(comingsoon.net)
M. Night Shyamalan is currently in pre-production on his latest, After Earth, which is set to star Will Smith alongside his son, Jaden. Shyamalan has been busy scouting locations for the project and, over the past week, has tweeted a few behind-the-scenes photos that should give fans a very, very early tease of what to expect when the film hits theaters on June 7, 2013.
Set 1,000 years into the future, the film (formerly titled One Thousand A.E) features a young boy who navigates an abandoned and sometimes scary Earth to save himself and his estranged father after their ship crashes.
Written by Shyamalan, Gary Whitta and Stephen Gaghan, After Earth is planning to shoot in March.
Take a look: http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=86099
Visual Effects Academy Bakeoff Buzz: Heart Trumps Hardware
(variety.com) Visual effects have long been used for spectacle: spaceships, disasters, superheroes -- the kind of things that inspire the term "movie magic."
In truth, though, that sometimes leaves vfx pros feeling like carneys outside an opera house, good for some casual amusement but not to be taken as seriously as the real artists inside.
Vfx artists love it when their talents are used for more ambitious pictures, or at least to lend some real emotional punch to tentpole spectacles. Pros' desire to do serious work that's taken seriously helped shape this year's Academy vfx bakeoff, and it's likely to shape the results as well.
Emotion, not technology, fuels the buzz this year. Even "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" vfx supervisor Scott Farrar, talks first about emotion when asked what he means to highlight in his bakeoff reel.
"Of course everybody thinks it's explosions and things and that's certainly part of it," Farrar says. "But we have important exposition and acting moments, especially from Bumblebee, who can't talk. He's my favorite character. He tells a lot with his eyes and nuances of facial expression."
In the bakeoff is Terrence Malick's elegiac "The Tree of Life," an art film mostly about Malick's Texas upbringing. John Knoll, who was vfx supervisor on "Mission: Impossible 4," observes "Tree of Life's" 18-minute "origin of life" sequence is "beautifully executed (shots) that represent a lot of unconventional thinking about how these things are made." And it doesn't hurt that "Tree of Life" is an ambitious work from an established auteur.
Another auteurist pic in the competish, "Hugo," is also a bittersweet exercise in nostalgia, and uses its vfx elements, including vistas of Paris and its vanished 19th century train station, to create a stylized feel reminiscent of magic realism. Its vistas of Paris and the other digital environments are the more obvious vfx, but Farrar (who is a d.p. by training) hails its "elegant" shot design.
"Rise of the Planet of the Apes" fits the more traditional mold of vfx pics, and the performance-capture tech behind it is only a modest advance from previous winners. But it's Andy Serkis' performance as genetically altered ape Caesar that has vfx pros buzzing. The tech behind Lola Visual Effects' "Skinny Steve" shots in "Captain America: The First Avenger" is no major breakthrough, either, but the impact of seeing star Chris Evans go from scrawny to brawny is new.
Sometimes the vfx contribute to emotion by being believable enough not to take the aud out of the movie. That's arguably true on "X-Men: First Class," "Real Steel" and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2." "Potter" vfx supervisor Tim Burke, says, "Our goal from day 1 was to make (sets and vfx) so integrated that the audience would never know it was a heavy CG film."
On "Mission: Impossible 4," there some obvious vfx, such as the blowing up of the Kremlin, and while Tom Cruise really did cling to the outside of the towering Burj Khalifa in Dubai, he did it with the aid of safety rigs the vfx team had to painstakingly remove.
But Knoll is especially proud of a simpler scene: The hallway sequence with a projector that fools a guard. "I love that gag," he says. "Even though it was not super complicated work, we helped tell an amusing story. It's one of my favorite parts of the film."
So this year, as the vfx race heats up, look for more talk about art and less about new technologies. As "Hugo" vfx supervisor Rob Legato puts it: "My stress is about how beautiful it looks and how beautifully it represents the artistic point of view of the movie. Does the picture inspire you in some way? If so, it transcends the artifice of how it was done."
