Overcoming Misconceptions Faced by Animators Regarding Motion Capture
(lafilmsnorth.com) One of the basic reasons why animation companies baulk at motion capture is because of misconceptions rather than face when the reality is that motion capture can actually make things cheaper and easier for animation companies.
Based on Nickelodeon’s model, a half-hour motion capture animation program could cost as little as $200,000 versus a minimum of $400,000 per episode for a traditional cell animated half-hour program.
A 1997 Los Angeles Times article, Marla Matzer provides another perspective on costs: “Medialab… estimates that a ‘full body’ character can be animated for as little as $1,000 per minute; over a series of shows, the price can go even lower. Cell animation, by contrast, can cost as much as $5,000 a minute.” these prices don’t include other production elements, such as backgrounds
The costing goes up because in traditional animation the number of personnel involved is much higher than compared to motion capture or mocap for short.
Mocap is fast becoming the mainstay in many animated movies and non animation movies cause the usage of mocap can make characters like for example Davy Jones and his crew in the movie pirates of the Caribbean, and so on. And the best part was that when they came to the part where Davy Jones was to b shown as the real person Bill Nighy was used both in cgi and normal person to potraray Davy Jones.
Motion capture is reffered to as 3D rotoscoping. But the problem was that the stigma that was associates with rotoscope seems to have come into motioncapture. For example in movies where one character is completely different from the others, lets say for example in terms of physical appearience. As long as the picture is running correctly and the desired results are available there is no need for people to know that the given movie is made using rotoscope. But for most people the usage of rotoscope was making them feel that it was innadiquate or just not natural.
In motion capture the actor and the action is saved frame by frame and fed to the character to be animated. Thus in mocap it can be said that in all since the animation used is natural and the real animation. Dancers stroke a metaphorical canvas, sketching ephemeral lines that are lost in the moment of creation. The invention of film and video immortalized some of these centuryY5 greatest dancers, preserving their movement for the next generation. But the quality of such recordings betrays the vitality of the dancer, often leaving the viewer with snatches of their genius seen through a murky lens. Motion capturing, the product of body sensors that create a constellation-like skeleton reassembled with computer brushes and palettes, may change the dancers predicament de rigueur by invigorating a self they didn’t know they had. Paul Kaiser and Shelley Eshkar of Riverbed have motion captured the legendary dancer Bill T. Jones for their exhibit at Cooper Union. The artists call it “Ghost catching,” the term Native Americans gave to photography which some believed stole their souls.
The feature-length Sinbad: Beyond the Veil of Mists, produced by Pentafour in 1999, employed one performer for the body of each character and another for its facial data. Body performers were chosen because they matched the height and body shape of the characters in the film. Voice performers for the film are recognizable stars (including Brendan Fraser, Leonard Nimoy, Mark Hamill, Jennifer Hale, and John Rhys Davies), a common marketing decision for feature films. Incidentally, shooting of the film’s studio material lasted eight weeks and the films’ cost is estimated to be under US$20 million, about one-fifth that of a Disney animated feature.
A 1996 Wired article by Evantheia Schibsted suggests that motion capture taps into intangible elements of experience. In the article, the author refers to Merce Cunningham’s opinion of a specific type of software called Lifeforms, which “is not revolutionizing dance but expanding it, because you see movement in a way that was always there-but wasn’t visible to the naked eye.” Dancer and software designer Theela Shiphorst extends this idea, adding that “the nonlinguistic knowledge inherent in physical training is a richly technical world that can inform technological development.”
New South Wales Lowers VFX Funding Threshold
(hollywoodreporter.com) SYDNEY -- The New South Wales government Friday announced it is lowering the threshold requirements for companies wanting to access government rebates for post digital and visual effects work from AUS$3 million ($2.62 million) to AUS$500,000 ($435,000), in line with recent changes to thresholds for similar funds offered by the federal government.
“With the minimum project spend now $435,000, NSW-based companies will be able to aggressively market their services internationally providing high-value employment in a sector that drives innovation and investment,” NSW treasurer Eric Roozendaal said.
“High thresholds for assistance were a barrier for Australian companies wanting to bid on smaller but still lucrative international projects at a time when the exchange rate and higher incentives in Canada and elsewhere made it increasingly difficult to win large scale projects,’ he said.
The NSW government operates the Film and Television Industry Attraction Fund, which provides a package of incentives to approved productions, but not investment funding aimed at increasing the State's market share of production by attracting larger budget foreign productions.
Roozendaal said the move would assist NSW-based companies like Animal Logic, Cutting Edge, Deluxe Australia, Efilm, Fuel VFX, FSM and The Lab Sydney, who have worked on projects such as “Happy Feet,” “Sucker Punch,” “Iron Man 2,” “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” “Charlotte’s Web” and the new Peter Weir film “The Way Back” in recent years.
“The fund will now work with even greater effectiveness to help stimulate film and television production and post production in NSW; increase the State's market share of production; generate new employment opportunities; enhance the skills of the local industry; and facilitate the introduction of new film-related technologies in NSW,” he added.
Green Thrilled To Have Lucas At Wedding
(cinemablend.com) Green Thrilled To Have Lucas At Wedding Actor Seth Green was stunned when his filmmaking hero George Lucas agreed to come to his wedding in May (10) - and he still can't believe he can call the Star Wars creator a friend.
The Austin Powers star has cultivated a working relationship
with Lucas over the last decade and the two have become unlikely pals. But Green can only imagine what friends and family thought when the director showed up at his wedding.
He says, "It's just so funny to see him at a wedding because he's a normal dude; he's a dad and he's into history and art and sports and sci-fi, and then you see him at the wedding. Everyone was like, 'Oh my gosh, I don't know what to say to him.' And he's hanging out, like, 'I wish somebody would say hi to me.' I love just hanging out with him; anytime I get to sit and just chit-chat with him..."
Animator Plans to Put Long Island on the 3D Map
(threevillage.patch.com) There are a couple of things you find out about Robert Burden when you meet him. Right off the bat you notice that he is full of the same jazzy energy that powers many of the digital creations he works on. He talks fast and you need to pay attention because the next thing you'll learn is that he knows a great deal about his chosen profession – digital animation.Burden's major film credits include animation and digital effects for the anime film Astro Boy, a sweet story set in a futuristic world about a robot boy built by a brilliant scientist to replace his lost son. He also worked on the hit Twilight Saga installment Eclipse doing digital makeup.(lafilmsnorth.com) One of the basic reasons why animation companies baulk at motion capture is because of misconceptions rather than face when the reality is that motion capture can actually make things cheaper and easier for animation companies.
Based on Nickelodeon’s model, a half-hour motion capture animation program could cost as little as $200,000 versus a minimum of $400,000 per episode for a traditional cell animated half-hour program.
A 1997 Los Angeles Times article, Marla Matzer provides another perspective on costs: “Medialab… estimates that a ‘full body’ character can be animated for as little as $1,000 per minute; over a series of shows, the price can go even lower. Cell animation, by contrast, can cost as much as $5,000 a minute.” these prices don’t include other production elements, such as backgrounds
The costing goes up because in traditional animation the number of personnel involved is much higher than compared to motion capture or mocap for short.
Mocap is fast becoming the mainstay in many animated movies and non animation movies cause the usage of mocap can make characters like for example Davy Jones and his crew in the movie pirates of the Caribbean, and so on. And the best part was that when they came to the part where Davy Jones was to b shown as the real person Bill Nighy was used both in cgi and normal person to potraray Davy Jones.
Motion capture is reffered to as 3D rotoscoping. But the problem was that the stigma that was associates with rotoscope seems to have come into motioncapture. For example in movies where one character is completely different from the others, lets say for example in terms of physical appearience. As long as the picture is running correctly and the desired results are available there is no need for people to know that the given movie is made using rotoscope. But for most people the usage of rotoscope was making them feel that it was innadiquate or just not natural.
In motion capture the actor and the action is saved frame by frame and fed to the character to be animated. Thus in mocap it can be said that in all since the animation used is natural and the real animation. Dancers stroke a metaphorical canvas, sketching ephemeral lines that are lost in the moment of creation. The invention of film and video immortalized some of these centuryY5 greatest dancers, preserving their movement for the next generation. But the quality of such recordings betrays the vitality of the dancer, often leaving the viewer with snatches of their genius seen through a murky lens. Motion capturing, the product of body sensors that create a constellation-like skeleton reassembled with computer brushes and palettes, may change the dancers predicament de rigueur by invigorating a self they didn’t know they had. Paul Kaiser and Shelley Eshkar of Riverbed have motion captured the legendary dancer Bill T. Jones for their exhibit at Cooper Union. The artists call it “Ghost catching,” the term Native Americans gave to photography which some believed stole their souls.
The feature-length Sinbad: Beyond the Veil of Mists, produced by Pentafour in 1999, employed one performer for the body of each character and another for its facial data. Body performers were chosen because they matched the height and body shape of the characters in the film. Voice performers for the film are recognizable stars (including Brendan Fraser, Leonard Nimoy, Mark Hamill, Jennifer Hale, and John Rhys Davies), a common marketing decision for feature films. Incidentally, shooting of the film’s studio material lasted eight weeks and the films’ cost is estimated to be under US$20 million, about one-fifth that of a Disney animated feature.
A 1996 Wired article by Evantheia Schibsted suggests that motion capture taps into intangible elements of experience. In the article, the author refers to Merce Cunningham’s opinion of a specific type of software called Lifeforms, which “is not revolutionizing dance but expanding it, because you see movement in a way that was always there-but wasn’t visible to the naked eye.” Dancer and software designer Theela Shiphorst extends this idea, adding that “the nonlinguistic knowledge inherent in physical training is a richly technical world that can inform technological development.”
New South Wales Lowers VFX Funding Threshold
(hollywoodreporter.com) SYDNEY -- The New South Wales government Friday announced it is lowering the threshold requirements for companies wanting to access government rebates for post digital and visual effects work from AUS$3 million ($2.62 million) to AUS$500,000 ($435,000), in line with recent changes to thresholds for similar funds offered by the federal government.
“With the minimum project spend now $435,000, NSW-based companies will be able to aggressively market their services internationally providing high-value employment in a sector that drives innovation and investment,” NSW treasurer Eric Roozendaal said.
“High thresholds for assistance were a barrier for Australian companies wanting to bid on smaller but still lucrative international projects at a time when the exchange rate and higher incentives in Canada and elsewhere made it increasingly difficult to win large scale projects,’ he said.
The NSW government operates the Film and Television Industry Attraction Fund, which provides a package of incentives to approved productions, but not investment funding aimed at increasing the State's market share of production by attracting larger budget foreign productions.
Roozendaal said the move would assist NSW-based companies like Animal Logic, Cutting Edge, Deluxe Australia, Efilm, Fuel VFX, FSM and The Lab Sydney, who have worked on projects such as “Happy Feet,” “Sucker Punch,” “Iron Man 2,” “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” “Charlotte’s Web” and the new Peter Weir film “The Way Back” in recent years.
“The fund will now work with even greater effectiveness to help stimulate film and television production and post production in NSW; increase the State's market share of production; generate new employment opportunities; enhance the skills of the local industry; and facilitate the introduction of new film-related technologies in NSW,” he added.
Green Thrilled To Have Lucas At Wedding
(cinemablend.com) Green Thrilled To Have Lucas At Wedding Actor Seth Green was stunned when his filmmaking hero George Lucas agreed to come to his wedding in May (10) - and he still can't believe he can call the Star Wars creator a friend.
The Austin Powers star has cultivated a working relationship
with Lucas over the last decade and the two have become unlikely pals. But Green can only imagine what friends and family thought when the director showed up at his wedding.
He says, "It's just so funny to see him at a wedding because he's a normal dude; he's a dad and he's into history and art and sports and sci-fi, and then you see him at the wedding. Everyone was like, 'Oh my gosh, I don't know what to say to him.' And he's hanging out, like, 'I wish somebody would say hi to me.' I love just hanging out with him; anytime I get to sit and just chit-chat with him..."
Animator Plans to Put Long Island on the 3D Map
"Digital makeup is doing things like changing or removing parts of an actor," he said.
Next, Burden said that he's going to be working on a film staring Johnny Depp doing set extensions, which is digitally rendering or altering the background surrounding the actors after a movie is filmed.
Burden has also lent his design and animation skills to the business community on Long Island. He says that while the industry here hasn't fully caught on to the power of 3D animation, awareness is growing.
"Movies like Toy Story make people more conscious of 3D animation," he said. It's a trend he sees continuing as local businesses start to demand the glitzy, flashy look of 3D in their advertising.
It's a long way from when Burden landed here the mid-1980s to attend Stony Brook University and then went on to New York University. There he made important contacts that led to his first major industry experience working in children's television. His first gig: Blue's Clues.
"That was my first major experience with production," Burden said. "For the short time on it I learned the most in my career."
He loves working on kids' shows because of the shared attachment we all have to childhood.
"We were all kids," he said. "Some of us still are. To be able to express some kind of emotion or lesson to a child is an amazing thing."
This may explain why Burden also decided to start teaching 3D animation. Not only is he teaching young people in his studio to become top notch animators, he spends some time teaching autistic children.
There is one dream that Burden is currently working hard to make a reality.
"I want to produce the first full feature-length 3D animation film out of Long Island," he said. And he wants it to happen right at his Inky Dinky Animation Studios.
He's already got the story all picked out and he says he's started working on it. It's a poem titled "Nicholas Cricket" written by Joyce Maxner.
The story is about a cricket named Nicholas who plays banjo in a jazz band called the Bug-a-Wug Cricket Band. Burden describes the story treatment he has in mind as Cotton Club blended with a horror movie. It's going to be edgy and a little dark but still will work as a children's movie. Think Neil Gaiman's Coraline as opposed to Disney's Up.
Burden's hope is that by the time he finishes producing "Nicolas Cricket" a large studio will become interested enough to distribute the film.
Windmill Lane Opens 'Lock Out', 36 VFX Jobs Created
(iftn.ie) Irish post house, Windmill Lane Pictures is currently creating a new film visual effects production facility in Sandyford in order to carry out post production work on 'Lock Out’ [working title], a new sci-fi feature film that is to start shooting in Belgrade towards the end of the year. Windmill Lane will produce all the visual effects its new Dublin facility.
'Lock Out' is written and directed by talented Irish filmmaking duo Stephen St Leger and James Mather, the team behind the 2004 short ‘Prey Alone’. Their first foray into feature films is made with the backing of French Studio Europacorp headed by the acclaimed Luc Besson (I Love You Philip Morris, From Paris with Love) who will also produce the film.
'Lock Out' (previously entitled 'Section 8') takes place in a prison orbiting 50 miles above the earth. The prison houses 500 of the world's most dangerous prisoners, who are kept asleep by sophisticated techniques until they suddenly awoken. The project boasts a $30 million budget.
James Morris, Chairman of Windmill Lane has expressed his gratitude to members of team, saying: "Stephen and James are the creative driving force behind this project and must take all the credit for developing it and securing the backing of Luc Besson."
Windmill Lane are thus commencing a recruitment drive for key VFX personnel. The drive is already attracting key UK industry interest and any individual interested in applying for any of the eight positions listed below should visit iftn.ie/jobs for further details and application instructions.
A range of skills is being sought where the pipeline will be based on the tried and tested International VFX model: Maya, Nuke, Photoshop all of which will make up some of the principal software tools that will be used within a Linux OS. The film is due for completion in June 2011 and the total VFX production team will be based in Dublin in Windmill's aforementioned Sandyford facility.
The positions Windmill are seeking to fill for 'Lock Out' are:
* Modellers
* Matchmover
* Texture Painter
* Lighting TDs
* TD Generalist
* CG Effects TD
* VFX Production Coordinator
* Compositors & Rotoscope Artists
Brad Pitt to Star in "World War Z"
(comingsoon.net) MTV received a surprise announcement when interviewing World War Z author Max Brooks at the San Diego Comic-Con today. Brooks confirmed that the Marc Forster-directed adaptation of his novel is moving forward at Paramount Pictures with Brad Pitt attached to star in the lead role.
Brooks also revealed that Paramount has optioned the movie rights to "The Zombie Survival Guide" and "The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks" graphic novel.
Pitt's production company Plan B first secured the rights to World War Z back in 2007.
Brooks says that the studio is targeting a Summer 2012 release for the film, about a worldwide infestation of flesh-eating zombies. Brooks -- the son of Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft -- wrote a detailed tale in which a researcher for the U.N. Postwar Commission interviews survivors from countries all over the world, 10 years after the crisis, to gather a first-person post-mortem on a war that obliterated every country on the map.
The original screenplay was written by J. Michael Straczynski, but was later rewritten by Matthew Michael Carnahan.
.
Can Inflatable Dolls Replace CGI Effects?
(theatlanticwire.com)
(comingsoon.net) MTV received a surprise announcement when interviewing World War Z author Max Brooks at the San Diego Comic-Con today. Brooks confirmed that the Marc Forster-directed adaptation of his novel is moving forward at Paramount Pictures with Brad Pitt attached to star in the lead role.
Brooks also revealed that Paramount has optioned the movie rights to "The Zombie Survival Guide" and "The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks" graphic novel.
Pitt's production company Plan B first secured the rights to World War Z back in 2007.
Brooks says that the studio is targeting a Summer 2012 release for the film, about a worldwide infestation of flesh-eating zombies. Brooks -- the son of Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft -- wrote a detailed tale in which a researcher for the U.N. Postwar Commission interviews survivors from countries all over the world, 10 years after the crisis, to gather a first-person post-mortem on a war that obliterated every country on the map.
The original screenplay was written by J. Michael Straczynski, but was later rewritten by Matthew Michael Carnahan.
.
Can Inflatable Dolls Replace CGI Effects?
(theatlanticwire.com)
Can Inflatable Dolls Replace Movie Extras? Uriel_1998/flickr They're a directors dream: they don't get paid by the hour, they have no problem working overtime, there's no need to feed them, and they specialize in standing in a single place for hours at the time.While many big budget blockbusters use CGI creations to create digital extras, some Hollywood titles are going low-fi by using painstakingly crafted inflatable dolls. Already seen in pictures such as Seabiscuit, Gridiron Gang, Changeling and the upcoming Angelina Jolie thriller S.A.L.T. (which used 500 of them) these dolls are a cheap and always reliable way to fill stadium stands for a sports movie or pack crowds into Grand Central Station.In a recent New Yorker article, writer Peter Savodnik profiles Gail Boykewich, who oversees operations for Inflatable Crowd (a company specializing in providing custom dolls).The dolls do have a drawback, it turns out: they can have interesting effects on the human extras working with them. "An extra will look at an inflatable and say, 'This is freaking me out!' Or we hear tons of 'This is my girlfriend!' Or 'Why did you take my girlfriend away?' when you deflate them."
[Boykewich] went on, "Some of the extras get bored and mess with the dolls and steal their wigs, or cut the eyes out to be funny.
'300' To Spin Off 'Xerxes' Prequel
(latinoreview.com) Zack Snyder May Return To The World of '300' As 'Xerxes' Gets His Own Prequel 2007's phenomenally successful action adventure film 300 not only re-introduced audiences to the work of graphic novelist Frank Miller (Sin City), but turned its lead actor Gerard Butler and director Zack Snyder into bona fide stars. The war epic, which told a fictionalized account of the historical battle of Thermopylae, was not only the highest grossing R-rated film of that year, but earned a worldwide total of $456 million. Synder, who had previously made his debut with the 2004 zombie remake Dawn of the Dead, not only proved he could produce major blockbusters, but did so by primarily using bluescreen sound-stages and over 1,500 digital visual effects, causing quite a ripple in Hollywood and influencing the way films are made.
Since 300, Snyder has successfully tackled the arduous task of bringing Dave Gibbons and Alan Moore's critically acclaimed graphic novel Watchmen to the big screen, the upcoming 3D CGI animated family film Legend of the Guardians, and is in the midst of wrapping up post production on Sucker Punch, based on his original script about the escape fantasies of a young woman in a mental hospital. But it appears Snyder has always had the world of 300 on his mind and after successfully meeting with Miller, the director has begun writing a screenplay based on the graphic novelist's upcoming 300 prequel entitled Xerxes.
xerxes-rodrigo
Portrayed by Brazilian actor Rodrigo Santoro in 300, the character of Xerxes, leader of the invading Persian army, was the subject of controversy for his androgynous appearance, incurring the wrath of the President of Iran, who not only denounced the picture but filed a formal complaint with the United Nations.
