involved in the production. The scene involved a telephone call between Smith’s character, Agent J and Tommy Lee Jones’s character, Agent K. Some time after Jones filmed his portion of the call, it was Smith’s turn. But Smith improvised quite a bit, and his part of the conversation no longer matched Jones’s. Smith told producers he wanted to see Jones on camera responding to the new material — a request that required the crew to rebuild the set, or at least a few walls of it — so Jones could film there again.

    On another occasion, early in the filming, Smith had the crew tear down a nearly completed set at Kaufman Astoria Studios because it “wasn’t right,” a person with knowledge of the project told TheWrap.

Sony denies that sets were rebuilt for Smith, but whatever the cause, the project’s multiple setbacks pushed its budget up to $215 million. While such a price tag isn’t entirely unheard of , it marks an increase of $75 million over the budget of Men in Black 2.

Men in Black 3 opens May 25, 2012.



Warner Bros Hunting For Multiple VFX Tentpoles to Replace Harry Potter

(ft.com)              Sherlock Holmes has been the subject of many a TV or film adaptation, from Basil Rathbone’s 1940s films, to the recent BBC reimagining of the Arthur Conan Doyle stories, to a new US series, which will feature Lucy Liu as Watson.

Yet none has scaled the commercial heights of Warner Brothers’ latest big screen effort. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, starring Robert Downey Jr and directed by Guy Ritchie, is on course to exceed the box office revenues of the first film in the series, generating $515m worldwide to date, with markets such as Japan still to come.

The film’s success – and the company’s other winter hit, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, which has also beaten the first film in the series, generating $240m worldwide – is music to the ears of Jeff Robinov, president of the motion picture group at Warner Bros. Responsible for authorising $2bn-$3bn of productions each year, he and his colleagues have the unenviable task of finding a substitute for the blockbuster Harry Potter series.

The eight films generated $7.7bn over the past decade but the series came to an end last year. “We’re not going to replace Harry Potter with any single movie – not unless we had a Twilight or a Hunger Games,” says Mr Robinov, referring to the hit vampire series and the hotly anticipated teen offering from rival studio Lions Gate Entertainment.

“Our plan is to expand our event movies,” he says, pointing to the release in December of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit, the prequel to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In July, the studio will also release The Dark Knight Rises, the final instalment in Christopher Nolan’s Batman series.

“We think it will take two movies to replace – if replace is the right word – the loss of Harry Potter on an economic basis,” Mr Robinov says.

The evidence of previous years suggests the studio will be able to cope. No Harry Potter movie was released in 2008 “and we had our best year that year as a studio, with The Dark Knight”.

Still, there is a certain amount of pressure on Warner Bros, which is part of Time Warner, to sustain the momentum it had with Harry Potter. Thanks to the Sherlock Holmes and Journey sequels, 2012 is off to a strong start, although few in Hollywood gave the latest Sherlock Holmes film much of a chance, after an opening weekend performance that was softer than the release of the first film two years ago. Yet it has performed well in each of the big markets – particularly the UK and China.

China is Hollywood’s fastest-growing market, with three screens being added a day, on average. It is about to become more lucrative still, thanks to a new import agreement between the US and China that permits 14 additional “premium format” films from international studios alongside 20 other non-Chinese films.

One of Hollywood’s favourite parlour games is guessing who will get the top job at Warner Bros when Barry Meyer, its chairman, retires at the end of 2013.

Mr Robinov declines to comment, yet he is known to be one of three executives in contention: the other two are Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner Bros home entertainment, and Bruce Rosenblum, president of Warner Bros television group.

A more pressing concern is the changing economic environment. Like its peers, Warner Bros has had to adapt to the industry-wide collapse of DVD sales, a tighter independent financing market and the slower than expected growth of digital distribution. It has responded by making fewer films. Four years ago the studio released 27 over 12 months; this year the number falls to 22.

“The goal is to get to 20 a year,” says Mr Robinov.

“I believe we can make fewer movies and still maintain significant market share and still be profitable. It’s really a balance issue,” he says. “But we will never pass on a good movie.”