Lucasfilm' s "Red Tails" Looks For $38M Open
(showbuzzdaily.blogspot.com)Opening in about 2,500 theaters, Red Tails from 20th Century Fox should average about $5,900 per theater ($14.5 million Friday-Sunday). The WW II action drama about the Tuskegee Airmen should gross about $38 million domestically.
The 10 Easiest Games Industry Jobs to Find
(develop-online.net)Today we bring you a guide to the 10 games industry specialties that currently offer the most employment opportunities, as selected by OPM Recruitment's resident expert and owner Kim Parker Adcock
OPM's 10 disciplines that offer the most opportunities for job-hunters
• UI Artist – User interface artwork, previously part of a 2D artist’s role, now incorporates genuinely innovative artistic methods to facilitate character or ancillary controls during gameplay. The best UI artwork is barely noticeable, functioning so naturally to the player that it becomes part of the games identity. Expert-level Photoshop skills are essential, along with an eye for detail and passion for this niche role.
• Tools Programmer – Creating the tools that other coders use to make the game, tools programmers are very rare at present. Working on pipeline content, experience in the games industry is lacking, with a general skill shortage across the discipline. Programmers in general are thin on the ground and senior and lead level programmers with managerial experience particularly scarce, so if you fit the mould you’ll likely have your pick of studios to work for.
• Cloud Engineer – Computers are ever-changing and if anything was hailed as the future of gaming in 2011, it was cloud computing. Anyone with the skills in place to build this technology into products is going to be in high demand, so by training in this area, you’ll be making yourself highly employable. Few jobs are future-proof, but in a rapidly growing industry such as games development, the new technological wave is a cloud.
• Social Games Producer – If cloud computing is the long-term future, then the present is very much about social gaming. Growing year-on-year consistently in recent times, experienced production management of social games (for facebook or other social gaming platforms) is in huge demand. Developing either original content or transferring existing IPs into the social gaming arena is a rare quality to have, and you’ll have many great opportunities to choose from if you have experience.
• VFX Artist – Creating the in-game visual effects has become one of the most sought-after skills in the games industry, with studios demanding the very best explosions, elemental effects and illusions to bring their game to life. With VFX Artists in the games industry in short supply, studios are considering those with experience in another field such as film or television, so there has never been a better time to get involved in this exciting area of work.
• Level Designer – Level Designers have long been in very high demand, with those designing the map of a game world one of the key hires for any team. Working very closely with both the art and programming teams, this position demands excellent technical skills, combined with a creative eye that is able to bring to fruition the artistic vision of the project director.
• Audio Programmer – Programming seamless audio is crucial to the enjoyment of every game, with tension, atmosphere and tone all held together by this dedicated skill. Specialising within audio, commonly following qualification in computer science studies, the role has a close link to gameplay programming and is an integral part of a games development studio. Senior audio programmers who are open on location would attract interest from numerous studios.
• Data Analyst – A new skill to the games industry, this role is coming up more and more, with a lot of studios employing data analysts to research the market for their games. Also conducting strategic planning exercises and working data into influential figures, the role appeals to those who are strong in mathematics but with an analytical mindset, with experience is more important than specific qualifications.
• Brand Manager. Growing a studio brand is key to the sale of any game, and with clients focused on product management for many years, a creative brand manager will ensure all their products are widely known. Growing the studio’s name and reputation by running online and other marketing campaigns, this idea-driven employee will oversee that process from start to finish.
• Technical Animators – One of the key personnel in the animation team is the technical animator. Ideally experienced in C++ and with a keen eye for the movement of the in-game characters, technical animators provide the link between programming and art. Fluid, realistic animation boosts any products gameplay and has been present in every successful computer game in recent history.
Our daily 'New Year, New Jobs' series of articles are extracted from the forthcoming February issue of Develop magazine, which boasts an essential compendium of advice, tips and tricks on getting a new job and improving your employment prospects. The same issue will bring you all the results from our sweeping games industry Salary Survey. Check back with Develop Online every day this month for more.
Kodak Files for Bankruptcy
(forums.cgsociety.org)Eastman Kodak, the company that invented the hand-held camera, has filed for bankruptcy protection.
The move gives the company time to reorganise itself without facing its creditors, and Kodak said that it would mean business as normal for customers.