The comics will be published in the months ahead, but Miller has already shown Snyder enough to win him over to a follow-up film. It's neither prequel nor sequel, precisely, since the time setting begins years before the events of "300" and then moves up past the first film's 480 B.C. Spartan battle.
snyder
"This movie follows Themistocles and the Battle of Artemisium, which coincidentally happens on the exact same three days as the Battle of Thermopylae [which was the basis of '300']," Snyder said. "This one starts off with a quick retelling of the why of the Persian wars. It starts off at the Battle of Marathon and then it goes back to Themistocles finding out that Persians are invading again, and off we go over to learn a little bit about why Xerxes is the way he is."
"Yes, it's the same universe visually," Snyder said, suggesting that in his mind he's already directing the film even though there's only a writing deal in place.
Disney Animator Pres Romanillos Dies at Age 47
(examiner.com) Disney animator Priscillano "Pres" Romanillos died from complications due to leukemia at only 47 years of age.
The Los Angeles Times reported yesterday that Pres passed away in his Tujunga home on July 17, 2010 surrounded by his family, friends and pets.
Romanillos immigrated from the Philippines in 1971, grew up in Queens, New York, and eventually attended the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan.
His animation career began in 1989 as an animation trainee on "The Little Mermaid." He served as an assistant animator on "The Rescuers Down Under," "Beauty and the Beast," and "Aladdin." Romanillos' first full animator credit came during "Pocahontas," for his work on animating Pocahontas herself.
He moved to Disney's studios in Florida and it is there where he animated the leader of the Hun army, Shan-Yu, in "Mulan."
Romanillos moved to DreamWorks after "Mulan," where he worked on features such as "The Road to El Dorado" (2000), "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron" (2002), "Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas" (2003), "Shrek 2" (2004), and "Madagascar" (2005).
In 2007, he moved to Salamanca, Spain to assist Scott Johnston with the launch of the Enne animation studio. While there, he made the animated short film "The Old Chair," which featured one of his own blog characters, Pickle.
Romanillos' blog was "Life as a Pickle," which was about cats, dogs, rabbits, and other pets he and his wife rescued from animal shelters. The main character, "Pickle," was based on their rat terrier, which offered a humorous dog's-eye view of the world. Pickle passed away in December 2006.
During the production of "The Old Chair," he was diagnosed with Leukemia and returned to the United States. He underwent a bone marrow transplant and went on to do his final animation work on Disney's "The Princess and the Frog," and DreamWorks' "Shrek Forever After."
"Pres was one of the most respected and beloved artists at our studio," Jeffrey Katzenberg, chief executive with DreamWorks Animation, told the Los Angeles Times. "All of us in the animation community deeply mourn the loss of Pres...though his memory and legacy will forever exist in the characters he brought to life through his art."
Pres Romanillos is survived by his wife of 14 years, Jeannine. Plans for a life celebration are pending.
There's So Much CGI, It's Ridiculous
(justjaredjr.buzznet.com) Vanessa Hudgens just can’t get the idea of Sucker Punch in 3D out of her head.
The 21-year-old actress caught up with MTV at Neutrogena’s Wave for Change with GlobalGiving over the weekend and opened up on why she’s so excited about it.
Vanessa shared, “There’s so much CGI in it, it’s ridiculous. It’s already really bad***, but having it in 3-D … having my tomahawk fly towards your face, [it would be] just too cool, you know? Shooting a .50-cal [machine gun], there’s nothing like it. I think all of us girls loved it so much. We’re all strong individuals, and when you give us a gun … you kind of unleash something.”
Disney Animation, Foundry Reach Licensing Deal
(variety.com) Following Walt Disney Animation Studio's groundbreaking deal to license Nuke compositing software from The Foundry, the two companies have struck a more far-reaching agreement that marks the first time the Mouse House has licensed its proprietary animation software to an outside company.
Parts of the Mouse's Paint3D software will be incorporated into Mari, the Foundry's off-the-shelf texture painting tool. Mari was originally developed by Weta Digital and has been used on "Avatar" and "District 9," among other pics.
The Walt Disney Animation Studios technology group will be part of a Mari steering committee.
Paint3D was introduced on "Chicken Little" and has been used on every Disney animated release since "Meet the Robinsons."
WDAS recently licensed the Foundry's Nuke, marking the first time the Mouse had licensed commercial software for animation production.
Nuke is emerging as a de facto standard for compositing and the incorporation of Paint3D tools may nudge Mari toward similar status.
The Kerner Group, Home for 30 Years to ILM, Launches New Service Brands
(shootonline.com) On One Year Anniversary of New Ownership, Kerner Now Positioned to be a Leader in 3D Production Expertise
San Rafael, CA, July 22, 2010 | SHOOT Publicity Wire | --- Based in Marin, California, The Kerner Group, the 30-year home to George Lucas' original Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), and today a collection of innovative companies and divisions that offer award-winning creative services to the major motion picture studios, independent filmmakers, television studios and production companies, has restructured.
The restructuring of The Kerner Group comes one year after the
company's acquisition by entrepreneur Eric Edmeades, and is the result of a year-long analysis and R&D efforts by new senior management aimed at driving the Kerner brand forward. Concurrent with this anniversary, The Kerner Group has launched a number of new brands with services available to its diverse array of clients.
The "New Kerner" is now positioned to be a leader in the area of 3-D production and technological expertise, with facilities, camera rigs and expertise that afford unparalleled opportunities to content creators across the entire media spectrum. Today's announcements were made jointly by Eric Edmeades, CEO, Majority Owner, and Tim Partridge, President, The Kerner Group.
As a result of its restructuring, The Kerner Group now also counts among its client base corporations large and small and private section contractors. For these clients, the company provides highly realistic special effects, emerging 3D technologies and production services, model creation, and a variety of problem solving, applied research and prototyping services.
In 2009, entrepreneur Eric Edmeades became the CEO and Majority Owner of The Kerner Group. Previously the co-founder of The ITR Group, a mobile computing and wireless networking firm based in Bristol, England, Edmeades ran that company, as its Managing Director, for nine years, parlaying it into an industry leader with multiple offices around the U.K. and servicing clients located worldwide. The ITR Group was sold to private buyers in 2006.
Edmeades then hired Tim Partridge as President of The Kerner Group. Before Kerner, Partridge was a key executive at Dolby Laboratories where, for over 20 years, he stood at the forefront of the entertainment and entertainment-technology industries, and led the development of "Dolby 3D." For 10 years, Partridge worked as a Dolby surround sound consultant on over 100 films, including "Goldeneye," "Highlander," "Shadowlands," "Willow," "Absolute Beginners," and "The Fisher King," to name some. He served the company in a number of major posts, including that of Dolby's Executive Vice President of Products and Technologies.
Regarding The Kerner Group's restructuring, Mr. Edmeades said, "There are very few companies, if any, that can offer their clients the same level of creativity in the areas of production, 3D technologies, realistic visual effects, and model design that The Kerner Group can provide. Our team has a 30-year history of producing the highest quality content and technology possible for the entertainment industry. We are now leveraging that expertise and success to further expand The Kerner Group as an exciting company with a bright future."
Adds Mr. Partridge, "Some of the most famous—and most financially successful—movies in history were -- in some part -- made here. While we are physically based in Northern California, we have now positioned ourselves as a national—and international—motion picture and television resource for filmmakers, directors, producers and advertisers. Our remarkable team includes award winning, former ILM members Brian Gernand, Greg Beaumont, Geoff Heron, and Rose Duignan, each of whom has tremendous experience in the industry."
Full Press: http://www.shootonline.com/go/index.php?name=Release&op=view&id=rs-web2-532395-1279754729-2
Disney Asks Pixar For Help On Muppet Movie
(cinemablend.com) Disney Asks Pixar For Help On Muppet Movie Sometimes parents need to ask the kids for some help. That’s just the way life is. It’s no secret that Pixar is doing something very right when it comes to making movies and Disney has relatively lost its way. That’s why the news about Disney’s new live-action Muppets movie is so refreshing and encouraging. THR reports the Disney brass flew to California to meet with the Pixar think tank for a table read of the upcoming live action Muppets movie. Basically Disney said, “We need your help.”
Considering the two studios’ recent output, it’s clear why Disney would ask for assistance. Disney is coming off the uber-bomb The Sorcerer’s Apprentice while Pixar has a little film you may have seen (because it seems like everyone else did) called Toy Story 3.
It seems Disney recognizes that the Muppets are just too beloved a franchise to mess with, and the Pixar folks are just gifted storytellers. The new live action production starring Jason Segel is the first Muppets movie distributed by Walt Disney Pictures since Muppet Treasure Island in 1996.
Pixar also assisted with reshoots on the upcoming Disney production of Tron Legacy.
Film executives scoff at notion of "3D fatigue"
(Hollywood Reporter) - The sky isn't falling, but ticket sales for 3D movies may be finding their natural water level.
That, in an extra-dimensional nutshell, is how studio executives feel about recent signs that the ratio of 3D-to-2D grosses for pictures has settled into a range just below that marked by early 3D releases when the format was a consumer novelty. They scoff at the notion of "3D fatigue" floated in a spate of media reports while acknowledging pricing may have outpaced demand for some family pictures.
Some reports first took note of the situation when Disney's "Toy Story 3" -- which has quickly rung up $635 million at the worldwide box office -- opened last month with a studio-estimated 60% 3D contribution. Just a few months earlier, Disney's "Alice in Wonderland" and DreamWorks Animation's "How to Train Your Dragon" had rung up a lustier two-thirds of their box office in 3D auditoriums.
"'Toy Story 3' may gross up to $400 million domestically," a top distribution executive at a rival studio noted. "To suggest anything is wrong with that makes no sense."
More Chicken Littles surfaced when Universal's July 9 opener "Despicable Me" bowed with an estimated 45% of its first-weekend sales coming from 3D venues. But few industryites expected anything else in light of the picture's modest number of 1,551 3D theaters, a result of too many 3D pics in the marketplace and too few 3D screens available in the nation's movie theaters.
"Despite any lower 3D percentage, there's still considerable incremental gross advantage to both distributors and exhibitors," Universal distribution president Nikki Rocco said. "But I do love offering moviegoers the option of seeing a picture in either format. Having audiences be able to make a choice for the family is a good thing."
Paramount's July 1 release "The Last Airbender" boasted a similarly modest number of 3D locations while marking a 3D share of 55%. It's worth noting that the family fantasy bowed among broadly derisive reviews that were hardly an encouragement for parents to shell out extra for the pic's extra-dimensional version.
The 3D-to-2D gross decline follows the phenomenal 82% average 3D share marked by "Avatar" during its record theatrical run. But the Fox blockbuster -- virtually the only 3D release in the market for much of its run -- was an unusual mix of motion-capture animation and live action, and word quickly spread following its December debut that 3D was the way to see the epic fantasy.
By contrast, pictures such as Warner Bros.' April opener "Clash of the Titans" -- which enjoyed a mere 52% 3D contribution -- drew widespread criticism for their low-budget approach to converting the pic from 2D to 3D before release.
The industry screen crunch is expected to linger as Hollywood ramps up the number of 3D pics while theater operators struggle to outfit screens for 3D capability fast enough.
As for the pricing question, exhibitors privately acknowledge they continue to assess what the market will bear, with family pictures clearly more resistant to aggressive 3D upcharges.
DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg has backed exhibitors' desire to push the premium-pricing envelope, but the marketplace does have its limits. AMC ordered managers at a few of its New York multiplexes to chop their $20 admission price on DreamWorks' "Shrek Forever After" after the unprecedented high price drew media attention.
Wall Street analysts following exhibition stocks seem to be taking the adjustment in 3D contributions in stride.
"While recent articles have painted 'declining' 3D share trends as the culprit for recent box office woes, we place the blame squarely on mediocre film content," Piper Jaffray analyst James March wrote in a research report circulated Wednesday.
[Boykewich] went on, "Some of the extras get bored and mess with the dolls and steal their wigs, or cut the eyes out to be funny.
'300' To Spin Off 'Xerxes' Prequel
(latinoreview.com) Zack Snyder May Return To The World of '300' As 'Xerxes' Gets His Own Prequel 2007's phenomenally successful action adventure film 300 not only re-introduced audiences to the work of graphic novelist Frank Miller (Sin City), but turned its lead actor Gerard Butler and director Zack Snyder into bona fide stars. The war epic, which told a fictionalized account of the historical battle of Thermopylae, was not only the highest grossing R-rated film of that year, but earned a worldwide total of $456 million. Synder, who had previously made his debut with the 2004 zombie remake Dawn of the Dead, not only proved he could produce major blockbusters, but did so by primarily using bluescreen sound-stages and over 1,500 digital visual effects, causing quite a ripple in Hollywood and influencing the way films are made.
Since 300, Snyder has successfully tackled the arduous task of bringing Dave Gibbons and Alan Moore's critically acclaimed graphic novel Watchmen to the big screen, the upcoming 3D CGI animated family film Legend of the Guardians, and is in the midst of wrapping up post production on Sucker Punch, based on his original script about the escape fantasies of a young woman in a mental hospital. But it appears Snyder has always had the world of 300 on his mind and after successfully meeting with Miller, the director has begun writing a screenplay based on the graphic novelist's upcoming 300 prequel entitled Xerxes.
xerxes-rodrigo
Portrayed by Brazilian actor Rodrigo Santoro in 300, the character of Xerxes, leader of the invading Persian army, was the subject of controversy for his androgynous appearance, incurring the wrath of the President of Iran, who not only denounced the picture but filed a formal complaint with the United Nations.
The comics will be published in the months ahead, but Miller has already shown Snyder enough to win him over to a follow-up film. It's neither prequel nor sequel, precisely, since the time setting begins years before the events of "300" and then moves up past the first film's 480 B.C. Spartan battle.
snyder
"This movie follows Themistocles and the Battle of Artemisium, which coincidentally happens on the exact same three days as the Battle of Thermopylae [which was the basis of '300']," Snyder said. "This one starts off with a quick retelling of the why of the Persian wars. It starts off at the Battle of Marathon and then it goes back to Themistocles finding out that Persians are invading again, and off we go over to learn a little bit about why Xerxes is the way he is."
"Yes, it's the same universe visually," Snyder said, suggesting that in his mind he's already directing the film even though there's only a writing deal in place.
Disney Animator Pres Romanillos Dies at Age 47
(examiner.com) Disney animator Priscillano "Pres" Romanillos died from complications due to leukemia at only 47 years of age.
The Los Angeles Times reported yesterday that Pres passed away in his Tujunga home on July 17, 2010 surrounded by his family, friends and pets.
Romanillos immigrated from the Philippines in 1971, grew up in Queens, New York, and eventually attended the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan.
His animation career began in 1989 as an animation trainee on "The Little Mermaid." He served as an assistant animator on "The Rescuers Down Under," "Beauty and the Beast," and "Aladdin." Romanillos' first full animator credit came during "Pocahontas," for his work on animating Pocahontas herself.
He moved to Disney's studios in Florida and it is there where he animated the leader of the Hun army, Shan-Yu, in "Mulan."
Romanillos moved to DreamWorks after "Mulan," where he worked on features such as "The Road to El Dorado" (2000), "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron" (2002), "Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas" (2003), "Shrek 2" (2004), and "Madagascar" (2005).
In 2007, he moved to Salamanca, Spain to assist Scott Johnston with the launch of the Enne animation studio. While there, he made the animated short film "The Old Chair," which featured one of his own blog characters, Pickle.
Romanillos' blog was "Life as a Pickle," which was about cats, dogs, rabbits, and other pets he and his wife rescued from animal shelters. The main character, "Pickle," was based on their rat terrier, which offered a humorous dog's-eye view of the world. Pickle passed away in December 2006.
During the production of "The Old Chair," he was diagnosed with Leukemia and returned to the United States. He underwent a bone marrow transplant and went on to do his final animation work on Disney's "The Princess and the Frog," and DreamWorks' "Shrek Forever After."
"Pres was one of the most respected and beloved artists at our studio," Jeffrey Katzenberg, chief executive with DreamWorks Animation, told the Los Angeles Times. "All of us in the animation community deeply mourn the loss of Pres...though his memory and legacy will forever exist in the characters he brought to life through his art."
Pres Romanillos is survived by his wife of 14 years, Jeannine. Plans for a life celebration are pending.
There's So Much CGI, It's Ridiculous
(justjaredjr.buzznet.com) Vanessa Hudgens just can’t get the idea of Sucker Punch in 3D out of her head.
The 21-year-old actress caught up with MTV at Neutrogena’s Wave for Change with GlobalGiving over the weekend and opened up on why she’s so excited about it.
Vanessa shared, “There’s so much CGI in it, it’s ridiculous. It’s already really bad***, but having it in 3-D … having my tomahawk fly towards your face, [it would be] just too cool, you know? Shooting a .50-cal [machine gun], there’s nothing like it. I think all of us girls loved it so much. We’re all strong individuals, and when you give us a gun … you kind of unleash something.”
Disney Animation, Foundry Reach Licensing Deal
(variety.com) Following Walt Disney Animation Studio's groundbreaking deal to license Nuke compositing software from The Foundry, the two companies have struck a more far-reaching agreement that marks the first time the Mouse House has licensed its proprietary animation software to an outside company.
Parts of the Mouse's Paint3D software will be incorporated into Mari, the Foundry's off-the-shelf texture painting tool. Mari was originally developed by Weta Digital and has been used on "Avatar" and "District 9," among other pics.
The Walt Disney Animation Studios technology group will be part of a Mari steering committee.
Paint3D was introduced on "Chicken Little" and has been used on every Disney animated release since "Meet the Robinsons."
WDAS recently licensed the Foundry's Nuke, marking the first time the Mouse had licensed commercial software for animation production.
Nuke is emerging as a de facto standard for compositing and the incorporation of Paint3D tools may nudge Mari toward similar status.
The Kerner Group, Home for 30 Years to ILM, Launches New Service Brands
(shootonline.com) On One Year Anniversary of New Ownership, Kerner Now Positioned to be a Leader in 3D Production Expertise
San Rafael, CA, July 22, 2010 | SHOOT Publicity Wire | --- Based in Marin, California, The Kerner Group, the 30-year home to George Lucas' original Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), and today a collection of innovative companies and divisions that offer award-winning creative services to the major motion picture studios, independent filmmakers, television studios and production companies, has restructured.
The restructuring of The Kerner Group comes one year after the
company's acquisition by entrepreneur Eric Edmeades, and is the result of a year-long analysis and R&D efforts by new senior management aimed at driving the Kerner brand forward. Concurrent with this anniversary, The Kerner Group has launched a number of new brands with services available to its diverse array of clients.
The "New Kerner" is now positioned to be a leader in the area of 3-D production and technological expertise, with facilities, camera rigs and expertise that afford unparalleled opportunities to content creators across the entire media spectrum. Today's announcements were made jointly by Eric Edmeades, CEO, Majority Owner, and Tim Partridge, President, The Kerner Group.
As a result of its restructuring, The Kerner Group now also counts among its client base corporations large and small and private section contractors. For these clients, the company provides highly realistic special effects, emerging 3D technologies and production services, model creation, and a variety of problem solving, applied research and prototyping services.
In 2009, entrepreneur Eric Edmeades became the CEO and Majority Owner of The Kerner Group. Previously the co-founder of The ITR Group, a mobile computing and wireless networking firm based in Bristol, England, Edmeades ran that company, as its Managing Director, for nine years, parlaying it into an industry leader with multiple offices around the U.K. and servicing clients located worldwide. The ITR Group was sold to private buyers in 2006.
Edmeades then hired Tim Partridge as President of The Kerner Group. Before Kerner, Partridge was a key executive at Dolby Laboratories where, for over 20 years, he stood at the forefront of the entertainment and entertainment-technology industries, and led the development of "Dolby 3D." For 10 years, Partridge worked as a Dolby surround sound consultant on over 100 films, including "Goldeneye," "Highlander," "Shadowlands," "Willow," "Absolute Beginners," and "The Fisher King," to name some. He served the company in a number of major posts, including that of Dolby's Executive Vice President of Products and Technologies.