Kristen Bell Heads Disney Animation 'Frozen'

(digitalspy.com)             Kristen Bell will lend her voice to the upcoming Disney animation Frozen.

Frozen is thought to be a CG adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen, with original songs including one song by Bell herself.




'Dr. Seuss' The Lorax:' Five Lessons from its Box-office Success

(latimesblogs.latimes.com)   

         Even for a season that has seen surprisingly strong box office, "Dr. Seuss' The Lorax" was an eyebrow-raiser this weekend. The $70.7 million that the movie took in domestically made it worthy of several superlatives -- among others, the biggest opening ever for a non-sequel animated film
Even for a season that has seen surprisingly strong box office, "Dr. Seuss' The Lorax" was an eyebrow-raiser this weekend. The $70.7 million that the movie took in domestically made it worthy of several superlatives -- among others, the biggest opening ever for a non-sequel animated film (a bit of a fudge given that the $70.47 million "The Incredibles" tallied was in 2004 dollars, but still impressive) as well as the biggest opening since July for any movie without the word "Twilight" in its title.

Among the lessons from this bounty are some obvious ones, like the fact that kids love cute, brightly colored animated creatures.

Here, then, are five things we might not have expected coming into the weekend.

Animated blockbusters need a spring or holiday date. Big animation releases have been creeping up the calendar for a while now: "Monsters vs. Aliens," "How to Train Your Dragon" and several of the "Ice Age" movies all opened in mid- to late March. But none of those opened as strong as Universal Pictures/Illumination Entertainment's "Lorax." And "Rango," which a year ago went out on the same weekend as "Lorax," tallied barely half of the Seussian film's total. In fact, every other animated movie to open to at least $70 million did it in the far more fertile May-November period, per Box Office Mojo.

Picture books are a mixed bag. They've been bedtime favorites for generations. But movies based on picture books -- whether the films are animated, live-action or a combination thereof -- have made plenty of people turn off the lights. In the last few years, movies such as "Where the Wild Things Are" and "Mr. Popper's Penguins" "have been commercial disappointments, while even Seuss' own "The Cat in the Hat" flopped back in 2003. It's not easy for a 90-minute film to convince moviegoers it's filled in the gaps of such books -- at least, it wasn't easy before "Lorax."

Politics don't sell. Few animated movies take a hit from even one political flank. "Lorax" got it from both sides. Liberals said its many cross-promotions (Mazda SUVs, anyone?) betrayed Theodor Geisel's eco-friendly message, while Breitbartians said the movie was a Trojan horse for Hollywood-flavored liberalism. Either one might have been enough to keep sections of the moviegoing audience at home. It didn't -- proving that, perhaps, if you're going to annoy an ideological constituency, maybe it's best to annoy its opposite too.

Voices need names. Animated movies never have been as star-studded as they are now -- Owen Wilson, Anne Hathaway and Johnny Depp have all toplined them, getting paid millions, as Chris Rock might say, for reading some lines in a booth. But though "Lorax" didn't exactly go for unknowns, it rummaged somewhere besides the movie-star closet: the inflections of Danny Devito, Taylor Swift, Zac Efron and Ed Helms brought the main characters to life. Of course, it helps that Devito brings this much effort to the role.

Animated movies don't have to be good to make money. And by good, of course, we mean well-reviewed. The modern notion that the two go hand-in-hand was introduced by Pixar and bolstered by DreamWorks Animation -- see: the phenomenal  94% "Up" scored on Movie Review Intelligence, the very good 77% of "How to Train Your Dragon," or even the solid 69% for Illumination's earlier "Despicable Me." Sometimes it's seemed that quality and dollars have been almost inextricable. That's now been disproved by "The Lorax." The movie garnered just 57.8% on Movie Review Intelligence and prompted New York Times critic A.O. Scott to offer, in a phrase that went viral practically the moment he came up with it, that the film was a "noisy, useless piece of junk."




Is There Unfinished Green Screen in the New Men In Black 3 Trailer?

(m.io9.com)              Is there unfinished green screen in the new Men In Black 3 trailer? You've seen the brand new MIB3 trailer, featuring Josh Brolin's spot-on Tommy Lee Jones impersonation — but did you catch the possible slip-up?