The company has recently moved away from cameras to refocus on making printers, to stem falling profits.
The 133-year-old firm has struggled to keep up with competitors who were quicker to adapt to the digital era.
"Kodak made all its money from selling film, then the digital camera came along and now no-one's buying film. It's not like they didn't see it coming. Kodak hesitated because they didn't want to eviscerate their business," said Rupert Goodwins, editor of technology website ZDNet.
Announcing the move to seek bankruptcy protection, Antonio Perez, Kodak's chairman and chief executive, said: "The board of directors and the entire senior management team unanimously believe that this is a necessary step and the right thing to do for the future of Kodak."
The company said it had already arranged a $950m (£615m) credit facility from Citigroup.
The bankruptcy protection move by Kodak affects its operations and companies in the US, but the company said its non-US subsidiaries were not included in the move and would continue to operate as usual.
Continue reading the main story
Kodak moments
Kodak box camera 1950
* Kodak founder George Eastman produced the first camera film in rolls in 1883
* The firm Kodak is set up in 1888 and launches the first consumer camera in 1888 with the slogan: "You press the button, we do the rest"
* In 1900 Kodak introduces a consumer camera for $1 called the Brownie, which goes on to become a best-seller in America
* In 1969 a Kodak camera is used by astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong during the first Moon landing
* Kodak claims to have invented the world's first digital camera in 1975. It had a resolution of 0.1 megapixels; the camera was the size of a toaster
* Your Kodak moments
Its shares were suspended following the announcement. They last traded at 36 cents per share.
Sci-fi Thriller "The Side Effect" To Experiment On Liv Tyler
(Deadline) Ti West has found his next leading lady in the form of Liv Tyler, Deadline reports. She'll headline his upcoming sci-fi thriller, The Side Effect.
Tyler will play Catherine Rigby, an outer space test subject for a pharmaceutical company that, after taking a new drug, mysteriously becomes pregnant and has to deal with the mounting fears of what has really transpired.
West, known for horror entries like The House of the Devil and, most recently, The Innkeepers, is one of several directors contributing to the upcoming anthology films V/H/S and The ABCs of Death. Tyler, meanwhile, recently starred in Super and The Ledge.
Call of Duty Game Reaches $1 Billion In 16 days, Faster Than Cameron’s Avatar
(singularityhub.com)Modern Warfare 3 (MW3), the eighth in the Call of Duty series, made an astonishing $400 million in sales in the first 24 hours after it launched on November 8, 2011. Furthermore, Activision recently announced that the first-person shooter game became the fastest entertainment product to hit $1 billion in global sales. Hitting that target in 16 days, MW3 edged out the Hollywood film Avatar, which previously accomplished the same feat in 17 days. Activision’s press release drew other parallels between Call of Duty and movie franchises. First, it pointed out the decline in box office revenue last year, although recent data from the NPD group shows video game sales down 8% from 2010 (and yet app sales are skyrocketing…1.2 billion apps downloaded worldwide in the last week of 2011. What?!?!?). Then, it drew parallels between the Call of Duty game series and movie franchises like Harry Potter, Star Wars, and the Lord of the Rings. Even though Activision’s press release was short and to the point, in between the lines was a message to Hollywood: video games are coming to claim the top spot on all of entertainment’s leaderboards.
Consider the recent global projections from PricewaterhouseCoopers about the entertainment industry. The film industry made $84 billion in 2010. Thanks to 3D, Blu-ray, and broadband streaming to electronic devices, the firm projects that the movie industry will grow 6.1% annually to $113 billion in 2015. In that same window of time, video games, which made $56 billion in 2010, are expected to see 8.2% annual growth to $82 billion. This means that the video game industry is growing at a faster rate and will eventually catch up to film, if nothing else stays the same (like Hollywood being able to draw people in as TV’s become more sophisticated).
L.A. to Board the Starship Enterprise for Another Trip
(latimesblogs.latimes.com)"Star Trek" is once again beaming down to Los Angeles.
After months of production delays, the sequel to the 2009 hit science fiction film is slated to begin filming next week, a person familiar with the project said.