Regarding The Kerner Group's restructuring, Mr. Edmeades said, "There are very few companies, if any, that can offer their clients the same level of creativity in the areas of production, 3D technologies, realistic visual effects, and model design that The Kerner Group can provide. Our team has a 30-year history of producing the highest quality content and technology possible for the entertainment industry. We are now leveraging that expertise and success to further expand The Kerner Group as an exciting company with a bright future."
Adds Mr. Partridge, "Some of the most famous—and most financially successful—movies in history were -- in some part -- made here. While we are physically based in Northern California, we have now positioned ourselves as a national—and international—motion picture and television resource for filmmakers, directors, producers and advertisers. Our remarkable team includes award winning, former ILM members Brian Gernand, Greg Beaumont, Geoff Heron, and Rose Duignan, each of whom has tremendous experience in the industry."
Full Press: http://www.shootonline.com/go/index.php?name=Release&op=view&id=rs-web2-532395-1279754729-2
Disney Asks Pixar For Help On Muppet Movie
(cinemablend.com) Disney Asks Pixar For Help On Muppet Movie Sometimes parents need to ask the kids for some help. That’s just the way life is. It’s no secret that Pixar is doing something very right when it comes to making movies and Disney has relatively lost its way. That’s why the news about Disney’s new live-action Muppets movie is so refreshing and encouraging. THR reports the Disney brass flew to California to meet with the Pixar think tank for a table read of the upcoming live action Muppets movie. Basically Disney said, “We need your help.”
Considering the two studios’ recent output, it’s clear why Disney would ask for assistance. Disney is coming off the uber-bomb The Sorcerer’s Apprentice while Pixar has a little film you may have seen (because it seems like everyone else did) called Toy Story 3.
It seems Disney recognizes that the Muppets are just too beloved a franchise to mess with, and the Pixar folks are just gifted storytellers. The new live action production starring Jason Segel is the first Muppets movie distributed by Walt Disney Pictures since Muppet Treasure Island in 1996.
Pixar also assisted with reshoots on the upcoming Disney production of Tron Legacy.
Film executives scoff at notion of "3D fatigue"
(Hollywood Reporter) - The sky isn't falling, but ticket sales for 3D movies may be finding their natural water level.
That, in an extra-dimensional nutshell, is how studio executives feel about recent signs that the ratio of 3D-to-2D grosses for pictures has settled into a range just below that marked by early 3D releases when the format was a consumer novelty. They scoff at the notion of "3D fatigue" floated in a spate of media reports while acknowledging pricing may have outpaced demand for some family pictures.
Some reports first took note of the situation when Disney's "Toy Story 3" -- which has quickly rung up $635 million at the worldwide box office -- opened last month with a studio-estimated 60% 3D contribution. Just a few months earlier, Disney's "Alice in Wonderland" and DreamWorks Animation's "How to Train Your Dragon" had rung up a lustier two-thirds of their box office in 3D auditoriums.
"'Toy Story 3' may gross up to $400 million domestically," a top distribution executive at a rival studio noted. "To suggest anything is wrong with that makes no sense."
More Chicken Littles surfaced when Universal's July 9 opener "Despicable Me" bowed with an estimated 45% of its first-weekend sales coming from 3D venues. But few industryites expected anything else in light of the picture's modest number of 1,551 3D theaters, a result of too many 3D pics in the marketplace and too few 3D screens available in the nation's movie theaters.
"Despite any lower 3D percentage, there's still considerable incremental gross advantage to both distributors and exhibitors," Universal distribution president Nikki Rocco said. "But I do love offering moviegoers the option of seeing a picture in either format. Having audiences be able to make a choice for the family is a good thing."
Paramount's July 1 release "The Last Airbender" boasted a similarly modest number of 3D locations while marking a 3D share of 55%. It's worth noting that the family fantasy bowed among broadly derisive reviews that were hardly an encouragement for parents to shell out extra for the pic's extra-dimensional version.
The 3D-to-2D gross decline follows the phenomenal 82% average 3D share marked by "Avatar" during its record theatrical run. But the Fox blockbuster -- virtually the only 3D release in the market for much of its run -- was an unusual mix of motion-capture animation and live action, and word quickly spread following its December debut that 3D was the way to see the epic fantasy.
By contrast, pictures such as Warner Bros.' April opener "Clash of the Titans" -- which enjoyed a mere 52% 3D contribution -- drew widespread criticism for their low-budget approach to converting the pic from 2D to 3D before release.
The industry screen crunch is expected to linger as Hollywood ramps up the number of 3D pics while theater operators struggle to outfit screens for 3D capability fast enough.
As for the pricing question, exhibitors privately acknowledge they continue to assess what the market will bear, with family pictures clearly more resistant to aggressive 3D upcharges.
DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg has backed exhibitors' desire to push the premium-pricing envelope, but the marketplace does have its limits. AMC ordered managers at a few of its New York multiplexes to chop their $20 admission price on DreamWorks' "Shrek Forever After" after the unprecedented high price drew media attention.
Wall Street analysts following exhibition stocks seem to be taking the adjustment in 3D contributions in stride.
"While recent articles have painted 'declining' 3D share trends as the culprit for recent box office woes, we place the blame squarely on mediocre film content," Piper Jaffray analyst James March wrote in a research report circulated Wednesday.
"Ghostbusters 3" Is Dead
(comingsoon.net)
(comingsoon.net)
Talking with GQ Magazine during promotion for "Get Low", a forthright Bill Murray gave refreshingly blunt honest answers to questions about his past work and upcoming projects.Asked if a third "Ghostbusters" film was still in the works, Murray says "It's all a bunch of crock" and went on to explain:"Harold Ramis said, Oh, I've got these guys, they write on The Office, and they're really funny. They're going to write the next Ghostbusters. And they had just written this movie that he had directed. "Year One". Well, I never went to see "Year One", but people who did, including other Ghostbusters, said it was one of the worst things they had ever seen in their lives. So that dream just vaporized. That was gone. But it's the studio that really wants this thing. It's a franchise."Avatar VFX Producer Joins Legend 3D Team
(BUSINESSOFCINEMA.COM) Mumbai: Legend3D, the innovator in 2D-to-3D motion picture conversion technology, today announced the addition of Senior Visual Effects (VFX) Producer Toni Pace Carstensen . In this role, Pace will be responsible for creating synergistic relationships between Legend3D and its clients. According to Pace, “The goal is to collaborate with our clients to create seamless and immersive entertainment experiences for consumers across all platforms.” Prior to joining Legend3D, Pace worked on numerous projects, most recently James Cameron’s Avatar, during which she managed the turnover of production shots to WETA Digital for final animation and developed procedures for show management. Additionally, she has worked on 3D stereo projects such as Star Trek Voyager: Borg Encounter, and Panasonic’s Blue Man Group TV promo. Other recent projects include Mission: SPACE at Disney World’s EPCOT and re-mastering of the visual effects for the original Star Trek series.
Stan Winston Family To Establish Stan Winston School of Character Arts
(BUSINESS WIRE) Gnomon School of Visual Effects, the industry leader in professional training for artists in the entertainment and design field, today revealed that it is partnering with the family of the late character creator and effects visionary, Stan Winston, to establish the Stan Winston School of Character Arts.
“We’re honored to partner with the Winston family to ensure his legacy can inspire another generation of artists to realize the incredible accomplishment of seeing the creatures born in your imagination take shape and become characters in a feature film.”
A true pioneer, Winston helped build the foundation for many of the creature effects techniques that fill today's blockbuster films. As a character development lead on films including “Terminator,” “Aliens,” “Predator,” “Jurassic Park,” “Iron Man,” and “Avatar,” Winston created cinematic icons that terrify, entertain and inspire, earning him four Academy Awards in a career spanning four decades.
Determined to realize Winston’s vision for future generations of artists, his many protégés – themselves film industry leaders – will instruct students in the magic behind their legendary work. The first Stan Winston School lessons will be available January 2011, in both DVD and online streaming formats, in association with Gnomon School of Visual Effects. The Stan Winston School also plans to offer hands-on workshops with world-renowned character effects studios in conjunction with the training DVDs and online content.
“Thanks to the expertise of our partners at Gnomon School of Visual Effects, the Stan Winston School will be at the vanguard of visual arts education. Our lessons will cover the entire spectrum of character creation techniques, from practical to digital," said Matt Winston, son of the late Stan Winston. “Never before have my father’s incredibly talented peers allowed such comprehensive access to the creative process, insights and methods they developed together. From day one, students will be transported to the alien, dinosaur, robot, and monster-filled worlds these master artists create.”
At San Diego Comic Con 2010, creature and VFX luminaries will discuss Stan Winston's impact on the art of character creation on Saturday, July 24 from 5:30 - 6:30 p.m. in room 7AB. Featuring many of the film industry’s leading character and creature artists, including Gnomon founder Alex Alvarez, The Winston Effect panel will also include messages about the Stan Winston School of Character Arts from James Cameron and Tim Burton.
“From ‘Aliens’ to ‘Avatar,’ few artists have shaped the film industry as Stan Winston has,” noted Alvarez. “We’re honored to partner with the Winston family to ensure his legacy can inspire another generation of artists to realize the incredible accomplishment of seeing the creatures born in your imagination take shape and become characters in a feature film.”
The first set of training DVDs to launch January 2011 will include the following titles from leaders in the character creation industry:
* Practical/Digital Hybrid Characters with Stan Winston life-long collaborator and co-owner of Legacy Effects, John Rosengrant
* Script Breakdown for Character Creators with Academy Award Nominee and co-owner of Legacy Effects, Shane Mahan
* Directing Creature Characters with Academy Award Nominee and co-owner of Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc., Alec Gillis
* Creature Performance with Academy Award Winner and co-owner of Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc., Tom Woodruff, Jr.
* Prosthetic Makeup with Academy Award Winner and co-owner of KNB EFX, Howard Berger
Those interested in learning more about the Stan Winston School of Character Arts can sign up on the registration page or on Facebook to receive weekly e-mail updates, sneak peeks of lessons, new plans for master artist classes, rotating Winston archival footage and interview clips.
About the Stan Winston School of Character Arts
Founded by the Winston Family, the Stan Winston School of Character Arts offers a training curriculum that covers the entire spectrum of character arts, from practical to digital. Each student can customize their own curriculum through a range of online videos, DVD lessons and hands-on workshops held in association with world-renowned Winston partners. From the first day of training, the Stan Winston School transports students to the realms of robots, aliens, dinosaurs and monsters as they learn to bring their imaginations to life on the silver screen. For more information, please visit www.stanwinstonschool.com.
VFX Tech Vet MacPherson To Helm At Framestore
(4rfv.co.uk) An Oscar-winning visual effects company and the UK's leading authority on stereoscopic 3D have appointed Steve MacPherson as Chief Technical Officer, VFX.
This new role has been developed to ensure Framestore continues to maintain and grow its position ahead of the film technology curve. MacPherson brings an unrivalled wealth of VFX technology experience, having worked for both VFX houses and technology innovators. His formative years were spent at NASA with supercomputer company, Cray Research. His most recent role was as Senior Manager and Production Specialist at leading software developer, Autodesk. In between, MacPherson helped found Polygram's film VFX facility, Double Negative. He has also held production and infrastructure development roles at Jim Henson's Creature Shop and MPC.
Framestore's Chief Executive Officer, William Sargent, commented: "This combination of high performance computing, post-production and software development expertise will take our film VFX to the next level. Steve's addition to Framestore will keep us one step ahead of the competition at a time when our film department is working on features for the likes of Scorsese and Spielberg."
Wanted: Visual Effects Artists for Lucasfilm Singapore
(todayonline.com) SINGAPORE - Whether it is Jedis with light sabres, machines transforming into giant robots or the heroics of a man in an iron suit, there is one common thread.
Some of these Hollywood scenes were made in Singapore - scenes that may be only five seconds long but which can take a team of four visual effects artists four weeks to complete.
Such talent drives Lucasfilm Singapore - talent which the leading production studio says it is having a shortage of as it grows its operations here.
Half of the company's staff are foreigners, underlying the point that Singapore needs to grow a pool of media professionals who have a flair for creating visual effects.
Lucasfilm Singapore general manager Xavier Nicolas said: "Our business is all about talent. Today, out of 400, half of them are from Singapore. If we include people from the region, like Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, it's more than 75 per cent.
"So now our plan is to continue to expand as much as we can source and train the appropriate talent to meet our business objectives."
While the company can hire and train junior artists, when it comes to mentoring them further, the company hires senior supervisors from the United States and Europe.
While most projects still come from the US, LucasFilm Singapore is aiming to jumpstart its own works, focusing on the South-east Asian market.
But the company says it is not quite there yet - a goal hard to reach without the fundamental talent pool.
Source: http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC100717-0000056/Wanted--Visual-effects-artists-for-Lucasfilm-Singapore
Animal Goes Bicoastal, Launches New Venice Studio
(shootonline.com) Venice, CA, July 20, 2010 | SHOOT Publicity Wire | --- East Coast commercial visual effects studio Animal has gone bicoastal with the launch of a West Coast studio to serve its growing roster of national and international agency clientele. Best known for its signature talking animal work, notably the beloved Taco Bell Chihuahua, Animal's Pittsburgh studio will continue to partner with its East Coast clients while extending its reach and technical services to Los Angeles. The new studio occupies an airy and spacious three-story loft strategically located on Venice's Abbot Kinney Boulevard in the heart of L.A.'s advertising and creative communities.
In the new venture, Animal partner and co-founder Michael Killen reunites with veteran executive producer Leslie Sorrentino, formerly of The Syndicate, to deliver custom-tailored services across the range of offerings from both studios, including motion graphics and CGI, color grading, finishing and compositing.
U.K. Effects Heavy Film Production Slumps
(hollywoodreporter.com) LONDON -- By the end of 2010 movie production inward investment levels -- cash flowing into production from overseas -- may end up being slightly down on the previous year's record breaking tally of £753 million ($1.1 billion), according to the U.K. Film Council.
But while this year's totals may end up falling slightly short, the U.K. Film Council declared the sector in rude health with most indicators painting a rosy picture rather than a recession-hit gloomy one for filmmakers and those working in movie production.
The latest figures, published by the U.K. Film Council Wednesday, point to healthy levels of movie production across the board in the first half of 2010, with 51 projects starting in that time with a total U.K. spend of £643 million ($981.7 million).
During the same period of 2009, the sector posted 60 movie starts with a combined spend of £726.4 million ($1.1 billion).
With movies such as "Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2," "John Carter of Mars," "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" and "Hugo Cabret" all shooting here, the 14 inward investment titles account for a U.K. spend of £557.1 million ($850.6 million) in the first half of 2010.
That compares to 19 films and a £616.9 million ($942 million) spend in the same six-month period last year.
But with an end to the "Harry Potter" franchise in sight and no sign of the next James Bond installment on the horizon, British Film Commission Colin Brown's efforts to woo the studios to these shores to shoot will continue apace.
U.K. Film Council chief executive John Woodward said he is sure efforts to bring big Hollywood productions here continue to pay off and help bolster the creative economy here.
Woodward hinted that the levels of U.S. studio activity on British shores is likely to ramp up in the remaining summer months as a favorable dollar exchange rate continues and British producers finally come to terms with taking advantage of the U.K. tax relief system that has taken a couple of years to bed in.
And the Council was also quick to point out that 2009 hit levels not seen since 2004 so this year's slight first half downturn should be looked at in terms of last year being a bumper year rather than the norm.
The figures came as part of the U.K. Film Council's publication of its annual statistical yearbook online.
The hefty undertaking, jam-packed with facts and figures on the film industry is now only available in digital form as the Council phases out the days of the hefty paper tome and embraces the modern age with an all-singing all-dancing digital Internet micro site complete with charts, figures and comment.
The Council is holding its breath now until the coalition Government's budget measures in October hoping that the tax credit system remains in place and is not cut as part of deficit reduction measures being introduced across the board.
"It's been proven that the tax credit system works and is abuse-proof, so we are hopeful it will be maintained," Woodward said.
UK Film Board Statistical Yearbook: http://sy10.ukfilmcouncil.ry.com/
Will Inception Strike VFX Oscar Gold?
(flicksided.com) Even if Inception follows in the footsteps of Nolan’s last film, The Dark Knight, which was shut out of most major categories, it’s sure to get some recognition for its technical achievements (many forget: TDK did earn a total of eight nominations two years ago, with seven being in technical categories).
With that in mind, we must recognize the film’s absolutely breathtaking visuals. The worlds created during the various dream-sequences will surely catch the Academy’s attention and net nominations for both Visual Effects and Art Direction. The only way Inception will miss out on either of these two categories is if the movie is shut out completely. Also, the visuals are captured through the lens of Nolan’s incredible DP, Wally Pfister; a Best Cinematography nod is very likely as well (he was nominated for his work in Nolan’s last three films, don’t expect that trend to end here).
(BUSINESSOFCINEMA.COM) Mumbai: Legend3D, the innovator in 2D-to-3D motion picture conversion technology, today announced the addition of Senior Visual Effects (VFX) Producer Toni Pace Carstensen . In this role, Pace will be responsible for creating synergistic relationships between Legend3D and its clients. According to Pace, “The goal is to collaborate with our clients to create seamless and immersive entertainment experiences for consumers across all platforms.” Prior to joining Legend3D, Pace worked on numerous projects, most recently James Cameron’s Avatar, during which she managed the turnover of production shots to WETA Digital for final animation and developed procedures for show management. Additionally, she has worked on 3D stereo projects such as Star Trek Voyager: Borg Encounter, and Panasonic’s Blue Man Group TV promo. Other recent projects include Mission: SPACE at Disney World’s EPCOT and re-mastering of the visual effects for the original Star Trek series.
Stan Winston Family To Establish Stan Winston School of Character Arts
(BUSINESS WIRE) Gnomon School of Visual Effects, the industry leader in professional training for artists in the entertainment and design field, today revealed that it is partnering with the family of the late character creator and effects visionary, Stan Winston, to establish the Stan Winston School of Character Arts.
“We’re honored to partner with the Winston family to ensure his legacy can inspire another generation of artists to realize the incredible accomplishment of seeing the creatures born in your imagination take shape and become characters in a feature film.”
A true pioneer, Winston helped build the foundation for many of the creature effects techniques that fill today's blockbuster films. As a character development lead on films including “Terminator,” “Aliens,” “Predator,” “Jurassic Park,” “Iron Man,” and “Avatar,” Winston created cinematic icons that terrify, entertain and inspire, earning him four Academy Awards in a career spanning four decades.
Determined to realize Winston’s vision for future generations of artists, his many protégés – themselves film industry leaders – will instruct students in the magic behind their legendary work. The first Stan Winston School lessons will be available January 2011, in both DVD and online streaming formats, in association with Gnomon School of Visual Effects. The Stan Winston School also plans to offer hands-on workshops with world-renowned character effects studios in conjunction with the training DVDs and online content.
“Thanks to the expertise of our partners at Gnomon School of Visual Effects, the Stan Winston School will be at the vanguard of visual arts education. Our lessons will cover the entire spectrum of character creation techniques, from practical to digital," said Matt Winston, son of the late Stan Winston. “Never before have my father’s incredibly talented peers allowed such comprehensive access to the creative process, insights and methods they developed together. From day one, students will be transported to the alien, dinosaur, robot, and monster-filled worlds these master artists create.”
At San Diego Comic Con 2010, creature and VFX luminaries will discuss Stan Winston's impact on the art of character creation on Saturday, July 24 from 5:30 - 6:30 p.m. in room 7AB. Featuring many of the film industry’s leading character and creature artists, including Gnomon founder Alex Alvarez, The Winston Effect panel will also include messages about the Stan Winston School of Character Arts from James Cameron and Tim Burton.
“From ‘Aliens’ to ‘Avatar,’ few artists have shaped the film industry as Stan Winston has,” noted Alvarez. “We’re honored to partner with the Winston family to ensure his legacy can inspire another generation of artists to realize the incredible accomplishment of seeing the creatures born in your imagination take shape and become characters in a feature film.”
The first set of training DVDs to launch January 2011 will include the following titles from leaders in the character creation industry:
* Practical/Digital Hybrid Characters with Stan Winston life-long collaborator and co-owner of Legacy Effects, John Rosengrant
* Script Breakdown for Character Creators with Academy Award Nominee and co-owner of Legacy Effects, Shane Mahan
* Directing Creature Characters with Academy Award Nominee and co-owner of Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc., Alec Gillis
* Creature Performance with Academy Award Winner and co-owner of Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc., Tom Woodruff, Jr.