We think we spied a left over greenscreen lurking inside this trailer. or is it an empty fish tank with green water? We're not sure, so we'll let you decide.

Bad Ass Digest was the first to alert us to the potential goof up in the trailer. And if it's true, this slip is really just he tip of the iceberg of all of the potential MIB3 problems. Fingers crossed this production can pull it together, because wasting Brolin's excellent K impression would be a crime. Vote below...

Take a look:    http://m.io9.com/5890668/is-there-unfinished-green-screen-in-the-new-men-in-black-3-trailer




An Absurdly Cool Behind-The-Scenes Look At The Jurassic Park  Dinosaur Puppets

(io9.com)         An Absurdly Cool Behind-The-Scenes Look At The Jurassic Park Dinosaur PuppetsThe late great Stan Winston was one of the undisputed masters of cinematic effects. With his team of make-up artists and puppeteers, Winston gave such films as Aliens and Predator an otherworldly sheen that's been seared into the collective memory of moviegoers for decades.

And on the Stan Winston School's YouTube account, there are tons of behind-the-scenes reels of the dinosaurs from the Jurassic Park films. Behold amazing footage of the velociraptors and Tyrannosaurus hanging out casually with their human puppet masters.

Take a look:     http://io9.com/5890628/an-absurdly-cool-behind+the+scenes-look-at-the-jurassic-park-dinosaur-puppets




Dublin Animation Company Creates 50 Jobs for Disney Production

(thejournal.ie)           DISNEY HAS COMMISSIONED Dublin-based animation company Boulder Media to co-produce a 52-part series which will air in more than129 countries across the world.

Boulder Media is handling the series from animation through to post production and has hired 50 additional artists and animators to work on the project over the next two years.

The comedy series will follow teenager Randy Cunningham and his best friend Howard as they attend High School in Norrisville. While navigating their way through their difficult teenage years, the pair also find themselves protecting their school (and the world) from destruction.

Don’t worry though – Randy is armed with a magic demon fibre suit and the teachings of the Ninja-ing, an 800-year-old Ninja ‘guide for dummies’, when he takes on “monsters and madmen” who want to free an evil Sorcerer imprisoned beneath Norrisville High.

The star-studded cast includes Ben Schwartz (Parks & Recreations, House of Lies) as the voice of Randy, Tim Curry (Spamalot, Charlie’s Angels) as the evil sorcerer and Megan Mullaly (Will & Grace, Parks & Recreation) as Mrs Driscoll the science teacher.

Los Angeles firm Titmouse Inc is also involved in co-producing the 52 eleven-minute-long programmes. The show will premiere on Disney XD later this year.

Established in 2000, Boulder Media is a renowned production company which has received a number of prestigious awards, including a Chidren’s BAFTA for The Amazing World of Gumball.

Producer Anne Tweedy said that although the majority of the crew is Irish, the firm has recruited some of the best animators, artists and compositors from Finland, Italy, Poland, Denmark, England, Scotland, Spain and Portugal.

“We are fortunate to have a highly skilled core crew and we have found the additional crew is adding to our company’s strength in creativity and production,” she said.

The Walt Disney Company’s chief marketing officer said, “Randy Cunningham: Ninth Grade Ninja is our most global production yet. Driven by the team in London, the series draws on talent from both sides of the Atlantic to help create a world class show. We are thrilled to be working with the outstanding teams at Boulder in Ireland and Titmouse in LA on this project.”




Iron Man 3 Begins Set Construction

As the excitement surrounding Marvel Studios’ The Avengers continues to ramp up, another Marvel film has quietly begun setting up. According to ComicBook.com, Iron Man 3 has begun set construction in Wilmington, NC, with director Shane Black aiming to start filming in late April or early May.

The project is currently going by the code name Caged Heat, which could possibly be a reference to Luke Cage, or the 1974 women’s prison film, or something else, or, y’know, nothing at all. The completed picture is scheduled to hit theaters May 3, 2013.



The Hollywood Star – in a Virtual World

(thisisbristol.co.uk)              TO WATCH Steven Spielberg's epic War Horse, you would be forgiven for not believing that any of the movie relies on computer-generated visual effects.