As with the previous movie, the 3-D sequel will be shot in the L.A. area, primarily on a sound stage at Sony Pictures Entertainment, where crews have rebuilt a set for the bridge of the Enterprise spaceship, and various locales around the county. The production will employ at least 600 cast and crew members.
Few big-budget studio pictures like "Star Trek" still shoot in L.A. because of the scores of attractive film tax credits offered in other states and countries. California's film tax credit excludes movies costing more than $75 million. The previous "Star Trek" film cost about $140 million to produce.
But director J.J. Abrams prefers to film locally (notwithstanding his recent thriller "Super 8," which was shot mainly in West Virginia), and made ample use of diverse locations throughout Southern California for the last "Star Trek" film.
Those sites included the Budweiser Brewery in Van Nuys, Dodger Stadium, Long Beach City Hall, the Marine Corps Air Station in Tustin and the Vasquez Rocks park in Agua Dulce. The movie revived Paramount's long-running "Star Trek" movie franchise, generating $383 million in worldwide ticket sales.
The new film, which will take at least 12 weeks to shoot, is due out in May 2013. It will see the return of actors Chris Pine in the role of Capt. James T. Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock, along with Anton Yelchin (Chekov), Zoe Saldana (Uhura), Simon Pegg (Scotty), John Cho (Hikaru Sulu) and Karl Urban (Bones). The new cast members are Alice Eve, Benedict Cumberbatch and Peter Weller.
A spokeswoman for Paramount, which is also producing the film with Abrams' company Bad Robot and David Ellison's Skydance, declined to comment.
China Continues Offering Tax Incentives to Animation Industry
(hina-briefing.com) As part of its support for emerging cultural industries, China’s Ministry of Finance and State Administration of Taxation recently announced their intentions to continue the favorable value-added tax (VAT) and business tax (BT) treatment to the animation industry.
According to the “Circular on VAT and BT Policies that Support the Development of the Animation Industry (caishui [2011] No.119)” released on December 27, 2011, qualified animation developers can enjoy a VAT refund and a reduced BT rate.
VAT treatment
For an animation enterprise that is a VAT general taxpayer and sells self-developed animation software, VAT shall be charged at the rate of 17 percent, but the part of VAT that exceeds 3 percent of the taxpayer’s actual tax burden shall be refunded upon collection.
In addition, the export of animation software shall be exempt from VAT.
In order to gain eligibility for the favorable VAT treatment, the aforementioned animation software products shall meet the qualifications specified in the “Circular on VAT Policies for Software Products (caishui [2011] No.100).”
"Hancock" Sequel Greenlight A Matter Of Timing
(latino-review.com)Without Will Smith in the lead, who knows what would have become of ‘Hancock,’ a film that dared to venture into superhero cinema without the backing of either of the two big boys in the game: Marvel or DC. But Smith was in the lead as a drunken, crude, but good-hearted demi-god, which propelled the film to success, bringing in over $624 million at the worldwide box office on its $150 million budget.
Numbers like that usually read “immediate sequel” to film studios, but the thing with Smith is that he can touch just about anything and make a killing from audiences. ‘I, Robot’ did well for Christ’s sake, and who here would remember that were it not for IMDB?
The director of ‘Hancock,’ Peter Berg feels that there will be more adventures with the character down the line, however. In a brief statement to Comic Book Movie, he said:
“We’ve been talking about the sequel between us, Will Smith, [producers] Michael Mann and Akiva goldman and myself. We’re all interested, but we literally just have trouble getting into the same room at the same time. We did have a series of meetings last year and started to hash out an idea for sequel — and Will Smith actually had the idea — so I think it will happen, it’s just a question of timing.“
Optimism is a running theme in Hollywood. No matter how obscure, or in many cases unsuccessful, a project is, those involved always see it spawning a billion dollar franchise down the line.
So, what do you think: will ‘Hancock’ make a return, or was that a one-off for Smith? And is the character even worthy of a sequel?
Berg’s upcoming film, ‘Battleship’ hits theaters on May 18, 2012. As for Smith, he has ‘Men in Black III’ coming out the week after on May 25.