* Prosthetic Makeup with Academy Award Winner and co-owner of KNB EFX, Howard Berger
Those interested in learning more about the Stan Winston School of Character Arts can sign up on the registration page or on Facebook to receive weekly e-mail updates, sneak peeks of lessons, new plans for master artist classes, rotating Winston archival footage and interview clips.
About the Stan Winston School of Character Arts
Founded by the Winston Family, the Stan Winston School of Character Arts offers a training curriculum that covers the entire spectrum of character arts, from practical to digital. Each student can customize their own curriculum through a range of online videos, DVD lessons and hands-on workshops held in association with world-renowned Winston partners. From the first day of training, the Stan Winston School transports students to the realms of robots, aliens, dinosaurs and monsters as they learn to bring their imaginations to life on the silver screen. For more information, please visit www.stanwinstonschool.com.
VFX Tech Vet MacPherson To Helm At Framestore
(4rfv.co.uk) An Oscar-winning visual effects company and the UK's leading authority on stereoscopic 3D have appointed Steve MacPherson as Chief Technical Officer, VFX.
This new role has been developed to ensure Framestore continues to maintain and grow its position ahead of the film technology curve. MacPherson brings an unrivalled wealth of VFX technology experience, having worked for both VFX houses and technology innovators. His formative years were spent at NASA with supercomputer company, Cray Research. His most recent role was as Senior Manager and Production Specialist at leading software developer, Autodesk. In between, MacPherson helped found Polygram's film VFX facility, Double Negative. He has also held production and infrastructure development roles at Jim Henson's Creature Shop and MPC.
Framestore's Chief Executive Officer, William Sargent, commented: "This combination of high performance computing, post-production and software development expertise will take our film VFX to the next level. Steve's addition to Framestore will keep us one step ahead of the competition at a time when our film department is working on features for the likes of Scorsese and Spielberg."
Wanted: Visual Effects Artists for Lucasfilm Singapore
(todayonline.com) SINGAPORE - Whether it is Jedis with light sabres, machines transforming into giant robots or the heroics of a man in an iron suit, there is one common thread.
Some of these Hollywood scenes were made in Singapore - scenes that may be only five seconds long but which can take a team of four visual effects artists four weeks to complete.
Such talent drives Lucasfilm Singapore - talent which the leading production studio says it is having a shortage of as it grows its operations here.
Half of the company's staff are foreigners, underlying the point that Singapore needs to grow a pool of media professionals who have a flair for creating visual effects.
Lucasfilm Singapore general manager Xavier Nicolas said: "Our business is all about talent. Today, out of 400, half of them are from Singapore. If we include people from the region, like Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, it's more than 75 per cent.
"So now our plan is to continue to expand as much as we can source and train the appropriate talent to meet our business objectives."
While the company can hire and train junior artists, when it comes to mentoring them further, the company hires senior supervisors from the United States and Europe.
While most projects still come from the US, LucasFilm Singapore is aiming to jumpstart its own works, focusing on the South-east Asian market.
But the company says it is not quite there yet - a goal hard to reach without the fundamental talent pool.
Source: http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC100717-0000056/Wanted--Visual-effects-artists-for-Lucasfilm-Singapore
Animal Goes Bicoastal, Launches New Venice Studio
(shootonline.com) Venice, CA, July 20, 2010 | SHOOT Publicity Wire | --- East Coast commercial visual effects studio Animal has gone bicoastal with the launch of a West Coast studio to serve its growing roster of national and international agency clientele. Best known for its signature talking animal work, notably the beloved Taco Bell Chihuahua, Animal's Pittsburgh studio will continue to partner with its East Coast clients while extending its reach and technical services to Los Angeles. The new studio occupies an airy and spacious three-story loft strategically located on Venice's Abbot Kinney Boulevard in the heart of L.A.'s advertising and creative communities.
In the new venture, Animal partner and co-founder Michael Killen reunites with veteran executive producer Leslie Sorrentino, formerly of The Syndicate, to deliver custom-tailored services across the range of offerings from both studios, including motion graphics and CGI, color grading, finishing and compositing.
U.K. Effects Heavy Film Production Slumps
(hollywoodreporter.com) LONDON -- By the end of 2010 movie production inward investment levels -- cash flowing into production from overseas -- may end up being slightly down on the previous year's record breaking tally of £753 million ($1.1 billion), according to the U.K. Film Council.
But while this year's totals may end up falling slightly short, the U.K. Film Council declared the sector in rude health with most indicators painting a rosy picture rather than a recession-hit gloomy one for filmmakers and those working in movie production.
The latest figures, published by the U.K. Film Council Wednesday, point to healthy levels of movie production across the board in the first half of 2010, with 51 projects starting in that time with a total U.K. spend of £643 million ($981.7 million).
During the same period of 2009, the sector posted 60 movie starts with a combined spend of £726.4 million ($1.1 billion).
With movies such as "Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2," "John Carter of Mars," "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" and "Hugo Cabret" all shooting here, the 14 inward investment titles account for a U.K. spend of £557.1 million ($850.6 million) in the first half of 2010.
That compares to 19 films and a £616.9 million ($942 million) spend in the same six-month period last year.
But with an end to the "Harry Potter" franchise in sight and no sign of the next James Bond installment on the horizon, British Film Commission Colin Brown's efforts to woo the studios to these shores to shoot will continue apace.
U.K. Film Council chief executive John Woodward said he is sure efforts to bring big Hollywood productions here continue to pay off and help bolster the creative economy here.
Woodward hinted that the levels of U.S. studio activity on British shores is likely to ramp up in the remaining summer months as a favorable dollar exchange rate continues and British producers finally come to terms with taking advantage of the U.K. tax relief system that has taken a couple of years to bed in.
And the Council was also quick to point out that 2009 hit levels not seen since 2004 so this year's slight first half downturn should be looked at in terms of last year being a bumper year rather than the norm.
The figures came as part of the U.K. Film Council's publication of its annual statistical yearbook online.
The hefty undertaking, jam-packed with facts and figures on the film industry is now only available in digital form as the Council phases out the days of the hefty paper tome and embraces the modern age with an all-singing all-dancing digital Internet micro site complete with charts, figures and comment.
The Council is holding its breath now until the coalition Government's budget measures in October hoping that the tax credit system remains in place and is not cut as part of deficit reduction measures being introduced across the board.
"It's been proven that the tax credit system works and is abuse-proof, so we are hopeful it will be maintained," Woodward said.
UK Film Board Statistical Yearbook: http://sy10.ukfilmcouncil.ry.com/
Will Inception Strike VFX Oscar Gold?
(flicksided.com) Even if Inception follows in the footsteps of Nolan’s last film, The Dark Knight, which was shut out of most major categories, it’s sure to get some recognition for its technical achievements (many forget: TDK did earn a total of eight nominations two years ago, with seven being in technical categories).
With that in mind, we must recognize the film’s absolutely breathtaking visuals. The worlds created during the various dream-sequences will surely catch the Academy’s attention and net nominations for both Visual Effects and Art Direction. The only way Inception will miss out on either of these two categories is if the movie is shut out completely. Also, the visuals are captured through the lens of Nolan’s incredible DP, Wally Pfister; a Best Cinematography nod is very likely as well (he was nominated for his work in Nolan’s last three films, don’t expect that trend to end here).
Star Trek Sequel Starts Filming in January
(Hollywood.com)
(Hollywood.com)
Bruce Greenwood, who played Christopher Pike in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek, revealed to Hollywood.com that filming on the sequel will start in January."I just know that the plan is to film it in January, more than that, I don't know," Greenwood said, adding that he hoped to have a role in the movie.John Cho, Simon Pegg, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban and Anton Yelchin are expected to return in the June 29, 2012 release. Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman again wrote the script.UPDATE: TrekMovie.com tells us they talked to producer Bryan Burk earlier this month who said that filming would actually start late spring or early summer instead.
Michael Bay's The Institute to Produce Hansel and Gretel in 3D
(ComingSoon.net) Michael Bay's The Institue will produce Hansel and Gretel in 3D, an action-packed visual FX-filled version of the classic Grimm Brothers fairytale.
In addition to the infamous witch in the gingerbread house, the film showcases the legendary creatures of German mythology. These Teutonic beings will be designed by Joseph C. Pepe, the lead character designer from Avatar. The film is live action.
The movie is being produced by The Institute and Kalliope Films. The Institute was co-founded by Michael Bay and Scott Gardenhour. Kalliope Films was founded by Kira Madallo Sesay. Scott Gardenhour and Kira Madallo Sesay are the producers on the film.
The movie is scheduled for a spring 2011 shoot on location in Germany.
Get a Glimpse of The Goon in Full CG Motion
(joblo.com) It's been a long couple of years now since we first heard that Eric Powell's great monster/mobster comic THE GOON was becoming a feature film, courtesy of producer David Fincher (FIGHT CLUB, etc.) and FX company Blur Studios. So it's nice to see the project is still slowly coming to computer-rendered life.
MTV got a quick peek at some of the footage from the movie, which features Paul Giamatti voicing Goon's sidekick Frankie. More footage will be unveiled at the Friday panel at Comic Con -- where Giamatti and Fincher will be in attendance with Powell -- after which the full clip(s) will be online for those would can't make it to San Diego.
For now, groove to the undead slapstick and mayhem: http://www.joblo.com/index.php?id=33063
How Inception’s Astonishing Visuals Came to Life
(wired.com) Paul Franklin specializes in turning the imaginary into reality. As the visual effects supervisor for Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and now Inception, Franklin is well-versed in helping directors like Christopher Nolan populate their cinematic worlds with larger-than-life computer-generated images.
However, in spite of Inception’s lush, physics-bending effects, Franklin’s work on Nolan’s cerebral sci-fi film was surprisingly measured.
“Some of the more spectacular imagery of the film — the street folding over in Paris, characters creating architecture out of thin air — are VFX shots that we created from a combination of live action and copious amounts of digital animation,” Franklin told Wired.com in a phone interview.
Wired.com spoke with Franklin about his experiences planning, crafting and polishing Inception’s dreamy visuals to work with Nolan’s fastidious brand of filmmaking.
Wired.com: At what point in the production did the VFX work start for you?
Franklin: I was brought in right at the beginning. Christopher [Nolan] called me up and asked if I wanted to read the film. Of course, I had trek out to L.A. and read it under close guard — they put me in a room on the Warner Bros. lot, locked the door behind me, and had someone posted outside over the two-hour time limit I was allotted to read the script.
From there, Chris and I had ongoing back-and-forth conversations about the scope and the VFX shots needed as we started the search for shooting locations.
Wired.com: With all this amazing imagery in Inception, did you spend a lot of time waiting for things to render?
Franklin: Actually, the visual effects shot count on Inception was about par with what we had on Batman Begins. We came in at about 500 shots, whereas Batman was about 620. That’s actually fairly minor when compared to some of today’s visual effects epics, which can have something like 1,500 or 2,000 VFX shots. Our goal was to build on the existing reality that’d already been filmed.
Full Press: http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/07/inception-visual-effects/
VFX Pioneer Douglas Trumbull Plans Sci-fi Film to Jumpstart Western Mass. Cluster
(Journal of New England Technology) While taking a breather from Hollywood, visual effects pioneer Douglas Trumbull re-located to the Berkshires in 1987 — ultimately begetting a cluster of visual effects companies in the area. The cluster has seen several core companies depart since the mid-1990s. Now, Trumbull, who remains in the Berkshires, hopes to inspire a new wave of visual effects firms to migrate to the area. His plan to accomplish this? Produce a sci-fi film entirely in Western Massachusetts.
“I’m hearing from a lot of friends that are eager to come back and get going again,” said Trumbull, whose visual effects credits include “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”
“I would expect there could be some real growth over the next couple of years,” Trumbull said. Along with Trumbull’s operation in Southfield, several top-tier visual effects companies still work in the Berkshires, including Sandbox F/X in Pittsfield (“Lord of the Rings,” “Chronicles of Narnia”) and Synthespian Studios in Williamstown (“X-Men,” “Fantastic Four”).
The Berkshires have long boasted a culture of creativity and arts, and visual effects professionals say they’ve found the area to be an ideal location for their work. High quality of life and proximity to cultural attractions and to nature are among the major advantages. “A lot of these big visual effects entities are in large cities with all kinds of traffic issues and big, urban environments.
That’s not the case here,” said John Nugent, who founded Sandbox F/X and whose credits include the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. “You can go hike on a mountain anytime and think about how to solve a technical problem,” said Diane Pearlman, executive director of the Berkshire Film and Media Commission. Technological advances also now make the distance from Hollywood or New York less of an issue for visual-effects companies, Trumbull said. “It’s becoming more credible to be here,” he said.
Trumbull said he had needed to get away from Hollywood after directing his second film, “Brainstorm,” whose star, Natalie Wood, drowned during a break in the production. The resulting tensions drove Trumbull to look at re-locating to New England. Trumbull settled on the Berkshires, and opened a studio in Lenox for non-film visual effects projects, including Universal Studios’ Back to the Future ride and visual effects attractions for the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas.
Many of those who came to the Berkshires to work on the projects would stay. Pearlman and visual effects supervisor Joel Hynek, who worked on the Luxor project, started a new effects company for Cinergi Pictures Entertainment and took over Trumbull’s studio to house it. The company, Mass.Illusion, would become the largest visual effects company in the Berkshires in the 1990s, with as many as 200 people working there at times, said Pearlman, who served as general manager.
The location helped to foster innovation in effects, she said, in part “because you didn’t have other people looking over your shoulder like you would in Hollywood or New York.” The film “What Dreams May Come” — which earned Hynek an Oscar — and the breakthrough visual effects for “The Matrix” were among the credits for Mass.Illusion. The firm was sold by Cinergi and moved to California in the middle of the making of “The Matrix” in 1998. But some of the movie’s most famous effects were invented in the Berkshires, Pearlman said.
“The ‘bullet-time effect’ was actually developed behind a quonset hut here in Lenox,” she said. Nugent had worked for Mass.Illusion and went with the company when it moved, but said he yearned to come back to Western Massachusetts. After working on the first two “Lord of the Rings” films in New Zealand, he decided he wanted to raise his children in one place.
Nugent says he struck a deal with director Peter Jackson to do work on the third film from a studio in Pittsfield, leading to the creation of Sandbox F/X. The Sandbox team ranges from three people up to 13, depending on the project, he said. “Not very many people know we’re here,” Nugent said. Trumbull, meanwhile, has been developing new visual effects techniques that he plans to use in his new film — including techniques for shortening the production schedule and reducing the size of the crew.
Trumbull didn’t elaborate on the nature of the film, other than to say it would be a “sci-fi space epic.” Trumbull said he’s written several drafts of the screenplay and may end up directing the film as well. With luck, the project will inspire new interest in the visual effects cluster in the Berkshires, and perhaps lead a broader film and media industry to take shape in the area, Trumbull said. “People find it so stunningly better than living in New York or LA,” he said. “Once you get someone to come and work, they tend to bring their wives and kids. And they all fall in love with the community and don’t want to leave.”
Tim Burton Confirmed For "Monsterpocalypse"
(darkhorizons.com) Film producer Roy Lee has confirmed that Tim Burton is set to direct the board game to film adaptation "Monsterpocalypse" for Dreamworks Pictures reports Slashfilm.
I can confirm that Tim Burton is developing it to direct. He's working closely with John August on story" Lee told the site. Lee also confirmed they plan to shoot the movie in full 3D and are fast tracking the project for a 2012 release.
The story involves giant skyscraper sized monsters who attack earth. When the humans fight back, the monsters burrow underground to wait for their kind whom they have sent a signal to.
Humanity knows more are coming, and so build giant robots that will fight the monsters if and when they return.
Game creator Matt Wilson will serve as co-producer on the film.
Sam Raimi To Wander The Post-apocalyptic Wasteland
(cinematical.com) He may not be swinging with Spider-Man any longer, but Sam Raimi is hardly lacking for work. He's hardly snubbing the geek genre world either, as Variety announced that he's signed on to direct Earp: Saints for Sinners for DreamWorks and Radical Studios.
Saints for Sinners is based on the upcoming graphic novel Earp: Saints for Sinners that's being published by Radical Comics. More details of the graphic novel are going to be unveiled this week at ComicCon, but Variety describes it as a sci-fi western. And yes, it does star Wyatt Earp, or at least a modern day incarnation of him. This Earp battles outlaws in a post-apocalyptic wasteland where the only bit of civilization left is in Las Vegas. It sounds like it could be The Stand meets Tombstone, crossed with Raimi's The Quick and the Dead and beloved Evil Dead series.
Small Anim Crew = High Profits For Universal
(latimes.com) With "Despicable Me's" better-than-expected results standing out in a crowded animation field, Universal Co-Chairman Donna Langley said, "We saw there was room for another player."
That player is Meledandri's own animation company, Illumination Entertainment, whose movies Universal finances and distributes. The studio recently extended Meledandri's exclusive, multiyear contract, which entitles the producer to a percentage of his movies' profits.
Given that Illumination's first time at bat with "Despicable Me" was a home run, Fogelson and Langley acknowledge that it validates the decision made three years ago by their predecessors, Marc Shmuger and David Linde, to draft Meledandri as the studio's go-to family guy.
Meledandri's business plan, however, differs from other studios'. He keeps overhead low by employing only 35 people at an office on an industrial block in Santa Monica. By contrast, DreamWorks and Pixar employ staffs of more than 2,000 and 1,200, respectively, who work at lavish, sprawling campuses.
"We believe that small is more efficient," said Meledandri, who contracted with an animation house in Paris to produce "Despicable Me" and other projects. Hands-on, Meledandri embedded his producing associates and key executives to manage the productions — and pays the salaries of some 200 people working on his movies — to maintain control.
With a production budget of $69 million, "Despicable Me" cost less than half of other major digitally animated films, in part because Illumination saves money by working with first-time directors and teaming experienced artists with younger, less costly talent.
Meledandri has taken much of what he learned at Fox — including the binding rule to get "a unified, clear view of what the story is" before starting production — and applied it at Universal. He learned that the hard way when the budget of Fox's animated film "Titan A.E." ballooned during production — and whose box office failure in 2000 nearly cost him his job after the studio "wrote down $100 million of Rupert Murdoch's money," Meledandri said.
Full Press: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-universal-20100720,0,877209.story
Green Lantern CG Suit Revealed!
(scifiblock.com) ... And there it is, on the cover of Entertainment Weekly, the first look at the CG Green Lantern suit Ryan Reynolds will "wear" as Hal Jordan in the upcoming Green Lantern film. I think it's safe to say this is not what anyone expected. As opposed to the traditional superhero spandex, this suit looks more like ... someone ripped off a Green Lantern's skin and found green muscle underneath.
I'm not sure why the designers opted to totally shun the traditional GL costume, but I'm not sure it's all that bad, really. In a certain way, I actually kinda dig it. I think we'll need to see the pants before we can really come to a final verdict here, but it's at least not ridiculous, even if it is perhaps overly sinewy.
Take a look: http://scifiblock.com/sites/all/files/cg-costume.png
“ECLIPSE” FX: Wolfing Out
(fangoria.com) By now, you no doubt have an opinion of THE TWILIGHT SAGA, the inescapable movie adaptations of Stephenie Meyer’s novels. The latest entry, ECLIPSE, has been declared the best in the series, likely due to the more straightforward conflict and clearer stakes of its plot. While ECLIPSE is unlikely to convert non-fans, the FX are inarguably better than in the previous entries, especially the computer-generated wolves created by Tippett Studio.
When introduced in NEW MOON, these canines stayed on the leash outside of a few scuffles and bared fangs. ECLIPSE features a wilder wolf pack whose increased feral tendencies emphasize the differences between Bella’s suitors—and did we mention that the movie climaxes with snarling werewolves savagely attacking bloodthirsty newborn vampires?
The company responsible for the CG lycanthropes is Tippett Studio, founded by FX pioneer Phil Tippett, famous for stop-motion classics like the AT-AT walkers in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and the lumbering ED-209 in ROBOCOP. In the CGI age, Tippett Studio has created everything from the giant bugs in Paul Verhoeven’s STARSHIP TROOPERS to the talking pets in this summer’s CATS AND DOGS: THE REVENGE OF KITTY GALORE. For ECLIPSE, Eric Leven served as the company’s visual FX supervisor, bringing the wolves to ferocious life.