In fact, you would be wrong, but it's this ultimate piece of cinematic slight-of-hand that means the film brings the career of Bristol University graduate Ben Morris to its artistic zenith. As visual effects supervisor on the blockbuster, the 42-year-old former Bristol student is understandably proud of the movie – the culmination of all he has learnt so far in a career that has seen him put his name to such cinema gems as Gladiator, Babe, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Golden Compass (for which he won a special effects Oscar) and the Harry Potter series.

      ​Films that Bristol University graduate Ben Morris has worked on include War Horse, top, The Golden Compass, above left, and Gladiator, above right; left, Ben, second from left, with Trevor Wood, Bill Westenhofer and Michael Fink with their Oscars in 2008 for Best Visual Effects for The Golden Compass

      Films that Bristol University graduate Ben Morris has worked on include War Horse, top, The Golden Compass, above left, and Gladiator, above right; left, Ben, second from left, with Trevor Wood, Bill Westenhofer and Michael Fink with their Oscars in 2008 for Best Visual Effects for The Golden Compass

He's certainly come a long way since graduating from Bristol University 20 years ago, with a first class honours degree in mechanical engineering.

When he returned to the city last summer to receive an honorary degree from his alma mater, it was as the master of his craft – a man at the pinnacle of his industry.

But back in 1990, he arrived in the city as a wide-eyed student with distant dreams of following a career in movie animatronics.

"I'd been one of those dreadful children who just want to recreate everything they see on the cinema screen," Ben laughs.

"I used to make little films with my Super-8 movie camera. The moment I saw Star Wars at the age of seven, I spent all my time making little models of all the characters and filming them with basic stop-go animation techniques.

"A few years later I tried to recreate the Empire Strikes Back in our Oxfordshire garden because we'd had a decent fall of snow and I couldn't resist the opportunity. I was obsessed with it all."

But this wasn't a flash-in-the-pan childhood fad. As a 17-year-old, the obsession for visual effects – or VFX in cinema world speak – was as strong as ever.

"I went to an event where animatronics experts from Jim Henson Productions were giving a talk, and as a cocky 17-year-old I stood up and told them how interested I was in the subject.

"Incredibly they invited me to come and see their studios. I couldn't believe my luck. When I went along I took some of the films I'd made to show them, and on the back of those, the company offered to sponsor me through university. I was so lucky.

"So I came to Bristol to study mechanical engineering, with a particular interest in the sorts of control engineering that I would need to make animatronic characters – it's a sort of engineering that is almost veering towards robotics.

"These days of course there are all kinds of wonderful degree courses in cinema special effects specifically, but back then I was intent on shaping the course to my interests. For my final year coursework I even made animatronic characters."

As he prepared for his graduation, Ben received another call from Jim Henson Productions that would change his life.

"They called and offered me a job making animatronic creatures for their films," he says. "That was my big break. Within a couple of years I was working on what was to be an Oscar-winning movie, Babe – making the animatronic animals; doing the work I'd always dreamed of doing."

In 1996 Ben moved to the Neal Scanlan Studio to work on Babe 2 in Australia. There Ben was part of a development team that built fully articulated and controllable puppets of pigs, sheep, ducks, cats, monkeys, mice and pelicans.

While Ben was working on Babe 2, there was increasing use of computer generated animations in the film industry. These computer animations were a growing competitor to physical puppets. Ben knew he had a choice to make. He could either hang on to the declining market for puppets or he could take on the huge task of retraining in the art of computer animations.

"I remember watching Jurassic Park: The Lost World in 1997 and it gradually dawned on me that the stars of the show weren't the puppets anymore – they were the CGI dinosaurs. That's when I made the decision to retrain.

"It would mean a lot of work, and a serious pay-cut, but I felt I was doing the right thing."

Ben was right to follow his gut instinct. Within a few short years the brave new world of CGI would take over the industry.

"I was lucky enough to work on Ridley Scott's Gladiator in 1999-2000, recreating ancient Rome using CGI, and I knew then that I'd made the right decision – this was the future of cinema." Since then Ben has continued to develop his craft – leading the world with the rapidly evolving technology.