SIGGRAPH Conference Returns to Anaheim and Vancouver
(cgsociety.org) (Chicago, IL) –SIGGRAPH, the world’s premier conference on computer graphics and interactive techniques, announces site selections for its 2013 and 2014 North American conferences.
SIGGRAPH 2013 plans to return to Anaheim, California, 21-25 July, to celebrate the 40th International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques alongside thousands of research scientists, gaming experts and developers, filmmakers, students, the production community and academics worldwide. Mk Haley of Disney Research, Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University has been named SIGGRAPH 2013 Conference Chair. She will celebrate her 25th year with SIGGRAPH, fulfilling many volunteer roles during this time, including Student Volunteer Chair, Emerging Technologies Chair, Director of Communications for the Executive Committee, and SIGGRAPH 2011 Director.
After SIGGRAPH 2011 broke Vancouver’s previous all-time conference attendance records, it has become one of the most memorable SIGGRAPH conference cities. Due to this overwhelming attendance and community support, SIGGRAPH 2014 will return to Vancouver for the 41st International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, 10-14 August 2014. Dave Shreiner, Director of Graphics Technology at ARM, Inc, will serve as SIGGRAPH 2014 Conference Chair. Shreiner has been an active member in the SIGGRAPH community for the past 25 years as a presenter and volunteer (SIGGRAPH 2006 Courses Chair and SIGGRAPH 2009 Director of Knowledge Transfer).
Pacific Rim: When a Giant Came for Dinner
(slam.canoe.ca0TORONTO -- For the record, when Robert Maillet, a.k.a. Kurrgan, came to dinner, he did not eat us out of house and home.
In fact, he ate a normal portion of beer-can chicken, fries, and veggies.
That's good, because we didn't plan on entertaining a giant for supper.
Here I was thinking that the highlight of my day would be meeting "The Entertainer" Eddie Shack at a hockey card show, dragging my five-year-old son along to kickstart his interest in collecting.
Yet, on our way home, I was stunned to see Maillet at the Runnymede subway station in Toronto's west end.
I'd met him a few times over the years, and he certainly knows SLAM! Wrestling and our regular Montreal writer Yves Leroux.
But what was a 6-foot-10, 300-pound wrestler-turned-actor doing at my subway station?
Turns out he was going to Wal-Mart on his day off from shooting the new Guillermo Del Toro movie, Pacific Rim, here in Toronto. Maillet had been instructed by his wife back in Buctouche, New Brunswick, to hunt down some unique scrapbooking goodies.
"Red Tails" 1,600 VFX Shots Couldn’t Have Been Made Till Today
(expressnightout.com)Cuba Gooding Jr. has played a Tuskegee Airman twice — once in the 1995 HBO movie named for the unit of African-American pilots, and now in “Red Tails,” a new, George Lucas-produced World War II aerial adventure. But that doesn’t mean Gooding likes planes.
“You gotta have a stomach for that,” he says. “I have a weak stomach.” He recalls being taken up in a vintage plane while making “Tuskegee Airmen” and nearly blacking out. “I’m not looking to get my pilot’s license — let’s put it that way,” he says.
Gooding and “Red Tails” director Anthony Hemingway made a stop in D.C. to promote the film, in theaters Friday. One advance viewing here was particularly special.
“We had a screening at the White House,” the Gooding says, “and everybody was moved. We had real Airmen who couldn’t speak afterwards because they were so emotional.”
The film follows a fictionalized crew of Tuskegee Airmen — the first African-American aviators in the U.S. military, who fought both American racism and the German air force.
“Red Tails” is a group effort, but the money is all Lucas’. He put an estimated $100 million into the project, developed over more than 20 years without Hollywood studio support. Gooding says the long delay actually benefited the movie, which features about 1,600 visual-effects shots.
“George likes to say it couldn’t have been made till today,” says Gooding, “because it needed the technology he has now. So people would actually feel like they were in the dogfight scenes.”
Hemingway admits that he wasn’t a “Star Wars” fan as a kid, and both he and Gooding cite Westerns as their model for “Red Tails.” The director says that years of watching cowboy movies helped him focus the story on a small band of fighters who tackled both physical peril and cultural adversity.