Unlike some cinematic wolfmen, TWILIGHT’s pack are quadrupeds very similar to real wolves, albeit enormous by comparison. After arriving late to NEW MOON’s FX, Leven observed director Chris Weitz putting an emphasis on anthropomorphizing the otherwise physically accurate animals. “Chris wanted the audience to understand everything the wolves were feeling,” Leven notes.
Before NEW MOON, the Tippett Studio team logged time at a nature preserve in Los Angeles, observing real, fully grown wolves first-hand. That homework proved handy when ECLIPSE director David Slade requested a more menacing brood. “The work on NEW MOON dovetailed into ECLIPSE, and David came in and made it clear we were going to get away from humanizing the wolves,” Leven recalls. “We were going to make them animals again.” Such choices were informed by ECLIPSE’s story (scripted by Melissa Rosenberg), in which the tension between lycanthropes and vampires is more overt and expanded from NEW MOON. “In the second movie, they were played more like sentries,” Leven notes. “In this one, they’re wilder. You don’t know whether they’re going to jump on you or not.” Despite that, the creatures of ECLIPSE are capable of acting nuances; witness the moment in which the alpha wolf watches the Cullen vampire clan sparring with each other. While the wolf attempts to keep his threatening posture, his body language will be familiar to anybody who has ordered their dog to sit out on a fun activity.
The freedom to add character touches like this led to Leven’s personal favorite effect in ECLIPSE, when Bella (Kristen Stewart) runs her hand over Jacob-wolf in full view of Edward (Robert Pattinson). It’s a challenging effect, requiring Stewart to physically interact with the CG animal, as well as an emotionally loaded story moment, as Edward observes the connection between Bella and Jacob for himself. The end result is as striking a visual as the series has to offer, with uncanny texture on the digital fur. “That was another mandate from the director,” Leven says. “He saw the first pass and said, ‘I need more fur!’ Fur is notoriously difficult in CGI. We added to the total number of hairs, and it turned out that wasn’t the issue. It was really the style of the fur, the sheen of the fur, what happened when the light hit it.
“Sometimes it’s difficult for a director to communicate what they want,” Leven points out, “because they’re not speaking in the kinds of technical terms we use. The effects team has to establish a language with every new filmmaker. It can be pretty rough at first.”
Full Press: http://www.fangoria.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1401:eclipse-fx-wolfing-out&catid=36:demo-articles&Itemid=56
CG market Will Exceed $150 Billion in 2013
TIBURON, Calif., July 20 /PRNewswire/ -- The computer graphics industry has been a growth industry since it was established in the late 1970s. Weathering the storms of the recession of 2009, the CG industry is back on track and showing new, invigorated vitality and potential.
The computer graphics hardware market was worth $59 billion in 2009 and should exceed $63 billion in 2010.
In 2009 the CG software market was worth $11 billion (not counting services, maintenance and other aspects) and should grow to $11.6 billion in 2010 as the industry shakes off the remaining effects of the recession and starts replacing software tools.
Figure 1: Computer Graphics Hardware Market: http://www.ereleases.com/pic/2010-Hardware-Market-Chart.jpg
As a result of the pullback due to the recession, more people will be buying computer graphics software programs and we will see the development of traditional segments like CAD/CAM expand as new design approaches in automotive, aerospace, and architecture are brought forth. Visualization, a market that has been almost dormant for the past few years, is poised now for great expansion due to exciting and lower-cost technologies.
Figure 2: Computer Graphics Software Market: http://www.ereleases.com/pic/2010-Software-Market-Chart.jpg
Today, software programs for making movies and computer games, designing products, and creating simulations are exploiting the features of today's CG hardware. Jon Peddie Research (JPR) is seeing the results in amazing realism and real-time capabilities for the next generation of films and designs, and the trend is accelerating.
The demand for programmers, artists, scientists, and designers has picked up again and firms are actively looking for people who can use and exploit these new programs and their associated hardware accelerators. The economic recession has caused a slowdown, but it's going to look like a small bump in the road by 2013.
JPR is seeing new opportunities growing out of more mainstream applications for the web and consumer applications. The web is growing as a distribution medium for graphics content, which in turn encourages people to pick up the tools, learn them, create content for pleasure, and even look for jobs in the field. What used to be a very closed society of experts is opening up.
Bay Thanks Chicago For Transformer Shoot
(contactmusic.com) TRANSFORMERS director MICHAEL BAY has thanked officials in Chicago, Illinois for allowing his crew to take over swathes of the city last weekend (10-11Jul10) to film a massive action shoot for the upcoming sequel.
Production on the third robot movie transferred from California to Chicago for a series of daredevil stunts and local authorities gave Bay and his crew permission to fly helicopters low over the city as skydivers parachuted from the top of Trump Tower into the streets below. Many roads had to be closed off, while extra police officers were deployed to maintain order.
The shoot, which saw hordes of actors in camouflage gear charging around town in epic battle scenes, caused traffic chaos in many areas, and Bay has thanked local residents for their understanding, as well as officials for giving them the go-ahead to bring Transformers to Chicago.
The director tells the Chicago Sun-Times, "The city's been unbelievably amazing - from Mayor Daley all the way down to each and every police officer helping us out. We don't want to inconvenience people too much, so we've been working hard to play ball with the fire department and the police."
Steven Spielberg - Spielberg Had 'Guest Shot' In Beowulf
(contactmusic.com) STEVEN SPIELBERG embraced modern "motion capture" technology for movies after he tried it out for fun in pal ROBERT ZEMECKIS' film BEOWULF - and his "guest shot" made it to the final cut.
The Jaws director admits he felt "depressed" when he saw Zemeckis' 2004 movie The Polar Express, because he was convinced the latest technology was leaving him behind.
He later paid a visit to his fellow director while he was editing Beowulf, and Zemeckis urged Spielberg to experiment with the new techniques.
So the Oscar-winning film-maker played around with the motion capture equipment - and his work was so good, Zemeckis left it in the final cut of the movie.
Spielberg tells Empire magazine, "When I first went on the stage to watch Polar Express, I was terrified. I thought, 'Oh my God, I'm an old man and life is passing me by. Bob's (Zemeckis) got this whole new way of making movies. I'll never be able to fathom it. I'm not going to be able to get into it.' I only stayed about half an hour and I went home very depressed.
"I got inspired to maybe want to dabble in this medium when I went back to Bob's cutting room and Bob gave me this old, plastic, chunky Panasonic camera and he said, 'Come on Steve, make a shot! Make a shot!' And he had this whole world on the screen and I moved around and the world changed. It was like a video-game. I saw Beowulf on a dragon so I brought the camera up and started on his face. Bob hit 'Play'... And suddenly I was liberated.
"I took my kids to the IMAX theatre on Broadway in New York to see Beowulf the day it opened and I went like this to (my son) Theo, 'That's my shot!'"
-H
Michael Bay's The Institute to Produce Hansel and Gretel in 3D
(ComingSoon.net) Michael Bay's The Institue will produce Hansel and Gretel in 3D, an action-packed visual FX-filled version of the classic Grimm Brothers fairytale.
In addition to the infamous witch in the gingerbread house, the film showcases the legendary creatures of German mythology. These Teutonic beings will be designed by Joseph C. Pepe, the lead character designer from Avatar. The film is live action.
The movie is being produced by The Institute and Kalliope Films. The Institute was co-founded by Michael Bay and Scott Gardenhour. Kalliope Films was founded by Kira Madallo Sesay. Scott Gardenhour and Kira Madallo Sesay are the producers on the film.
The movie is scheduled for a spring 2011 shoot on location in Germany.
Get a Glimpse of The Goon in Full CG Motion
(joblo.com) It's been a long couple of years now since we first heard that Eric Powell's great monster/mobster comic THE GOON was becoming a feature film, courtesy of producer David Fincher (FIGHT CLUB, etc.) and FX company Blur Studios. So it's nice to see the project is still slowly coming to computer-rendered life.
MTV got a quick peek at some of the footage from the movie, which features Paul Giamatti voicing Goon's sidekick Frankie. More footage will be unveiled at the Friday panel at Comic Con -- where Giamatti and Fincher will be in attendance with Powell -- after which the full clip(s) will be online for those would can't make it to San Diego.
For now, groove to the undead slapstick and mayhem: http://www.joblo.com/index.php?id=33063
How Inception’s Astonishing Visuals Came to Life
(wired.com) Paul Franklin specializes in turning the imaginary into reality. As the visual effects supervisor for Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and now Inception, Franklin is well-versed in helping directors like Christopher Nolan populate their cinematic worlds with larger-than-life computer-generated images.
However, in spite of Inception’s lush, physics-bending effects, Franklin’s work on Nolan’s cerebral sci-fi film was surprisingly measured.
“Some of the more spectacular imagery of the film — the street folding over in Paris, characters creating architecture out of thin air — are VFX shots that we created from a combination of live action and copious amounts of digital animation,” Franklin told Wired.com in a phone interview.
Wired.com spoke with Franklin about his experiences planning, crafting and polishing Inception’s dreamy visuals to work with Nolan’s fastidious brand of filmmaking.
Wired.com: At what point in the production did the VFX work start for you?
Franklin: I was brought in right at the beginning. Christopher [Nolan] called me up and asked if I wanted to read the film. Of course, I had trek out to L.A. and read it under close guard — they put me in a room on the Warner Bros. lot, locked the door behind me, and had someone posted outside over the two-hour time limit I was allotted to read the script.
From there, Chris and I had ongoing back-and-forth conversations about the scope and the VFX shots needed as we started the search for shooting locations.
Wired.com: With all this amazing imagery in Inception, did you spend a lot of time waiting for things to render?
Franklin: Actually, the visual effects shot count on Inception was about par with what we had on Batman Begins. We came in at about 500 shots, whereas Batman was about 620. That’s actually fairly minor when compared to some of today’s visual effects epics, which can have something like 1,500 or 2,000 VFX shots. Our goal was to build on the existing reality that’d already been filmed.
Full Press: http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/07/inception-visual-effects/
VFX Pioneer Douglas Trumbull Plans Sci-fi Film to Jumpstart Western Mass. Cluster
(Journal of New England Technology) While taking a breather from Hollywood, visual effects pioneer Douglas Trumbull re-located to the Berkshires in 1987 — ultimately begetting a cluster of visual effects companies in the area. The cluster has seen several core companies depart since the mid-1990s. Now, Trumbull, who remains in the Berkshires, hopes to inspire a new wave of visual effects firms to migrate to the area. His plan to accomplish this? Produce a sci-fi film entirely in Western Massachusetts.
“I’m hearing from a lot of friends that are eager to come back and get going again,” said Trumbull, whose visual effects credits include “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”
“I would expect there could be some real growth over the next couple of years,” Trumbull said. Along with Trumbull’s operation in Southfield, several top-tier visual effects companies still work in the Berkshires, including Sandbox F/X in Pittsfield (“Lord of the Rings,” “Chronicles of Narnia”) and Synthespian Studios in Williamstown (“X-Men,” “Fantastic Four”).
The Berkshires have long boasted a culture of creativity and arts, and visual effects professionals say they’ve found the area to be an ideal location for their work. High quality of life and proximity to cultural attractions and to nature are among the major advantages. “A lot of these big visual effects entities are in large cities with all kinds of traffic issues and big, urban environments.
That’s not the case here,” said John Nugent, who founded Sandbox F/X and whose credits include the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. “You can go hike on a mountain anytime and think about how to solve a technical problem,” said Diane Pearlman, executive director of the Berkshire Film and Media Commission. Technological advances also now make the distance from Hollywood or New York less of an issue for visual-effects companies, Trumbull said. “It’s becoming more credible to be here,” he said.
Trumbull said he had needed to get away from Hollywood after directing his second film, “Brainstorm,” whose star, Natalie Wood, drowned during a break in the production. The resulting tensions drove Trumbull to look at re-locating to New England. Trumbull settled on the Berkshires, and opened a studio in Lenox for non-film visual effects projects, including Universal Studios’ Back to the Future ride and visual effects attractions for the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas.
Many of those who came to the Berkshires to work on the projects would stay. Pearlman and visual effects supervisor Joel Hynek, who worked on the Luxor project, started a new effects company for Cinergi Pictures Entertainment and took over Trumbull’s studio to house it. The company, Mass.Illusion, would become the largest visual effects company in the Berkshires in the 1990s, with as many as 200 people working there at times, said Pearlman, who served as general manager.
The location helped to foster innovation in effects, she said, in part “because you didn’t have other people looking over your shoulder like you would in Hollywood or New York.” The film “What Dreams May Come” — which earned Hynek an Oscar — and the breakthrough visual effects for “The Matrix” were among the credits for Mass.Illusion. The firm was sold by Cinergi and moved to California in the middle of the making of “The Matrix” in 1998. But some of the movie’s most famous effects were invented in the Berkshires, Pearlman said.
“The ‘bullet-time effect’ was actually developed behind a quonset hut here in Lenox,” she said. Nugent had worked for Mass.Illusion and went with the company when it moved, but said he yearned to come back to Western Massachusetts. After working on the first two “Lord of the Rings” films in New Zealand, he decided he wanted to raise his children in one place.
Nugent says he struck a deal with director Peter Jackson to do work on the third film from a studio in Pittsfield, leading to the creation of Sandbox F/X. The Sandbox team ranges from three people up to 13, depending on the project, he said. “Not very many people know we’re here,” Nugent said. Trumbull, meanwhile, has been developing new visual effects techniques that he plans to use in his new film — including techniques for shortening the production schedule and reducing the size of the crew.
Trumbull didn’t elaborate on the nature of the film, other than to say it would be a “sci-fi space epic.” Trumbull said he’s written several drafts of the screenplay and may end up directing the film as well. With luck, the project will inspire new interest in the visual effects cluster in the Berkshires, and perhaps lead a broader film and media industry to take shape in the area, Trumbull said. “People find it so stunningly better than living in New York or LA,” he said. “Once you get someone to come and work, they tend to bring their wives and kids. And they all fall in love with the community and don’t want to leave.”
Tim Burton Confirmed For "Monsterpocalypse"
(darkhorizons.com) Film producer Roy Lee has confirmed that Tim Burton is set to direct the board game to film adaptation "Monsterpocalypse" for Dreamworks Pictures reports Slashfilm.
I can confirm that Tim Burton is developing it to direct. He's working closely with John August on story" Lee told the site. Lee also confirmed they plan to shoot the movie in full 3D and are fast tracking the project for a 2012 release.
The story involves giant skyscraper sized monsters who attack earth. When the humans fight back, the monsters burrow underground to wait for their kind whom they have sent a signal to.
Humanity knows more are coming, and so build giant robots that will fight the monsters if and when they return.
Game creator Matt Wilson will serve as co-producer on the film.
Sam Raimi To Wander The Post-apocalyptic Wasteland
(cinematical.com) He may not be swinging with Spider-Man any longer, but Sam Raimi is hardly lacking for work. He's hardly snubbing the geek genre world either, as Variety announced that he's signed on to direct Earp: Saints for Sinners for DreamWorks and Radical Studios.
Saints for Sinners is based on the upcoming graphic novel Earp: Saints for Sinners that's being published by Radical Comics. More details of the graphic novel are going to be unveiled this week at ComicCon, but Variety describes it as a sci-fi western. And yes, it does star Wyatt Earp, or at least a modern day incarnation of him. This Earp battles outlaws in a post-apocalyptic wasteland where the only bit of civilization left is in Las Vegas. It sounds like it could be The Stand meets Tombstone, crossed with Raimi's The Quick and the Dead and beloved Evil Dead series.
Small Anim Crew = High Profits For Universal
(latimes.com) With "Despicable Me's" better-than-expected results standing out in a crowded animation field, Universal Co-Chairman Donna Langley said, "We saw there was room for another player."
That player is Meledandri's own animation company, Illumination Entertainment, whose movies Universal finances and distributes. The studio recently extended Meledandri's exclusive, multiyear contract, which entitles the producer to a percentage of his movies' profits.
Given that Illumination's first time at bat with "Despicable Me" was a home run, Fogelson and Langley acknowledge that it validates the decision made three years ago by their predecessors, Marc Shmuger and David Linde, to draft Meledandri as the studio's go-to family guy.
Meledandri's business plan, however, differs from other studios'. He keeps overhead low by employing only 35 people at an office on an industrial block in Santa Monica. By contrast, DreamWorks and Pixar employ staffs of more than 2,000 and 1,200, respectively, who work at lavish, sprawling campuses.
"We believe that small is more efficient," said Meledandri, who contracted with an animation house in Paris to produce "Despicable Me" and other projects. Hands-on, Meledandri embedded his producing associates and key executives to manage the productions — and pays the salaries of some 200 people working on his movies — to maintain control.
With a production budget of $69 million, "Despicable Me" cost less than half of other major digitally animated films, in part because Illumination saves money by working with first-time directors and teaming experienced artists with younger, less costly talent.
Meledandri has taken much of what he learned at Fox — including the binding rule to get "a unified, clear view of what the story is" before starting production — and applied it at Universal. He learned that the hard way when the budget of Fox's animated film "Titan A.E." ballooned during production — and whose box office failure in 2000 nearly cost him his job after the studio "wrote down $100 million of Rupert Murdoch's money," Meledandri said.
Full Press: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-universal-20100720,0,877209.story
Green Lantern CG Suit Revealed!
(scifiblock.com) ... And there it is, on the cover of Entertainment Weekly, the first look at the CG Green Lantern suit Ryan Reynolds will "wear" as Hal Jordan in the upcoming Green Lantern film. I think it's safe to say this is not what anyone expected. As opposed to the traditional superhero spandex, this suit looks more like ... someone ripped off a Green Lantern's skin and found green muscle underneath.
I'm not sure why the designers opted to totally shun the traditional GL costume, but I'm not sure it's all that bad, really. In a certain way, I actually kinda dig it. I think we'll need to see the pants before we can really come to a final verdict here, but it's at least not ridiculous, even if it is perhaps overly sinewy.
Take a look: http://scifiblock.com/sites/all/files/cg-costume.png
“ECLIPSE” FX: Wolfing Out
(fangoria.com) By now, you no doubt have an opinion of THE TWILIGHT SAGA, the inescapable movie adaptations of Stephenie Meyer’s novels. The latest entry, ECLIPSE, has been declared the best in the series, likely due to the more straightforward conflict and clearer stakes of its plot. While ECLIPSE is unlikely to convert non-fans, the FX are inarguably better than in the previous entries, especially the computer-generated wolves created by Tippett Studio.
When introduced in NEW MOON, these canines stayed on the leash outside of a few scuffles and bared fangs. ECLIPSE features a wilder wolf pack whose increased feral tendencies emphasize the differences between Bella’s suitors—and did we mention that the movie climaxes with snarling werewolves savagely attacking bloodthirsty newborn vampires?
The company responsible for the CG lycanthropes is Tippett Studio, founded by FX pioneer Phil Tippett, famous for stop-motion classics like the AT-AT walkers in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and the lumbering ED-209 in ROBOCOP. In the CGI age, Tippett Studio has created everything from the giant bugs in Paul Verhoeven’s STARSHIP TROOPERS to the talking pets in this summer’s CATS AND DOGS: THE REVENGE OF KITTY GALORE. For ECLIPSE, Eric Leven served as the company’s visual FX supervisor, bringing the wolves to ferocious life.
Unlike some cinematic wolfmen, TWILIGHT’s pack are quadrupeds very similar to real wolves, albeit enormous by comparison. After arriving late to NEW MOON’s FX, Leven observed director Chris Weitz putting an emphasis on anthropomorphizing the otherwise physically accurate animals. “Chris wanted the audience to understand everything the wolves were feeling,” Leven notes.
Before NEW MOON, the Tippett Studio team logged time at a nature preserve in Los Angeles, observing real, fully grown wolves first-hand. That homework proved handy when ECLIPSE director David Slade requested a more menacing brood. “The work on NEW MOON dovetailed into ECLIPSE, and David came in and made it clear we were going to get away from humanizing the wolves,” Leven recalls. “We were going to make them animals again.” Such choices were informed by ECLIPSE’s story (scripted by Melissa Rosenberg), in which the tension between lycanthropes and vampires is more overt and expanded from NEW MOON. “In the second movie, they were played more like sentries,” Leven notes. “In this one, they’re wilder. You don’t know whether they’re going to jump on you or not.” Despite that, the creatures of ECLIPSE are capable of acting nuances; witness the moment in which the alpha wolf watches the Cullen vampire clan sparring with each other. While the wolf attempts to keep his threatening posture, his body language will be familiar to anybody who has ordered their dog to sit out on a fun activity.