"Each film I did I'd learn how to do something new," he says. "So with Gladiator it was about mastering CGI crowds and backdrops, then when I did The Golden Compass in 2007 it was all about finding a way to make realistic fur for the bears' coats.

"It's such a new technology, you push the boundaries a little further with every film.

"But when it came to War Horse we went the other way. Steven Spielberg had directed some of the greatest special effects films of all time, but with this movie he was clear that he this wasn't a showcase for special effects.

"On the contrary, the challenge was to do as much of it as we could without special effects.

"So a lot of the movie was about doing things the old fashioned way – with hundreds of extras and incredibly well-trained horses.

"Where special effects were clearly unavoidable – such as the scene where the horse gets trapped in the barbed wire – then I was determined to make it so life-like that nobody would know it was done with CGI. That was the big challenge, and I hope we got there with it.

"It's just a joy to work in an industry where you can push the boundaries all the time. The things I learnt as a student in Bristol have never left me, and I've been lucky enough to be able to develop on top of those basic techniques throughout my career."

â— Ben Morris returns to Bristol University this week to give a free talk on his experiences. The event, which is open to all, will be held on Tuesday at the Wills Memorial Building at 6pm. Admission is free, but you need to reserve a ticket. Call 0117 9288515.




Universal is Dead Set on Making ‘Ouija’ Movie

(m.latino-review.com)           Universal is insisting on moving forward with a movie based on Hasbro’s Ouija board game. The film was cancelled a while ago because of the price tag.

You see, McG was going to direct, but seemed to think the budget should be $100 million…

Seriously, $100 million for a movie based on a stupid Ouija board. Then again, they’re spending over $200 mil on Battleship, so what do I know? The new budget has been slashed by 95% to $5 million.

Michael Bay is producing with his Platinum Dunes buddies and Jason Blum’s Blumhouse. Recently Blum has produced low budget genre money makers like the Paranormal Activity films and Insidious.

I’m thinking the movie will play out like a hardcore scary Jumanji. Some dumb people don’t listen to some dumb creepy guy and play a dumb game that inadvertently opens a gateway for some dumb demons




Disneyland Paris " Le Visionarium " Making-of Documentary

(disneyandmore.blogspot.com)                The beloved Disneyland Paris attraction "Le Visionarium" is now an "extinct" attraction. Since the opening of the park in 1992, and until it was replaced by the "Buzz Lightyear laser Blast" ride, everybody loved it. The music score was one of the best ever written for a Disney attraction, the Time Keeper and Nine Eye Audio-animatronics were just perfect, and the circlevision movie was awesome - a special award to legendary french actor Michel Piccoli who played the best Jules Verne ever seen in a movie.

The attraction opened years later at WDW Magic Kingdom - it was called "From Time to time" but was less popular than it was at DLP. For an inexplicable reason, the music was changed, and i'm sorry to say that the new score was not as good as the original one who - literally - was giving an incredible epic energy to any guest exiting the DLP version. Today, the last place on earth where it is possible to see - i should say "live" the attraction is at Tokyo Disneyland's Tommorowland.

Today, we will have a closer look to how this great circlevision movie was made, thanks to a wonderful making-of documentary in three parts. Making-of documentaries of Disney attractions are pretty rare, we saw last week the one did for DLP Space Mountain "Shoot for the Moon", and this one is just as good. Enjoy it!

Full article with pics:       http://disneyandmore.blogspot.com/2012/02/disneyland-paris-le-visionarium-making.html




$700 CG Short "The Chase" – Now Online

(m.latino-review.com)          Folks, meet Tommy Vergara a self taught 3D artist and film nut from Chile. Tommy literally learned English from watching movies. Last year, he quit his full time job in advertising and with just a miniscule budget of $700, Tommy holed up himself up in a cabin located in Pucón, Chile and made his short film The Chase.

While living on tea, oatmeal, and soya for 6 months, Tommy completed the short, but it took actually 8 months to render the short’s 269 shots on a single Phenom II X6 six-core workstation. Tommy worked in Maya and After Effects, teaching himself rigging and character animation during the process.