“When you try to go too large, it becomes confusing,” Hemingway notes. “There are so many men, so many stories. It took time to scale it down.”
The characters are all composites, Gooding explains, because Lucas preferred mythic figures. “He didn’t want to make a movie about victims,” he says. “He wanted to make a movie about heroes.”
France a Moving Force in Animation That is Not Just for Children
(thenational.ae)In the world of animation, it tends to be Hollywood-produced projects that rule the roost. Industry juggernauts make sure their computer-animated efforts are the talk of the film industry every year and, aside from the occasional upstart (such as Britain's Aardman Animation) it remains a battle between America's Disney-Pixar and DreamWorks Animation to move the format forward.
Over the past few years, however, one country has emerged as an interesting alternative to these massive franchises. Since the turn of the century, French animation has begun to gain momentum with audiences, creating word of mouth that has seen them win some top industry accolades and providing cinemagoers young and old with a new alternative, thanks to bringing back some old techniques.
But who are the leading names in this revolution, and where is it going? Tomorrow sees the release of A Monster in Paris in UAE cinemas, a French production that boasts all of the high-tech modifications of a Hollywood blockbuster: it is computer-animated, presented in 3D and features a noted voice cast in the French singer Vanessa Paradis, who is Johnny Depp's long-time girlfriend, and Danny Huston, a regular in big-budget productions such as Wolverine.
This film marks a shift in perception from most movies from France: instead of providing a uniquely French perspective or motif, A Monster in Paris feels accessible, and indeed is designed to be marketed to audiences outside France. This accessibility is thanks to the experience of the man calling the shots - the director, Bibo Bergeron, worked as an animator on several films for the big American animation studios, with credits including Space Jam, The Iron Giant and DreamWorks' Bee Movie starring the voices of Jerry Seinfeld and Renée Zellweger, which Bergeron directed.
While this family-friendly, marketable output is the end result of France's success in this field, what has distinguished it from other countries in the past decade has been the ability to produce animated movies that can also tell a much more adult story.
The prime example of this was Persepolis, the 2007 comic book adaptation telling the story of an Iranian girl living in the midst of a revolution in her country. Directed by the Iranian author of the comic, Marjane Satrapi, alongside the French filmmaker Vincent Paronnaud, the film managed to convert Satrapi's personal experiences into a story that is both visually spectacular and informative. An adult animation that tackles timely world issues, Persepolis has been hailed as one of the best non-English language films ever, winning the Jury Prize at that year's Cannes Film Festival. Indeed, the popularity of the film was such that the English translation attracted voice roles from big names such as the Oscar-winners Sean Penn and Gena Rowlands.
In the middle of this revolution stands a filmmaker who manages to create a happy medium between all of these factors: the Scotland-based French filmmaker Sylvain Chomet. Using traditional hand-drawn techniques, he has produced two celebrated and award-winning movies that manage to balance adult themes with a childlike sense of wonder and spectacle.
After launching himself on to the world stage with his first film, 2003's The Triplets of Belleville, it was the follow-up to this success that displays the rich mix of influences that exist within the work of Chomet and his contemporaries. His most recent, 2010's The Illusionist, was a heartbreaking tale of a late 1950s vaudevillian-style magician who finds himself out of work in his home city of Paris, and travels to Britain where he hopes to find more success.
While also a love note to his adopted city of Edinburgh, Chomet's film (adapted from a script written by a French mime more than 60 years before the film) has all the innocence and delicate humour of a family movie, but deals with darker themes such as abandonment (the original script the film was adapted from is thought to be an apology of sorts to the author's estranged daughter).
So where does French animation go from here? It appears that the future is already in motion, with the popularity of films such as Persepolis moving studios to trust in French directors for more mainstream, marketable projects. As well as showing in the UAE, A Monster In Paris is set for extended releases in the UK, Canada and Germany, with a US release thought to be announced soon.
Ahead of that, there will be a worldwide release of Tales of the Night, a feature-length compilation of the French animated series of the same name, shown in stereoscopic 3D. It appears that in a world where Pixar has shown "family" movies can also have something to say, these filmmakers have taken their chance to get a new kind of animation seen by a wider audience.