The freedom to add character touches like this led to Leven’s personal favorite effect in ECLIPSE, when Bella (Kristen Stewart) runs her hand over Jacob-wolf in full view of Edward (Robert Pattinson). It’s a challenging effect, requiring Stewart to physically interact with the CG animal, as well as an emotionally loaded story moment, as Edward observes the connection between Bella and Jacob for himself. The end result is as striking a visual as the series has to offer, with uncanny texture on the digital fur. “That was another mandate from the director,” Leven says. “He saw the first pass and said, ‘I need more fur!’ Fur is notoriously difficult in CGI. We added to the total number of hairs, and it turned out that wasn’t the issue. It was really the style of the fur, the sheen of the fur, what happened when the light hit it.
“Sometimes it’s difficult for a director to communicate what they want,” Leven points out, “because they’re not speaking in the kinds of technical terms we use. The effects team has to establish a language with every new filmmaker. It can be pretty rough at first.”
Full Press: http://www.fangoria.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1401:eclipse-fx-wolfing-out&catid=36:demo-articles&Itemid=56
CG market Will Exceed $150 Billion in 2013
TIBURON, Calif., July 20 /PRNewswire/ -- The computer graphics industry has been a growth industry since it was established in the late 1970s. Weathering the storms of the recession of 2009, the CG industry is back on track and showing new, invigorated vitality and potential.
The computer graphics hardware market was worth $59 billion in 2009 and should exceed $63 billion in 2010.
In 2009 the CG software market was worth $11 billion (not counting services, maintenance and other aspects) and should grow to $11.6 billion in 2010 as the industry shakes off the remaining effects of the recession and starts replacing software tools.
Figure 1: Computer Graphics Hardware Market: http://www.ereleases.com/pic/2010-Hardware-Market-Chart.jpg
As a result of the pullback due to the recession, more people will be buying computer graphics software programs and we will see the development of traditional segments like CAD/CAM expand as new design approaches in automotive, aerospace, and architecture are brought forth. Visualization, a market that has been almost dormant for the past few years, is poised now for great expansion due to exciting and lower-cost technologies.
Figure 2: Computer Graphics Software Market: http://www.ereleases.com/pic/2010-Software-Market-Chart.jpg
Today, software programs for making movies and computer games, designing products, and creating simulations are exploiting the features of today's CG hardware. Jon Peddie Research (JPR) is seeing the results in amazing realism and real-time capabilities for the next generation of films and designs, and the trend is accelerating.
The demand for programmers, artists, scientists, and designers has picked up again and firms are actively looking for people who can use and exploit these new programs and their associated hardware accelerators. The economic recession has caused a slowdown, but it's going to look like a small bump in the road by 2013.
JPR is seeing new opportunities growing out of more mainstream applications for the web and consumer applications. The web is growing as a distribution medium for graphics content, which in turn encourages people to pick up the tools, learn them, create content for pleasure, and even look for jobs in the field. What used to be a very closed society of experts is opening up.
Bay Thanks Chicago For Transformer Shoot
(contactmusic.com) TRANSFORMERS director MICHAEL BAY has thanked officials in Chicago, Illinois for allowing his crew to take over swathes of the city last weekend (10-11Jul10) to film a massive action shoot for the upcoming sequel.
Production on the third robot movie transferred from California to Chicago for a series of daredevil stunts and local authorities gave Bay and his crew permission to fly helicopters low over the city as skydivers parachuted from the top of Trump Tower into the streets below. Many roads had to be closed off, while extra police officers were deployed to maintain order.
The shoot, which saw hordes of actors in camouflage gear charging around town in epic battle scenes, caused traffic chaos in many areas, and Bay has thanked local residents for their understanding, as well as officials for giving them the go-ahead to bring Transformers to Chicago.
The director tells the Chicago Sun-Times, "The city's been unbelievably amazing - from Mayor Daley all the way down to each and every police officer helping us out. We don't want to inconvenience people too much, so we've been working hard to play ball with the fire department and the police."
Steven Spielberg - Spielberg Had 'Guest Shot' In Beowulf
(contactmusic.com) STEVEN SPIELBERG embraced modern "motion capture" technology for movies after he tried it out for fun in pal ROBERT ZEMECKIS' film BEOWULF - and his "guest shot" made it to the final cut.
The Jaws director admits he felt "depressed" when he saw Zemeckis' 2004 movie The Polar Express, because he was convinced the latest technology was leaving him behind.
He later paid a visit to his fellow director while he was editing Beowulf, and Zemeckis urged Spielberg to experiment with the new techniques.
So the Oscar-winning film-maker played around with the motion capture equipment - and his work was so good, Zemeckis left it in the final cut of the movie.
Spielberg tells Empire magazine, "When I first went on the stage to watch Polar Express, I was terrified. I thought, 'Oh my God, I'm an old man and life is passing me by. Bob's (Zemeckis) got this whole new way of making movies. I'll never be able to fathom it. I'm not going to be able to get into it.' I only stayed about half an hour and I went home very depressed.
"I got inspired to maybe want to dabble in this medium when I went back to Bob's cutting room and Bob gave me this old, plastic, chunky Panasonic camera and he said, 'Come on Steve, make a shot! Make a shot!' And he had this whole world on the screen and I moved around and the world changed. It was like a video-game. I saw Beowulf on a dragon so I brought the camera up and started on his face. Bob hit 'Play'... And suddenly I was liberated.
"I took my kids to the IMAX theatre on Broadway in New York to see Beowulf the day it opened and I went like this to (my son) Theo, 'That's my shot!'"
-H
Flash Gordon Reboot To Launch Franchise
(comingsoon.net)
(comingsoon.net)
Airlock Alpha got a chance to talk to The Crazies director Breck Eisner about bringing Flash Gordon to the big screen. Flash Gordon originally appeared as a sci-fi newspaper comic strip created and drawn by Alex Raymond in the 1930s. The strip was first adapted to the screen via Buster Crabbe serials and made into a lavish 1980 film starring Sam Jones but remembered more for its Queen score."Our version goes back to strips from '30s and we will update those and shoot the movie as if the strips were drawn today. It will be an action and adventure sci-fi," Eisner told the site.The helmer added that they are eyeing the property as a franchise. "It will be a standalone story, it definitely won't [be] left open for more, but the ultimate goal is to turn it into a franchise. It will be an origins story for Flash. He's going to Mongo, he's gonna save the planet and it will have a superhero buy in and will be unique. It is very much a superhero origins story."
Box Office Dreams Do Come True for Inception
(BoxOffice) After having enormous success with his Batman sequel The Dark Knight in 2008, filmmaker Christopher Nolan took a bit of a chance with his sci-fi action thriller Inception (Warner Bros.) starring Leonardo DiCaprio with support from Ellen Page, Marion Cotillard, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy and Michael Caine. His first movie based on an original idea since Memento with a premise involving dream thieves which mixed high-paced action with cerebral ideas, there were numerous questions last week whether Nolan's critically-praised film could do well among mainstream audiences, since some thought of it as difficult material. In fact, the originality of the ideas and the overwhelming desire for originality added to the advance buzz to help Inception do better than some expected. After opening on Friday with $21.7 million, Inception held well over the weekend to bring in an estimated $60.4 million in its first weekend, which is in the general range of M. Night Shyamalan's Signs and Warner Bros.' earlier 2010 hit Clash of the Titans.
We can probably expect it to continue to do well due to word-of-mouth and repeat viewings to surpass the $200 million mark by sometime in mid-August.
Nicolas Cage Loves Acting With Green Screen
(foreign.peacefmonline.com) Nicolas Cage has no problems working with the latest special effects technology because acting is all about "imagination".
The star filmed several scenes in his new adventure movie "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" in front of a green screen, with many of the project's special effects added in post-production.
And while many actors bemoan the fact they have nothing realistic to work with while shooting the scenes - Cage insists he enjoys the work after the challenges he faced playing twin brothers in 2002's "Adaptation". He tells Screen Crave, "Acting is imagination.
It's acting, that's what it's all about. I actually enjoy working with green screen because I can imagine all that stuff happening." "I really cut my teeth on a movie I made called 'Adaptation' where I had to imagine four page dialog scenes with my twin brother who's nothing more than a tennis ball and a gas can.
So, I was really up for it." He goes on sharing, "I do understand sometimes when actors say, 'There's no one to talk to' or 'You can't react to'. There's truth in that but for me, I've always enjoyed green screen and blue screen."
Vampires + Bible = Will Smith
(Darkhorizons.com) Will Smith has attached himself to star in and produce "The Legend Of Cain", a film adaptation of the classic Biblical story, for his Overbrook Entertainment reports Deadline.
Smith will play crop farmer Cain, no word on who'll be his younger shepherd brother Abel but the story is said to take a vampiric twist on the tale.
Caleeb Pinkett and Dan Knauf penned the script which Andrea Berloff revised. Jada Pinkett Smith, James Lassiter and Ken Stovitz also produce.
MGM Receives Sixth Debt Extension
(awn.com) MGM has received a two-month extension on its debt payment, reports VARIETY. The company's 140 creditors approved the sixth extension on Wednesday, the day their fifth extension was set to expire.
The creditors decided to give the extension after meeting with Lionsgate execs on their plans to acquire the company. Insiders say that Lionsgate wants to keep the MGM name with company heads Jon Feltheimer and Michael Burns running both studios. The lenders would still need to approve of a debt-for-equity deal.
Lionsgate would gain a 7,000-title library, the rights to James Bond and half of THE HOBBIT, and a distribution division.
MGM currently hold $3.7 billion in debt.
MGM has other interested buyers such as Spyglass, Summit and Time Warner, which made $1.5 billion bid in March.
Profiles in History Brings Stan Winston Memorabilia & Top FX Artists to the Con
(monstersandcritics.com) The Mark I, Mark II and Mark III armor suits—Iron Man armor from Iron Man and Iron Man 2, worn by Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark, and the 14 foot Iron Monger armor suit worn by Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane in Iron Man and the 14 foot AMP (Amplified Mobility Platform) Suit worn by Stephen Lang in Avatar will be on display in Booth #1605 as Profiles in History, the world’s largest auctioneer of Hollywood memorabilia and Stan Winston Studio pays tribute to the late visual effects legend Stan Winston at San Diego Comic-Con.
Fans will be free to take pictures with these enormous iconic creations, meet Matt Winston, actor and son of Stan Winston and be treated to a special multimedia display.
“We are thrilled about hosting this tribute to the genius of Stan Winston, allowing the fans a once in a lifetime opportunity to see some of his awe-inspiring creations up close. This celebration of Stan’s visionary spirit will continue through the creation of the Stan Winston School of Character Arts, which, in conjunction with the Gnomon School of Visual Effects, will provide specialized training on techniques learned by the legendary creature effects pioneer,” said Joe Maddalena, President of Profiles in History.
Profiles in History will host this tribute in Booth #1605 during regular Comic-Con hours as follows:
Wednesday, July 21: 6:00PM - 9:00PM (Preview Night)
Thursday, July 22 through Saturday, July 24: 9:30AM - 7:00PM
Sunday, July 25: 9:30AM - 5:00PM
VFX Flashback: Peter Jackson's Childhood Harryhausen Remakes
(cinematical.com) On June 26, The British Academy of Film and Television Arts, otherwise known as BAFTA, held a special tribute to celebrate special effects legend Ray Harryhausen's 90th birthday. John Landis introduced the tributes, which boasted a selection of leading names including Ray Bradbury, Tim Burton, and one Peter Jackson.
Jackson's tribute was more than mere words -- even as a young child, he was creating cinematic fantasy worlds, including his own take on the Cyclops scene from The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, which was one of a few clips he showed to the lucky folks at the tribute. As he recounted: "I was growing up wanting to do stop motion so badly, but at the end of the day, I wasn't very good at it, so directing was a far easier thing to do." The clips might not be Hollywood-caliber, but they're still darned good for a kid, and wildly funny to see Jackson fighting invisible skeletons and running around in a world that had not yet seen The Lord of the Rings.
Deadline shared an angled fan video, but if you zip right over to the BAFTA website, you can see Jackson's tribute straight-on, as well as the rest of the Harryhausen fans who came together to celebrate his work.
'Inception' Paris Cafe VFX: Cinematographer Reveals All
(mtv.com) What's your favorite mind-bending "Inception" moment? Joseph Gordon-Levitt's zero-gravity fight scene, which has him twisting and punching while the world spins about him in every direction? The white van that falls achingly slow as Leonardo DiCaprio and his fellow dream bandits hang in near-suspended animation? The Paris café scene where Leo and Ellen Page stroll the streets as the city folds in on them?
Can we just choose them all? Yes, yes we can. But what makes the Paris sequence different from the other two is that it was created by employing a serious combination of visual and practical effects, whereas the hallway and van scenes are largely free of heady CG work. So how did director Christopher Nolan and his team craft the Paris scene? Cinematographer Wally Pfister, a longtime Nolan collaborator on films like "Memento" and "The Dark Knight," walked MTV News through the process.
"That particular material is where we really dive into the surreal and things go a little wacko," Pfister explained. "In this case, Chris really wanted to ramp up the visual effects and do something that would have people sit back and go, 'Wow, what the f--- is going on?' "
Mission accomplished. DiCaprio and Page sit at a café, which is actually a figment of Page's dream. As they talk, huge, fireless explosions pop all around them in slow motion. Then, as the pair begins to walk, Page starts to experiment with the elastic physical world of her dream. She raises up entire streets — buildings, people, cars and all — until everything folds up into a fantastical cube of Parisian life. It is nothing short of staggering.
To generate those explosions, the film's special-effects supervisor, Chris Corbould, rigged up a series of air cannons that launched debris into the air. To achieve the right slow-motion effect, Pfister made use of a specialized camera.
"We shot it with super-high-speed Photo-Sonics cameras to get that material floating in the air," Pfister said of equipment that can capture 1,500 frames a second, in contrast to regular film's 24 frames a second. The extra frames allowed the filmmakers to slow the frame rate to a virtual crawl.
Then in came Paul Franklin, the film's visual-effects supervisor, who employed computer graphics to extend the debris and create more of a floating effect. Franklin and his team also hit the city streets with still cameras to record what would become the basis for the folding effects' photo-realistic feel. The folding streets were built entirely through CGI, a process so complex that the effort was begun a full eight months before the movie's release.
"The whole thing had a very naturalistic style to the photography, to the lighting, to the camera movement, so that it would feel very real and very grounded," Pfister said. "And on top of all that, we pulled off a very intricate bit of effects trickery."
DreamWorks Animation Watches Its Back
(nytimes.com) LOS ANGELES — In April, Jeffrey Katzenberg, the chief executive of DreamWorks Animation, voiced public fury at Warner Brothers for having abruptly converted its “Clash of the Titans” into 3-D and releasing it a week after his company’s 3-D film, “How to Train Your Dragon.”
Mr. Katzenberg may have had more on his mind than just the perception of 3-D among moviegoers. As the chief of an independent film studio, he surely had an eye on his own company’s stock price, which peaked on March 25, the day before an unexpectedly soft opening for “Dragon” — then dropped sharply. And about $18 million of his own compensation was tied to the stock’s performance.
Such is the thrill ride of corporate independence in Hollywood.
Mr. Katzenberg achieved his payout, though he must stay with the company for three years to collect. But he faces an array of other challenges as he runs a solo operation.
Unlike bigger studios, which hedge bets by releasing a dozen or more films a year, one DreamWorks Animation flop could send the company’s stock into a tailspin. The company’s most successful franchise, Shrek, is finally fading into the sunset, at least at the multiplex. At the same time, rivals are racing to move deeper into animation.
All of those issues point to the bigger question of whether DreamWorks Animation can and should stay independent. So does the question of Mr. Katzenberg’s greater ambitions, a topic of near-constant chatter in Hollywood.
“Jeffrey Katzenberg is the rare instance of someone who actually should be running a bigger company,” said Roger Smith, a former film executive and the New York editor for Global Media Intelligence.
That’s not the way Mr. Katzenberg sees it. “I can see why we would be valuable to other people,” he said. “The challenge for me is to see why we need them. I’m not convinced at all that we need to be part of a larger company to be successful.”
Currently, most stand-alone movie outfits are openly for sale (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), looking for new money (Creative Artists Agency) or angling for an alliance (Lions Gate Entertainment). But Mr. Katzenberg insists that his company, with no debt and a powerful track record, has all it needs to thrive.
In recent months, several of Hollywood’s movers and shakers have privately described Comcast’s flirtations with making a run at DreamWorks Animation. Comcast is awaiting regulatory approval of its plan to take control of NBC Universal and could conceivably bolster Universal’s film operation by combining it with an animation powerhouse.
Asked about the talk, a Comcast spokeswoman, Jennifer Khoury, strongly denied that any such deal had been considered.
“We’re completely focused on closing the NBC Universal transaction,” Ms. Khoury said by e-mail last month. “This speculation is a baseless rumor. We have not engaged in any discussions with DreamWorks Animation about a possible combination.”
Mr. Katzenberg declined to comment on that possibility; a spokeswoman for DreamWorks Animation said the company did not respond to “rumor and speculation.”
To snag Mr. Katzenberg’s studio — together with one of the other founders, David Geffen, he controls about 70 percent of the voting power — any suitor would need to pay a hefty price. Mr. Katzenberg has said in the past that he believes DreamWorks Animation is worth as much as its rival, Pixar Animation Studios, or more. Disney paid $7.4 billion for Pixar in 2006.
Unlike Pixar, DreamWorks Animation has suffered disappointments like “Flushed Away,” but its films in aggregate have outperformed those of Pixar at the global box office. DreamWorks Animation also has a growing TV cartoon business and has expanded into virtual worlds for children on the Web.
Speaking by telephone from Munich, where he was meeting with European distributors, Mr. Katzenberg did seek to quash the widely held belief in Hollywood that he is tired of being a minnow among whales.
“I’ve been there, and I’ve done that,” he said, referring to his days as studio chairman at the Walt Disney Company. “I don’t envy the very difficult decisions live-action studios are going to have to make in the very near term to make those businesses successful again.”
“I literally believe I have the best job in Hollywood,” he added.
Still, with only two or three releases a year, DreamWorks Animation is under severe pressure for every picture to be a smash hit.
And even hits can cause turbulence. “How to Train Your Dragon” won some of the best reviews in the company’s history and opened at No. 1 at the North American box office with a solid $43.7 million in ticket sales. But Wall Street had been expecting an opening nearer to $60 million, and shares dropped 11 percent over the next week. In the end, “How to Train Your Dragon” sold a huge $479 million at the global box office; the company is already working on a sequel.
Paramount Pictures distributes the DreamWorks Animation films under an agreement that expires in late 2012. There has been no indication that DreamWorks Animation is pointed toward an early break with Paramount, as its contract allows.
But the animation genre is becoming more competitive. Paramount has been getting aggressive with its own animation and will be rolling out “Rango,” about a swashbuckling chameleon, next March. At Universal, “Despicable Me,” the first offering from the studio’s Illumination Entertainment animation venture, arrived on July 9 and became an immediate hit. And Pixar, which has long delivered a single picture annually, is moving to two a year.
Of course, DreamWorks Animation has dealt with challengers before. Upstarts have repeatedly found that matching the consistency of DreamWorks Animation is extremely difficult. Moreover, Mr. Katzenberg and his crew have a lot of promising content on the way. A “Kung Fu Panda” sequel is planned for next year, and a third “Madagascar” movie arrives in 2012.
DreamWorks Animation is gearing up for the fall release of “Megamind,” a satirical take on superhero movies. To promote “Megamind,” which the company hopes will begin a franchise, DreamWorks Animation on Thursday will make its first major appearance at Comic-Con, the annual pop culture convention in San Diego.
Mr. Katzenberg clearly has been anything but bored by his own professional roller-coaster ride. Some of the peaks, moreover, are about to get steeper.
To qualify for his next big stock payout, for instance — he takes only $1 a year in conventional salary — Mr. Katzenberg will have to get his stock to average $36.53 for a year, about 13 percent higher than his mark for the last compensation package. And the questions about grander ambitions persist, despite Mr. Katzenberg’s assurances.