VIDEO - Take a look:   http://thechaseshortfilm.com/



Digital Bloodshed - The European Film Subsidy Trade War

(vfxsoldier.wordpress.com)             Last week I touched upon what essentially is a trade war occurring in various states and provinces in the US and Canada. The same phenomenon is occurring in Europe.

While the UK offers US studios generous subsidies to do vfx and production work for feature films there, the animation and video game industry receive none.

The video games industry has been unsuccessful trying to lobby for subsidies as they lose talent and work to subsidized regions like Canada. As far as the UK animation industry is concerned, where does the work go as they too are unsuccessful to lobby for subsidies?

    “I know a couple of people who do a similar role to me, coming up with ideas for shows, who now just work out of LA. They’ve gone over there and they don’t bother knocking on doors in the UK any more.”

What’s surprising is that California’s thriving animation industry exists without subsidy. I believe the reason for that is agglomeration. We have a deep and large talent pool that has traditionally made California home for a very long time.

The Curse Of Harry Potter

Why are governments inclined to give their taxpayer dollars to US studios rather than home grown industries is beyond me but the subsidy war is not just a concern of mine. It is also a concern of the European Union which drafts film subsidy policy for various member states.

If you remember, last year the UK film subsidy was set to expire and was quickly renewed under the current EU rules until 2015.

This year the European Union will be taking consultations from those for and against film subsidies. One of it’s biggest concerns is the subsidy race and how this has benefitted US studios. Page 5 and 6 show how legitimate a concern the subsidy race is:

    the Commission had identified “competition among some Member States to use State aid to attract inward investment from large- scale, mainly US, film production companies” (ie, a subsidy race) as a trend which would require some refinement of the State aid assessment criteria.

    …

    Attracting blockbusters typically includes tax incentives and other measures to facilitate the production of these international feature films and television programmes in particular territories. The result is a potent mix of push and pull between international producer and locality.

    …

    such subsidies distort competition among European production locations. In these cases, the question is not whether the film will be produced but only where this will be done.

    …

    To the extent that this use of public subsidies in effect leads to competition with other Member States, this is detrimental both to the sector and to European taxpayers. It was not envisaged when the original State aid rules for promoting the European cinematographic culture were designed. Avoiding subsidy races is precisely one of the objectives of the State aid provisions of the Treaty.

Furthermore Joe Karaganis, a consultant on digital media policy, has submitted his own recommendations to the EU along with others. He has called the subsidy race the “Curse Of Harry Potter“:

    Territorialization may be a blunt instrument for achieving this kind of diversity, but such diversity strikes me as an entirely appropriate public policy goal.  Reasonable people will disagree about where/how to draw the line between the two, but clearly it should be drawn well south of the Harry Potter-level shakedowns described here.

    The biggest issue, ultimately, is whether European audiovisual culture can move toward a model that isn’t as sharply defined by subordination to Hollywood on the one hand, and by the cultural and institutional fragmentation of the EU market on the other.  There’s nothing new in this question, but the persistent failure to resolve it over at least two decades of coordinated EU/EC policy suggests that some rethinking of the state’s role in promoting culture may be needed.




Last Chance to See Stars of Creature Features

(stuff.co.nz)              The kids - and the engineers - will love this.

Growling and prowling dinosaurs, monster lizards, kangaroos, polar bears, werewolves and gorillas – all of which have appeared in movies – form the newest exhibition at Waikato Museum.

And if the reaction in Hamilton mirrors that at other venues it has toured, it will be one of the most popular ever seen in the city.

The exhibition – How to Make a Monster: the Art and Technology of Animatronics – is the work of John Cox's Creature Workshop and has taken Cox and his helpers all week to set up.

Cox, 52, won a visual effects Academy Award in 1996 for his work on cutesy pig movie Babe and said this would probably be the last time many of the exhibits would be seen outside Australia.

"When this has finished doing its tour, I want it to go to the National Sound and Film Archives [in Australia]. It should be kept," he said on Thursday, as he made the final adjustments to the exhibits.

Cox said the work of animatronics – which he has been involved in since leaving school in Sydney nearly 40 years ago – has now largely been surpassed by computers, meaning the skills needed to construct lifelike monsters and animals is now likely to be lost forever.