The Art of Animation Celebrated with The "Chuck Jones Experience" at Circus Circus Las Vegas
(vegasnews.com)The Art of Animation to be Celebrated with The Chuck Jones Experience at Circus Circus Las Vegas
For generations of animation fans there is no greater legend than Chuck Jones. The creator of the famed Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for Warner Bros., Tom & Jerry cartoons, the TV version of Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas and many other well-known classics, Jones was a pioneer in the art of animation and a fine artist in his own right. His life and legacy will be celebrated on January 19 with the official grand opening of The Chuck Jones Experience at Circus Circus Las Vegas.
Many of Jones' family will welcome celebrities, animation aficionados and visitors to the new attraction when they open the attraction in an appropriate and unconventional way at 11 a.m. Among those in attendance will be Jones' widow, Marian Jones, daughter, Linda Clough, and grandchildren Craig, Todd, and Valerie Kausen.
The Chuck Jones Experience is a nearly 10,000-square-foot destination that provides kids and animation fans of all ages with an extraordinary place to not only learn about the art of animation, but to discover the creativity and magic that’s inside us all. Designed to “Educate, Inspire & Entertain,” The Chuck Jones Experience takes visitors on a unique journey through Jones’ life, engaging guests with interactive exhibits, displays and learning experiences along the way. The Chuck Jones Experience is also home to the largest collection of original Chuck Jones animation and fine art anywhere in the world with more than 250 pieces on permanent display.
“This attraction will give fans an unprecedented window into my grandfather’s amazing life,” said Kausen. “We are proud to make Chuck’s original artwork, a lot of which has never before been seen, available to the public. Visitors will have a great time learning all about the inspiration behind the creation of some of Chuck’s most beloved and enduring animated characters such as Wile E. Coyote, Road Runner, Pepé le Pew and many others. It’s an animation lover’s paradise.”
“The Grand Opening of The Chuck Jones Experience represents the culmination of a dream,” added Jones Clough. “We are so thankful to the developer, Neil Cantor, and the group of fans behind the project for bringing this concept to life. I know my father would have been thrilled to see The Chuck Jones Experience open, especially on what would have been his centennial year.”
The attraction includes a variety of exciting elements including:
* Chuck Jones Center for Creativity Learning Center – A 1,000-square-foot learning center where teachers from the field of animation and the arts lead creative projects.
* Chuck Jones Movie Theatre – A 1930s-style movie theatre where you’ll meet Jones via a short film introduced by one of his characters, the Connecticut Cat.
* Chuck Jones’ Studio – A recreation of Jones’ office where you’ll see how he worked and discover what inspired him to create his beloved characters.
* How Do You Measure Up? Room – Learn how characters are developed and view original key drawings Jones drew during their creation.
* Animation Alley – A multimedia wall where animation pieces are on display from the permanent collection of the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity and other animation studios.
* Acme Workshop – Create sound effects and voiceovers for a Chuck Jones cartoon at the Chuck Jones Experience Foley Stage.
“We are excited to welcome The Chuck Jones Experience to our collection of family-friendly entertainment offerings at Circus Circus,” said Don Thrasher, president and chief operating officer of Circus Circus. “This one-of-a-kind, interactive exhibit is sure to be a hit with guests of all ages, and we’re thrilled to introduce visitors worldwide to the wonderful world of Chuck Jones.”
Film Bitch Awards Continue: VFX, Animation, Makeup
(thefilmexperience.net)Film has always been a collaborative artform but the computer seems to be the great unifier these days. Is there any contribution that isn't tweaked these days in post? Maybe costumes? It's hard to know where the disciplines of stunt work, visual effects, performance capture, animation, prop and makeup effects begin and end these days but that's all right. It's always been hard to separate the film disciplines. A great many art direction nominations have happened because a cinematographer maximized the beauty of the sets and so on. What matters is that everything works in harmony to serve the movie.
Unoffical Ballots for Visual Effects, Animated Feature and Makeup - Take a look: http://thefilmexperience.net/awards3/
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