“Jeffrey is not someone who is looking for more free time, or planning his retirement in Malibu,” said Nicole LaPorte, the author of “The Men Who Would Be King,” about Mr. Katzenberg, Mr. Geffen and their original DreamWorks partner, Steven Spielberg. “I have to imagine he’s hungering for more.”
WETA’s Wind in the Willows: First Concept Images and Promo Teaser Trailer
(slashfilm.com) Back in June, it was announced that Peter Jackson’s WETA (Lord of the Rings, District 9) was developing a live-action and animatronics adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s classic book The Wind in the Willows. The story follows four anthropomorphized characters in a classic pastoral English countryside, an yes, it has been adapted to the screen many times before. But this time around they are using WETA to provide a suite of animatronic effects to bring the animal characters to life.
WETA’s Richard Taylor is overseeing the effects. Taylor should be familiar to many as the man behind a lot of the effects in The Lord of the Rings, as well as many other films. Directed by Ray Griggs and written by Bill Marsili (Lightspeed), the $30m production is scheduled to shoot this fall. But there is already some concept art and a promo teaser trailer online.
Take a look: http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/07/15/wetas-wind-in-the-willows-first-concept-images-and-promo-teaser-trailer/
A Short History of Special Effects-Based Films
(thecelebritycafe.com) Entertainment Weekly put together a short history of special effects. Here are some top picks.
The list kicks off with Le Voyage Dans La Luna. The twelve minute silent film is considered the first movie to use visual effects
. Directed by Georges Melies, the film is about astronomers who land on the moon and find aliens.
Number five is a double whammy. King Kong circa 1933 and Mighty Joe Young circa 1944. Willis O’Brien brought these larger than life monkeys to life with stop motion effects. For Kong, there was no Academy award for special effects but by the time Mighty Joe Young came around, O’Brien won his Oscar. Both films were remade and King Kong even made the list.
Only three non-adventure movies made the list; The Ten Commandments, Forrest Gump, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The splitting of the Red Sea was first done by director Cecil B. DeMille using Jell-O but for her 1956 version of the story, she used every visual effect available in Hollywood. And Forrest Gump is considered the first movie to use visual effects to help further its dramatic story. Button won three Oscars in 2008 while Gump won six, including Best Picture and Commandments won Best Effects.
Michael Criton’s The Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park both made the list. Strain used the first 3-D computerized image and Park made CGI images a must for any movie.
Two of the biggest sci-fi franchises also made the list; Star Wars and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn. Both were considered major advances in creating space like images. Kahn had the first entirely computer generated scene in the movies.
Another major push into a new era of special effects was motion capture. Andy Serkis was used to model the motion of both Kong and Gollum in King Kong and Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, both directed by Peter Jackson. James Cameron took it to the next level in Avatar in which all the main character Na’vi (the blue people) were created using motion capture technology that could capture minute facial ticks. Because people are used in this type of special effect, there is debate on whether or not there should be an Oscar category for best motion capture actor.
And finally, the original Tron is actually not considered so technologically advanced. It didn’t use special effects as much as other movies, in fact it was colored by hand. But the movie is due for a makeover, out in December. Who knows what type of special effects it will use?
Take a look: http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20399642_20402313,00.html
Box Office Dreams Do Come True for Inception
(BoxOffice) After having enormous success with his Batman sequel The Dark Knight in 2008, filmmaker Christopher Nolan took a bit of a chance with his sci-fi action thriller Inception (Warner Bros.) starring Leonardo DiCaprio with support from Ellen Page, Marion Cotillard, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy and Michael Caine. His first movie based on an original idea since Memento with a premise involving dream thieves which mixed high-paced action with cerebral ideas, there were numerous questions last week whether Nolan's critically-praised film could do well among mainstream audiences, since some thought of it as difficult material. In fact, the originality of the ideas and the overwhelming desire for originality added to the advance buzz to help Inception do better than some expected. After opening on Friday with $21.7 million, Inception held well over the weekend to bring in an estimated $60.4 million in its first weekend, which is in the general range of M. Night Shyamalan's Signs and Warner Bros.' earlier 2010 hit Clash of the Titans.
We can probably expect it to continue to do well due to word-of-mouth and repeat viewings to surpass the $200 million mark by sometime in mid-August.
Nicolas Cage Loves Acting With Green Screen
(foreign.peacefmonline.com) Nicolas Cage has no problems working with the latest special effects technology because acting is all about "imagination".
The star filmed several scenes in his new adventure movie "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" in front of a green screen, with many of the project's special effects added in post-production.
And while many actors bemoan the fact they have nothing realistic to work with while shooting the scenes - Cage insists he enjoys the work after the challenges he faced playing twin brothers in 2002's "Adaptation". He tells Screen Crave, "Acting is imagination.
It's acting, that's what it's all about. I actually enjoy working with green screen because I can imagine all that stuff happening." "I really cut my teeth on a movie I made called 'Adaptation' where I had to imagine four page dialog scenes with my twin brother who's nothing more than a tennis ball and a gas can.
So, I was really up for it." He goes on sharing, "I do understand sometimes when actors say, 'There's no one to talk to' or 'You can't react to'. There's truth in that but for me, I've always enjoyed green screen and blue screen."
Vampires + Bible = Will Smith
(Darkhorizons.com) Will Smith has attached himself to star in and produce "The Legend Of Cain", a film adaptation of the classic Biblical story, for his Overbrook Entertainment reports Deadline.
Smith will play crop farmer Cain, no word on who'll be his younger shepherd brother Abel but the story is said to take a vampiric twist on the tale.
Caleeb Pinkett and Dan Knauf penned the script which Andrea Berloff revised. Jada Pinkett Smith, James Lassiter and Ken Stovitz also produce.
MGM Receives Sixth Debt Extension
(awn.com) MGM has received a two-month extension on its debt payment, reports VARIETY. The company's 140 creditors approved the sixth extension on Wednesday, the day their fifth extension was set to expire.
The creditors decided to give the extension after meeting with Lionsgate execs on their plans to acquire the company. Insiders say that Lionsgate wants to keep the MGM name with company heads Jon Feltheimer and Michael Burns running both studios. The lenders would still need to approve of a debt-for-equity deal.
Lionsgate would gain a 7,000-title library, the rights to James Bond and half of THE HOBBIT, and a distribution division.
MGM currently hold $3.7 billion in debt.
MGM has other interested buyers such as Spyglass, Summit and Time Warner, which made $1.5 billion bid in March.
Profiles in History Brings Stan Winston Memorabilia & Top FX Artists to the Con
(monstersandcritics.com) The Mark I, Mark II and Mark III armor suits—Iron Man armor from Iron Man and Iron Man 2, worn by Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark, and the 14 foot Iron Monger armor suit worn by Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane in Iron Man and the 14 foot AMP (Amplified Mobility Platform) Suit worn by Stephen Lang in Avatar will be on display in Booth #1605 as Profiles in History, the world’s largest auctioneer of Hollywood memorabilia and Stan Winston Studio pays tribute to the late visual effects legend Stan Winston at San Diego Comic-Con.
Fans will be free to take pictures with these enormous iconic creations, meet Matt Winston, actor and son of Stan Winston and be treated to a special multimedia display.
“We are thrilled about hosting this tribute to the genius of Stan Winston, allowing the fans a once in a lifetime opportunity to see some of his awe-inspiring creations up close. This celebration of Stan’s visionary spirit will continue through the creation of the Stan Winston School of Character Arts, which, in conjunction with the Gnomon School of Visual Effects, will provide specialized training on techniques learned by the legendary creature effects pioneer,” said Joe Maddalena, President of Profiles in History.
Profiles in History will host this tribute in Booth #1605 during regular Comic-Con hours as follows:
Wednesday, July 21: 6:00PM - 9:00PM (Preview Night)
Thursday, July 22 through Saturday, July 24: 9:30AM - 7:00PM
Sunday, July 25: 9:30AM - 5:00PM
VFX Flashback: Peter Jackson's Childhood Harryhausen Remakes
(cinematical.com) On June 26, The British Academy of Film and Television Arts, otherwise known as BAFTA, held a special tribute to celebrate special effects legend Ray Harryhausen's 90th birthday. John Landis introduced the tributes, which boasted a selection of leading names including Ray Bradbury, Tim Burton, and one Peter Jackson.
Jackson's tribute was more than mere words -- even as a young child, he was creating cinematic fantasy worlds, including his own take on the Cyclops scene from The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, which was one of a few clips he showed to the lucky folks at the tribute. As he recounted: "I was growing up wanting to do stop motion so badly, but at the end of the day, I wasn't very good at it, so directing was a far easier thing to do." The clips might not be Hollywood-caliber, but they're still darned good for a kid, and wildly funny to see Jackson fighting invisible skeletons and running around in a world that had not yet seen The Lord of the Rings.
Deadline shared an angled fan video, but if you zip right over to the BAFTA website, you can see Jackson's tribute straight-on, as well as the rest of the Harryhausen fans who came together to celebrate his work.
'Inception' Paris Cafe VFX: Cinematographer Reveals All
(mtv.com) What's your favorite mind-bending "Inception" moment? Joseph Gordon-Levitt's zero-gravity fight scene, which has him twisting and punching while the world spins about him in every direction? The white van that falls achingly slow as Leonardo DiCaprio and his fellow dream bandits hang in near-suspended animation? The Paris café scene where Leo and Ellen Page stroll the streets as the city folds in on them?
Can we just choose them all? Yes, yes we can. But what makes the Paris sequence different from the other two is that it was created by employing a serious combination of visual and practical effects, whereas the hallway and van scenes are largely free of heady CG work. So how did director Christopher Nolan and his team craft the Paris scene? Cinematographer Wally Pfister, a longtime Nolan collaborator on films like "Memento" and "The Dark Knight," walked MTV News through the process.
"That particular material is where we really dive into the surreal and things go a little wacko," Pfister explained. "In this case, Chris really wanted to ramp up the visual effects and do something that would have people sit back and go, 'Wow, what the f--- is going on?' "
Mission accomplished. DiCaprio and Page sit at a café, which is actually a figment of Page's dream. As they talk, huge, fireless explosions pop all around them in slow motion. Then, as the pair begins to walk, Page starts to experiment with the elastic physical world of her dream. She raises up entire streets — buildings, people, cars and all — until everything folds up into a fantastical cube of Parisian life. It is nothing short of staggering.
To generate those explosions, the film's special-effects supervisor, Chris Corbould, rigged up a series of air cannons that launched debris into the air. To achieve the right slow-motion effect, Pfister made use of a specialized camera.
"We shot it with super-high-speed Photo-Sonics cameras to get that material floating in the air," Pfister said of equipment that can capture 1,500 frames a second, in contrast to regular film's 24 frames a second. The extra frames allowed the filmmakers to slow the frame rate to a virtual crawl.
Then in came Paul Franklin, the film's visual-effects supervisor, who employed computer graphics to extend the debris and create more of a floating effect. Franklin and his team also hit the city streets with still cameras to record what would become the basis for the folding effects' photo-realistic feel. The folding streets were built entirely through CGI, a process so complex that the effort was begun a full eight months before the movie's release.
"The whole thing had a very naturalistic style to the photography, to the lighting, to the camera movement, so that it would feel very real and very grounded," Pfister said. "And on top of all that, we pulled off a very intricate bit of effects trickery."
DreamWorks Animation Watches Its Back
(nytimes.com) LOS ANGELES — In April, Jeffrey Katzenberg, the chief executive of DreamWorks Animation, voiced public fury at Warner Brothers for having abruptly converted its “Clash of the Titans” into 3-D and releasing it a week after his company’s 3-D film, “How to Train Your Dragon.”
Mr. Katzenberg may have had more on his mind than just the perception of 3-D among moviegoers. As the chief of an independent film studio, he surely had an eye on his own company’s stock price, which peaked on March 25, the day before an unexpectedly soft opening for “Dragon” — then dropped sharply. And about $18 million of his own compensation was tied to the stock’s performance.
Such is the thrill ride of corporate independence in Hollywood.
Mr. Katzenberg achieved his payout, though he must stay with the company for three years to collect. But he faces an array of other challenges as he runs a solo operation.
Unlike bigger studios, which hedge bets by releasing a dozen or more films a year, one DreamWorks Animation flop could send the company’s stock into a tailspin. The company’s most successful franchise, Shrek, is finally fading into the sunset, at least at the multiplex. At the same time, rivals are racing to move deeper into animation.
All of those issues point to the bigger question of whether DreamWorks Animation can and should stay independent. So does the question of Mr. Katzenberg’s greater ambitions, a topic of near-constant chatter in Hollywood.
“Jeffrey Katzenberg is the rare instance of someone who actually should be running a bigger company,” said Roger Smith, a former film executive and the New York editor for Global Media Intelligence.
That’s not the way Mr. Katzenberg sees it. “I can see why we would be valuable to other people,” he said. “The challenge for me is to see why we need them. I’m not convinced at all that we need to be part of a larger company to be successful.”
Currently, most stand-alone movie outfits are openly for sale (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), looking for new money (Creative Artists Agency) or angling for an alliance (Lions Gate Entertainment). But Mr. Katzenberg insists that his company, with no debt and a powerful track record, has all it needs to thrive.
In recent months, several of Hollywood’s movers and shakers have privately described Comcast’s flirtations with making a run at DreamWorks Animation. Comcast is awaiting regulatory approval of its plan to take control of NBC Universal and could conceivably bolster Universal’s film operation by combining it with an animation powerhouse.
Asked about the talk, a Comcast spokeswoman, Jennifer Khoury, strongly denied that any such deal had been considered.
“We’re completely focused on closing the NBC Universal transaction,” Ms. Khoury said by e-mail last month. “This speculation is a baseless rumor. We have not engaged in any discussions with DreamWorks Animation about a possible combination.”
Mr. Katzenberg declined to comment on that possibility; a spokeswoman for DreamWorks Animation said the company did not respond to “rumor and speculation.”
To snag Mr. Katzenberg’s studio — together with one of the other founders, David Geffen, he controls about 70 percent of the voting power — any suitor would need to pay a hefty price. Mr. Katzenberg has said in the past that he believes DreamWorks Animation is worth as much as its rival, Pixar Animation Studios, or more. Disney paid $7.4 billion for Pixar in 2006.
Unlike Pixar, DreamWorks Animation has suffered disappointments like “Flushed Away,” but its films in aggregate have outperformed those of Pixar at the global box office. DreamWorks Animation also has a growing TV cartoon business and has expanded into virtual worlds for children on the Web.
Speaking by telephone from Munich, where he was meeting with European distributors, Mr. Katzenberg did seek to quash the widely held belief in Hollywood that he is tired of being a minnow among whales.
“I’ve been there, and I’ve done that,” he said, referring to his days as studio chairman at the Walt Disney Company. “I don’t envy the very difficult decisions live-action studios are going to have to make in the very near term to make those businesses successful again.”
“I literally believe I have the best job in Hollywood,” he added.
Still, with only two or three releases a year, DreamWorks Animation is under severe pressure for every picture to be a smash hit.
And even hits can cause turbulence. “How to Train Your Dragon” won some of the best reviews in the company’s history and opened at No. 1 at the North American box office with a solid $43.7 million in ticket sales. But Wall Street had been expecting an opening nearer to $60 million, and shares dropped 11 percent over the next week. In the end, “How to Train Your Dragon” sold a huge $479 million at the global box office; the company is already working on a sequel.
Paramount Pictures distributes the DreamWorks Animation films under an agreement that expires in late 2012. There has been no indication that DreamWorks Animation is pointed toward an early break with Paramount, as its contract allows.
But the animation genre is becoming more competitive. Paramount has been getting aggressive with its own animation and will be rolling out “Rango,” about a swashbuckling chameleon, next March. At Universal, “Despicable Me,” the first offering from the studio’s Illumination Entertainment animation venture, arrived on July 9 and became an immediate hit. And Pixar, which has long delivered a single picture annually, is moving to two a year.
Of course, DreamWorks Animation has dealt with challengers before. Upstarts have repeatedly found that matching the consistency of DreamWorks Animation is extremely difficult. Moreover, Mr. Katzenberg and his crew have a lot of promising content on the way. A “Kung Fu Panda” sequel is planned for next year, and a third “Madagascar” movie arrives in 2012.
DreamWorks Animation is gearing up for the fall release of “Megamind,” a satirical take on superhero movies. To promote “Megamind,” which the company hopes will begin a franchise, DreamWorks Animation on Thursday will make its first major appearance at Comic-Con, the annual pop culture convention in San Diego.
Mr. Katzenberg clearly has been anything but bored by his own professional roller-coaster ride. Some of the peaks, moreover, are about to get steeper.
To qualify for his next big stock payout, for instance — he takes only $1 a year in conventional salary — Mr. Katzenberg will have to get his stock to average $36.53 for a year, about 13 percent higher than his mark for the last compensation package. And the questions about grander ambitions persist, despite Mr. Katzenberg’s assurances.
“Jeffrey is not someone who is looking for more free time, or planning his retirement in Malibu,” said Nicole LaPorte, the author of “The Men Who Would Be King,” about Mr. Katzenberg, Mr. Geffen and their original DreamWorks partner, Steven Spielberg. “I have to imagine he’s hungering for more.”
WETA’s Wind in the Willows: First Concept Images and Promo Teaser Trailer
(slashfilm.com) Back in June, it was announced that Peter Jackson’s WETA (Lord of the Rings, District 9) was developing a live-action and animatronics adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s classic book The Wind in the Willows. The story follows four anthropomorphized characters in a classic pastoral English countryside, an yes, it has been adapted to the screen many times before. But this time around they are using WETA to provide a suite of animatronic effects to bring the animal characters to life.
WETA’s Richard Taylor is overseeing the effects. Taylor should be familiar to many as the man behind a lot of the effects in The Lord of the Rings, as well as many other films. Directed by Ray Griggs and written by Bill Marsili (Lightspeed), the $30m production is scheduled to shoot this fall. But there is already some concept art and a promo teaser trailer online.
Take a look: http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/07/15/wetas-wind-in-the-willows-first-concept-images-and-promo-teaser-trailer/
A Short History of Special Effects-Based Films
(thecelebritycafe.com) Entertainment Weekly put together a short history of special effects. Here are some top picks.
The list kicks off with Le Voyage Dans La Luna. The twelve minute silent film is considered the first movie to use visual effects
. Directed by Georges Melies, the film is about astronomers who land on the moon and find aliens.
Number five is a double whammy. King Kong circa 1933 and Mighty Joe Young circa 1944. Willis O’Brien brought these larger than life monkeys to life with stop motion effects. For Kong, there was no Academy award for special effects but by the time Mighty Joe Young came around, O’Brien won his Oscar. Both films were remade and King Kong even made the list.
Only three non-adventure movies made the list; The Ten Commandments, Forrest Gump, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The splitting of the Red Sea was first done by director Cecil B. DeMille using Jell-O but for her 1956 version of the story, she used every visual effect available in Hollywood. And Forrest Gump is considered the first movie to use visual effects to help further its dramatic story. Button won three Oscars in 2008 while Gump won six, including Best Picture and Commandments won Best Effects.
Michael Criton’s The Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park both made the list. Strain used the first 3-D computerized image and Park made CGI images a must for any movie.
Two of the biggest sci-fi franchises also made the list; Star Wars and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn. Both were considered major advances in creating space like images. Kahn had the first entirely computer generated scene in the movies.
Another major push into a new era of special effects was motion capture. Andy Serkis was used to model the motion of both Kong and Gollum in King Kong and Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, both directed by Peter Jackson. James Cameron took it to the next level in Avatar in which all the main character Na’vi (the blue people) were created using motion capture technology that could capture minute facial ticks. Because people are used in this type of special effect, there is debate on whether or not there should be an Oscar category for best motion capture actor.
And finally, the original Tron is actually not considered so technologically advanced. It didn’t use special effects as much as other movies, in fact it was colored by hand. But the movie is due for a makeover, out in December. Who knows what type of special effects it will use?
Take a look: http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20399642_20402313,00.html
'Inception' Gets Special Effects Right
(democratandchronicle.com)
(democratandchronicle.com)
I'm not a big fan of the way computer-generated graphics dominate so much of our current cinema. I'm tired of seeing ancient marauding armies of 100,000 people at a time when there probably weren't that many people on the planet, or tidal waves so gigantic they can wipe out Manhattan. Just because filmmakers today can blow up the world doesn't mean they should, at least not on a regular basis.By the second half of the film, viewers are following characters at work on four different levels of consciousness. Except for the single level of reality, the other three levels lean heavily on dream-logic visualization, which is where the effects are used so brilliantly. They can shine up the special effects Oscar right now for this film. Perhaps they should also prepare a screenwriting nomination.