Instead of researching, drawing, manually sculpting, moulding and casting, graphics experts can now do it all on a computer.

"There are three sculpting programmes – ZBrush, Mudbox and Modo – and ZBrush is the one everyone's using now. It's digital clay, you don't have to sculpt the little things any more, you can just sculpt it straight away in the computer.

"I have a feeling that in about three years' time this may be renamed the history of animatronics because it really will be very old school."

Cox said the exhibition came about due to a number of factors.

"We could see the film industry was going into a bit of decline at the time and we had all these pieces getting dusty and deteriorating and we had a lot of people wanting to do tours of the workshop," he said.

"We couldn't pull it out just to show someone so we decided we could turn it into a very interactive thing to see how it was all done."

Waikato monster fans get their chance now with the exhibition opening today and running until July 15. Admission is $12 for adults and $6 for children, with family passes (two adults, four children) for $30.

The exhibition is the first in a series of monster-themed events at the museum.

Source with pics and video:           http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/6478515/Last-chance-to-see-stars-of-creature-features




Tippett Studio Tour

(etc.cmu.edu)            On March 1, we visited Tippett Studio in Berkeley. Tippett Studio was founded by Phil Tippett and his partner Jules Roman in their garage in 1984. The studio has grown significantly from its 20 some crew members to now over 200 animators, compositors, lighters and producers. It is an award-winning VFX studio and has brought revolutionary changes to visual effects in film industry. The tour begins with a brief introduction of Phil Tippett’s biography and a demo reel of the studio. We also got a chance to visit the workspace of the studio, the shop for building props and some of the stop motion puppets Phil collected.
Tippett Studios Tour

Group Pitcure in the lobby of Tippett Studio

Phil Tippett, a movie director and visual effect supervisor, has more than 30 years of visual effect experience in film industry. He has won two Academy Awards, 6 Academy Award nominations and 2 Emmys, all of which were in visual effects. After graduating from University of California, Irvine with a Fine Arts degree, Phil started his career in VFX as an animator in Cascade Pictures, Los Angeles.

In 1975, George Lucas hired Phil to work on stop motion scenes in the first Star Wars movie. He then worked as a lead of the animation team in the next two Star Wars movies. His work involved modeling, animating and character design.

Phil left Industrial Light & Magic in 1984, and founded Tippett Studio. His expertise in stop motion, anatomical modeling and rigging led him to win his second Emmy for his work in the animated documentary Dinosaur! He later joined Steven Spielberg in 1991 to supervise the dinosaur animation in Jurassic Park, for which he was awarded his second Oscar in visual effects. Phil successfully tackled the visual effects challenge in Jurassic Park by building a bridge between stop motion and computer generated animations for the first time. Because of Phil’s roots in stop motion, modeling and practical effects as well as his ability to develop new technology, he is regarded as a mentor by his colleagues.

Currently, Tippett Studio is working on animating werewolves in the Twilight series. Movies that the studio previously worked on include Enchanted, Smurfs, Matrix Revolutions and RoboCop.

Group photo:    http://www.etc.cmu.edu/siliconvalley/blog/2012/03/05/tippett-studio-tour/




Captain America Movie Props Head To Auction

(filmschoolrejects.com)              Hello and welcome to the Captain America: The First Avenger Auction! We are thrilled to be working with Marvel Entertainment to present this historic offering of items from the film.

Rarely does a collector have the opportunity to acquire items of this importance and provenance from a contemporary film, and this sale will feature over 200 lots, including virtually all of the iconic costumes, props and vehicles from the film. The selection showcases the imagination, incredible craftsmanship and imaginative technology created to portray the story of super-soldier Captain America, one of the most iconic characters in the Marvel canon.

Catalog of Props and costumes for sale:    http://bid.profilesinhistory.com/Captain-American-The-First-Avenger-Auction_as22585?ps=100

Pretty Cool - Johann Schmidt’s Hydra Cannon

Bid today:     http://bid.profilesinhistory.com/Johann-Schmidt-s-Hydra-Cannon_i12119923