Dark Shadows Set to Shoot in January
(Deadline) Tim Burton's Dark Shadows is set to roll in January 2011, reports Deadline.The film has also received a new writer in the form of Seth Grahame-Smith (author of "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter"), who will rewrite the John August screenplay. Based on the cult soap opera from the 1960's, the film stars Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins, a popular vampire character who took over the show's focus after he first appeared one year into the series' original five year run.
'Last Airbender 2' Will Be 'Darker,' M. Night Shyamalan Says
(mtv.com) If a $53.3 million holiday weekend proves successful enough to keep M. Night Shyamalan around for a "Last Airbender" sequel, he knows what he wants to do — and he wants to do it darkly. Asked about his intentions going forward, the "Sixth Sense" and "Signs" director confirmed that he has much of "The Last Airbender 2" already mapped out.
"I do," Shyamalan told MTV News. "The third is more ambiguous, but the second one, I've written a draft that I'm really happy with and is darker and richer, and it has a wonderful antagonist in it in Azula, who's kind of like our only real, pure antagonist in the series, so I'm excited about that."
His description of the story implies that Summer Bishil's character from the film currently in theaters has plenty left to do onscreen as Aang (Noah Ringer) continues his fight against the Fire Nation.
As far as what the story will be about and which characters could enter or exit the cast, those decisions may have to wait for Paramount's decision on the franchise's fate. If things proceed, Shyamalan has already shared a few details that could play into his intentions. The elite female Kyoshi Warriors, for instance, will likely play a larger role.
"I probably won't show the Kyoshi Warriors because I want to save them for the second movie, because I'm going to have to introduce them all over again," he said while explaining what would and would not show up in the "Last Airbender" DVD and Blu-ray's deleted scenes.
The characters were initially included in the first film, but circumstances and editing decisions eventually moved them out of the spotlight.
"We shot [the scene] and [the Kyoshi Warriors] were amazing, and we spent an unbelievable amount of time choreographing them," he said. "And they just distracted from the movie, because the movie wasn't about them."
Given that he became much more comfortable with filming in 3-D during his first "Airbender," another round of 3-D filming with the same crew would make sense unless Hollywood's affection for the evolving medium changes overnight.
In the meantime, Shyamalan sounds like he's ready to go if and when an "Airbender" sequel gets the go-ahead.
Japan Opens its Doors to Young Animation Artists
(vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn) Young animation artists from around the world have the opportunity to travel to Tokyo to create new films while working directly with Japan's animation culture.
Organised by the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs and the Japan Image Council, the project is an artist-in-residence progr-amme that aims to give three outstanding young animation artists the opportunity to gain a better understanding of Japanese culture.
Participants will engage in a variety of activities including visits to animation studios and seminars at visual arts schools.
From January to March, 2011, the selected participants will work on new projects with periodic assistance and instruction from experienced Japanese animators. They will present their finished work or piece-in-progress at the end of their stay.
Participants who do not finish their piece by the time they leave Tokyo must submit a DVD of their finished product by August 2011.
Artists between the age of 20-35 who are not Japanese may apply. They must have shown at least one animated work at an international film festival that included films from outside their own country.
They must also be conversant in English or Japanese.
Travel expenses and insurance, a living allowance, housing, and a material stipend will be provided.
Computers and cameras needed to create the works for the programme as a general rule will need to be brought by the participants.
Documents describing the work to be created should be included in the application. Applicants should submit detailed documents (storyboard and script) of their project idea.
Applications forms and all required elements should be submitted by September 10 to the Japan Image Council. The address and more details can be found at jpf.org.vn. — VNS
'Transformers 3' Shuts Down Mich. Ave.
(abclocal.go.com) Earlier this week, skydivers were seen parachuting over Millennium Park in preparation for the shoot.
Until Monday morning, the Magnificent Mile is closed from Randolph to Ontario. Movie crews have turned it into a battle scene. Crushed cars, concrete, metal, skydivers and explosions can all be seen along Michigan Avenue this weekend.
"I think it's awesome. I don't know how they will clean it all up, but it looks great," said Brad Meister.
On Thursday night, crowds gathered by the barricades on the Michigan Avenue Bridge to catch a glimpse of the stars of the movie.
This is just the latest location for the sci-fi action flick. Last weekend, several streets in the Loop were closed, and LaSalle Street was turned into a virtual war zone for the movie. Then crews headed north to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where shooting took place near the Milwaukee Art Museum.
City officials estimate that having "Transformers 3" shoot in Chicago will bring about $20 million into the local economy. The director of the Chicago Film Office says precautions have been taken at all the shoot locations around the city to prevent permanent damage.
"All the special effects, all the pyrotechnics, all of the stunts, in fact, were rehearsed and performed prior to them going on location for the benefit of the Chicago Fire Department and the Chicago Bureau of Fire Prevention, just to do tests to make sure whatever materials they were using, that there wouldn't be any permanent damage because of it," said Rich Moskal, Chicago Film Office director.
Crews will be shooting on the Michigan Avenue Bridge above the Chicago River, as well as performing aerial stunts near Trump Tower.
Lower Michigan Avenue will be closed between Hubbard and Wacker from 8 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday. Filming will also affect some downtown bus routes.
The Transformers movies are known for their special effects. The specifics are being kept under wraps, but fans in Milwaukee said they saw posters of automobiles and a classic car on site.
Among the many locations around Chicago, Transformers scenes have also been shot at the historic Rosenwald building at 46th and Michigan.
"We found out from the children they've been doing it for three or four days, up and down the streets doing explosions," said Mark Allen of the Save The Rosenwald Coalition.
On Thursday, a group voiced concerns about shooting in the Rosenwald.
The shoot comes after a campaign to preserve the building that was developed in the 1920s by Julius Rosenwald, the president of Sears, Roebuck and Co. It was then called the Michigan Boulevard Garden Apartments and was home to famous African-American Chicagoans.
The complex is now vacant and needs renovation.
"Ghost Rider 2" Forms Skeleton Crew
(The Late, Late Show) Nicolas Cage will return for a Ghost Rider sequel to be helmed by Neveldine/Taylor, the actor confirmed tonight on "The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson."
"There's gonna be a new one," Cage told Ferguson after the host presented him with a model of a flaming skull, "I just made the deal today."
He also confirmed the recent rumor that Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (Crank, Gamer) will direct the film, still rumored to be called Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.
Warner Bros. Developing World War X
(Variety) Warner Bros. Pictures has bought Colin Trevorrow's script World War X and has set it up with Silver Pictures, reports Variety.
The trade says the story is "centered on a man recruited by a team of government agents to stop a terrorist from the future who is using time travel to reshape history."
Joel Silver and Andrew Rona are producing. Chris Bender, JC Spink, Alex Heineman and Jake Weiner are executive producing.
‘Inception’: How They Dreamed Up Those Special Effects
(blogs.wsj.com) Among the many dreamscapes in Christopher Nolan’s new sci-fi flick “Inception,” one of the most memorable is the image of a chic modern hotel that defies the rules of gravity. At one point, Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Arthur careens down hallways that shift and turn upside down; at another, he fights an array of armed men in zero-gravity rooms, bouncing off walls and ceilings like a martial-artist-cum-astronaut. Comparisons to “The Matrix” are inevitable, but what makes these sequences unique is that few computer effects were used.
“There’s always a way to do things with computer imagery, but I don’t think it would create the same effect,” says special effects supervisor Chris Corbould, who also collaborated with Nolan on “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight.” “This way, you get the impact of it, as they’re colliding with the bed, hitting the light fittings, going across to hit the walls. You really gain the energy of it, with [the actors] struggling to keep their wits about them.”
To pull off the scenes, multiple hotel sets were constructed in a converted airship hanger north of London, most notably, a more than 100-foot hotel corridor that was able to rotate 360 degrees with the help of eight concentric rings, 30-feet in diameter, which surrounded the set. Capable of spinning up to eight revolutions per minute, the centripetal hallway was powered by two giant 225-kilowatt electric motors (the equivalent of two new Mercedes S350 V-6 engines). Working with stunt coordinator Tom Struthers, another “Dark Knight” veteran, Gordon-Levitt and the other stuntmen rehearsed within the rotating sets for over two weeks.
To create the effect of zero gravity, several other sets were constructed: vertical sets; horizontal sets; upside down sets; at the same time, the “weightless” actors were hung on wires, or supported by rigid polls like big Popsicle sticks, or even laid down in fiberglass molds built to fit their bodies.
“All these combinations were used,” explains Corbould. “So just as the audience feels like it’s getting to know how it’s done, all of a sudden the technique changes, which then blows that theory out the window.”
According to Corbould, the hotel scenes alone took about a month to complete, not to mention the many weeks of tests they undertook to get the effects right. “At the time, it was a real slog,” he admits. “Working with Chris is always so difficult,” he adds. “He extracts every creative juice out of you and throws it in the film.”
One particular challenge for the sequence was a scene in which Arthur takes five weightless sleeping bodies, wraps a chord around them, and floats them down the hall into an elevator. “How did we do it?” Corbould asks. “Chris has sworn ourselves to secrecy on that one.”
StopMotion Recorder Makes Animators Off Us All
By Kate Solomon on Friday, 16th July 2010
Download - $0.99
Ladies and gentlemen, get ready to download your new favourite app. StopMotion Recorder is a simple little iPhone application which allows you to make stop-motion animations quickly and easily.
Using a regular camera or camcorder to create a stop-motion film is do-able, but it’s a huge hassle and very time consuming. StopMotion Recorder makes it as easy as pie; there’s an onscreen grid you can use to position your subjects, and as you tap the screen or clap to record each frame it provides you with a transparent guide to show you the positioning of the last shot. It’s quick, easy and fun.
We had just two gripes; one was that we couldn’t seem to watch our animation in progress and then add more to it, and the other was that the autofocus was sometimes a bit slow; hence why some of the shots in our animation are a bit fuzzy. We'll admit we did add the titles and music in iMovie afterwards, though.
Still, with various film effects available and a super easy one-touch sharing system for uploading to YouTube or emailing your video, StopMotion Recorder is actually brilliant. If the video above doesn't satisfy your stop-mo lust, there’s a rather professional how-to video here.
Dark Shadows Set to Shoot in January
(Deadline) Tim Burton's Dark Shadows is set to roll in January 2011, reports Deadline.The film has also received a new writer in the form of Seth Grahame-Smith (author of "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter"), who will rewrite the John August screenplay. Based on the cult soap opera from the 1960's, the film stars Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins, a popular vampire character who took over the show's focus after he first appeared one year into the series' original five year run.
'Last Airbender 2' Will Be 'Darker,' M. Night Shyamalan Says
(mtv.com) If a $53.3 million holiday weekend proves successful enough to keep M. Night Shyamalan around for a "Last Airbender" sequel, he knows what he wants to do — and he wants to do it darkly. Asked about his intentions going forward, the "Sixth Sense" and "Signs" director confirmed that he has much of "The Last Airbender 2" already mapped out.
"I do," Shyamalan told MTV News. "The third is more ambiguous, but the second one, I've written a draft that I'm really happy with and is darker and richer, and it has a wonderful antagonist in it in Azula, who's kind of like our only real, pure antagonist in the series, so I'm excited about that."
His description of the story implies that Summer Bishil's character from the film currently in theaters has plenty left to do onscreen as Aang (Noah Ringer) continues his fight against the Fire Nation.
As far as what the story will be about and which characters could enter or exit the cast, those decisions may have to wait for Paramount's decision on the franchise's fate. If things proceed, Shyamalan has already shared a few details that could play into his intentions. The elite female Kyoshi Warriors, for instance, will likely play a larger role.
"I probably won't show the Kyoshi Warriors because I want to save them for the second movie, because I'm going to have to introduce them all over again," he said while explaining what would and would not show up in the "Last Airbender" DVD and Blu-ray's deleted scenes.
The characters were initially included in the first film, but circumstances and editing decisions eventually moved them out of the spotlight.
"We shot [the scene] and [the Kyoshi Warriors] were amazing, and we spent an unbelievable amount of time choreographing them," he said. "And they just distracted from the movie, because the movie wasn't about them."
Given that he became much more comfortable with filming in 3-D during his first "Airbender," another round of 3-D filming with the same crew would make sense unless Hollywood's affection for the evolving medium changes overnight.
In the meantime, Shyamalan sounds like he's ready to go if and when an "Airbender" sequel gets the go-ahead.
Japan Opens its Doors to Young Animation Artists
(vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn) Young animation artists from around the world have the opportunity to travel to Tokyo to create new films while working directly with Japan's animation culture.
Organised by the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs and the Japan Image Council, the project is an artist-in-residence progr-amme that aims to give three outstanding young animation artists the opportunity to gain a better understanding of Japanese culture.
Participants will engage in a variety of activities including visits to animation studios and seminars at visual arts schools.
From January to March, 2011, the selected participants will work on new projects with periodic assistance and instruction from experienced Japanese animators. They will present their finished work or piece-in-progress at the end of their stay.
Participants who do not finish their piece by the time they leave Tokyo must submit a DVD of their finished product by August 2011.
Artists between the age of 20-35 who are not Japanese may apply. They must have shown at least one animated work at an international film festival that included films from outside their own country.
They must also be conversant in English or Japanese.
Travel expenses and insurance, a living allowance, housing, and a material stipend will be provided.
Computers and cameras needed to create the works for the programme as a general rule will need to be brought by the participants.
Documents describing the work to be created should be included in the application. Applicants should submit detailed documents (storyboard and script) of their project idea.
Applications forms and all required elements should be submitted by September 10 to the Japan Image Council. The address and more details can be found at jpf.org.vn. — VNS
'Transformers 3' Shuts Down Mich. Ave.
(abclocal.go.com) Earlier this week, skydivers were seen parachuting over Millennium Park in preparation for the shoot.
Until Monday morning, the Magnificent Mile is closed from Randolph to Ontario. Movie crews have turned it into a battle scene. Crushed cars, concrete, metal, skydivers and explosions can all be seen along Michigan Avenue this weekend.
"I think it's awesome. I don't know how they will clean it all up, but it looks great," said Brad Meister.
On Thursday night, crowds gathered by the barricades on the Michigan Avenue Bridge to catch a glimpse of the stars of the movie.
This is just the latest location for the sci-fi action flick. Last weekend, several streets in the Loop were closed, and LaSalle Street was turned into a virtual war zone for the movie. Then crews headed north to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where shooting took place near the Milwaukee Art Museum.
City officials estimate that having "Transformers 3" shoot in Chicago will bring about $20 million into the local economy. The director of the Chicago Film Office says precautions have been taken at all the shoot locations around the city to prevent permanent damage.
"All the special effects, all the pyrotechnics, all of the stunts, in fact, were rehearsed and performed prior to them going on location for the benefit of the Chicago Fire Department and the Chicago Bureau of Fire Prevention, just to do tests to make sure whatever materials they were using, that there wouldn't be any permanent damage because of it," said Rich Moskal, Chicago Film Office director.
Crews will be shooting on the Michigan Avenue Bridge above the Chicago River, as well as performing aerial stunts near Trump Tower.
Lower Michigan Avenue will be closed between Hubbard and Wacker from 8 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday. Filming will also affect some downtown bus routes.
The Transformers movies are known for their special effects. The specifics are being kept under wraps, but fans in Milwaukee said they saw posters of automobiles and a classic car on site.
Among the many locations around Chicago, Transformers scenes have also been shot at the historic Rosenwald building at 46th and Michigan.
"We found out from the children they've been doing it for three or four days, up and down the streets doing explosions," said Mark Allen of the Save The Rosenwald Coalition.
On Thursday, a group voiced concerns about shooting in the Rosenwald.
The shoot comes after a campaign to preserve the building that was developed in the 1920s by Julius Rosenwald, the president of Sears, Roebuck and Co. It was then called the Michigan Boulevard Garden Apartments and was home to famous African-American Chicagoans.
The complex is now vacant and needs renovation.
"Ghost Rider 2" Forms Skeleton Crew
(The Late, Late Show) Nicolas Cage will return for a Ghost Rider sequel to be helmed by Neveldine/Taylor, the actor confirmed tonight on "The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson."
"There's gonna be a new one," Cage told Ferguson after the host presented him with a model of a flaming skull, "I just made the deal today."
He also confirmed the recent rumor that Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (Crank, Gamer) will direct the film, still rumored to be called Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.
Warner Bros. Developing World War X
(Variety) Warner Bros. Pictures has bought Colin Trevorrow's script World War X and has set it up with Silver Pictures, reports Variety.
The trade says the story is "centered on a man recruited by a team of government agents to stop a terrorist from the future who is using time travel to reshape history."
Joel Silver and Andrew Rona are producing. Chris Bender, JC Spink, Alex Heineman and Jake Weiner are executive producing.
‘Inception’: How They Dreamed Up Those Special Effects
(blogs.wsj.com) Among the many dreamscapes in Christopher Nolan’s new sci-fi flick “Inception,” one of the most memorable is the image of a chic modern hotel that defies the rules of gravity. At one point, Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Arthur careens down hallways that shift and turn upside down; at another, he fights an array of armed men in zero-gravity rooms, bouncing off walls and ceilings like a martial-artist-cum-astronaut. Comparisons to “The Matrix” are inevitable, but what makes these sequences unique is that few computer effects were used.
“There’s always a way to do things with computer imagery, but I don’t think it would create the same effect,” says special effects supervisor Chris Corbould, who also collaborated with Nolan on “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight.” “This way, you get the impact of it, as they’re colliding with the bed, hitting the light fittings, going across to hit the walls. You really gain the energy of it, with [the actors] struggling to keep their wits about them.”
To pull off the scenes, multiple hotel sets were constructed in a converted airship hanger north of London, most notably, a more than 100-foot hotel corridor that was able to rotate 360 degrees with the help of eight concentric rings, 30-feet in diameter, which surrounded the set. Capable of spinning up to eight revolutions per minute, the centripetal hallway was powered by two giant 225-kilowatt electric motors (the equivalent of two new Mercedes S350 V-6 engines). Working with stunt coordinator Tom Struthers, another “Dark Knight” veteran, Gordon-Levitt and the other stuntmen rehearsed within the rotating sets for over two weeks.
To create the effect of zero gravity, several other sets were constructed: vertical sets; horizontal sets; upside down sets; at the same time, the “weightless” actors were hung on wires, or supported by rigid polls like big Popsicle sticks, or even laid down in fiberglass molds built to fit their bodies.
“All these combinations were used,” explains Corbould. “So just as the audience feels like it’s getting to know how it’s done, all of a sudden the technique changes, which then blows that theory out the window.”
According to Corbould, the hotel scenes alone took about a month to complete, not to mention the many weeks of tests they undertook to get the effects right. “At the time, it was a real slog,” he admits. “Working with Chris is always so difficult,” he adds. “He extracts every creative juice out of you and throws it in the film.”
One particular challenge for the sequence was a scene in which Arthur takes five weightless sleeping bodies, wraps a chord around them, and floats them down the hall into an elevator. “How did we do it?” Corbould asks. “Chris has sworn ourselves to secrecy on that one.”
StopMotion Recorder Makes Animators Off Us All
By Kate Solomon on Friday, 16th July 2010
Download - $0.99
Ladies and gentlemen, get ready to download your new favourite app. StopMotion Recorder is a simple little iPhone application which allows you to make stop-motion animations quickly and easily.
Using a regular camera or camcorder to create a stop-motion film is do-able, but it’s a huge hassle and very time consuming. StopMotion Recorder makes it as easy as pie; there’s an onscreen grid you can use to position your subjects, and as you tap the screen or clap to record each frame it provides you with a transparent guide to show you the positioning of the last shot. It’s quick, easy and fun.
We had just two gripes; one was that we couldn’t seem to watch our animation in progress and then add more to it, and the other was that the autofocus was sometimes a bit slow; hence why some of the shots in our animation are a bit fuzzy. We'll admit we did add the titles and music in iMovie afterwards, though.
Still, with various film effects available and a super easy one-touch sharing system for uploading to YouTube or emailing your video, StopMotion Recorder is actually brilliant. If the video above doesn't satisfy your stop-mo lust, there’s a rather professional how-to video here.
