With SPIDER-MAN 2 breaking box office records and upping the visual effects stakes, Ellen Wolff chats with supervisor John Dykstra about the superhero's vertiginous flights of fancy and the challenges of integrating Doc Ock's digital and mechanical tentacles.
Fox Kids Europe chairman/ceo Bruce Steinberg has left his post at a time when the company realized substantial revenue gains and a profit rise in its last reporting period.
A statement from the company's supervisory board did not say what were the terms or reasons for his departure, but a report in Reuters said FKE execs said it was the supervisory board's decision.
Nickelodeon launched two new Websites today, July 14, 2004, as part of the Dot Kids Act, established in 2002 to ensure safe spaces on the Internet for children under 13. The new site for kids, www.nick.kids.us/ and for parents and preschoolers, www.nickjr.kids.us/, have been created by the network as extensions of www.nick.com/ and www.nickjr.com/, respectively, as additional safe places for kids and preschoolers to play on the Internet.
Entertainment Rights has promoted Chloe van den Berg to the newly created role of director of international (excl USA). She was sales director, heading up the International Television Sales division.
Pepper Films has settled into its new space in Santa Monica, California. Founded by animation director Jean Perramon, technical director/compositor Nick Bates and producer Christina Cox in 2002, Pepper Films provides animation and CG production.
Reese Witherspoon (SWEET HOME ALABAMA) and Kristin Chenoweth (SESAME STREET) are in negotiations to share the title role in Walt Disney Animation's RAPUNZEL UNBRAIDED, reports VARIETY. Witherspoon would provide the speaking voice for the character with Chenoweth handling the singing. The in-development CG project is being directed by Glen Keane and produced by Phil Lofaro. Sarah Parriott and Josie McGibbon wrote the screenplay, which gives a new twist on the classic fairy tale.
Sam McKim, the legendary Disney Imagineer who drew the first souvenir maps of Disneyland in 1954, died of heart failure on July 9, 2004 at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank. He was 79 years old. In addition to his Disney career, McKim started out as a child actor who appeared in films with John Wayne, Spencer Tracy, James Cagney, Rita Hayworth and Gene Autry.
The Los Angeles launch event for SOFTIMAGE|XSI v.4.0 will feature 3D demos hosted by L.A.-based special projects senior technical animator Justin Leach. In addition to working in Japan on several Japanese animation productions, Leach has also worked on various commercials, videogames and theatrical features, where he specialized in character animation on high profile movies like ICE AGE.
HDFEST is the world's only high-definition film festival. This year the HDFEST 2004 World Tour is taking place in Sydney, Los Angeles, New York, Finland, London and Miami. Each HDFEST event screens films exclusively in high-def and presents a variety of panels on HD related topics. The festival has a competition including awards for "Best Special/Visual FX in an HD Film," "Best HD Animation," "Best Cinematography in an HD Film," etc.
Check www.hdfest.com for event schedule and details.
Avid and Softimage, along with event sponsors HP and Intel, are pleased to invite you to the
Art in Essence is an arts festival, which encourages and showcases artists, painters, sculptors, musicians, poets and filmmakers. It is a fresh initiative from the founders of the country's leading arts festival 'Art in Action', a highly successful event which has been running for more than 20 years, often drawing more than 25,000 visitors a year. Two groups of short films will be shown twice a day. All films must be shorter than 15 minutes (under 10 minutes is preferred). For more information, visit http://www.artinessence.shorturl.com/.
The 2004 Annual Zoom In AwardsNew York, New York, USAOctober 2004Deadline: September 17, 2004
Magnet Media Inc. announces the 2004 Annual Zoom In Awards. The awards have both professional and student categories in Cinematography, Editing and Graphics & Effects. The awards will give creative production and post-production talent a chance to show off their best work, gaining important exposure and a chance to win from over $100,000 in prizes.
Continuing our excerpts from the Inspired 3D series, Tom Capizzi delves into modeling resources.
Global Mechanic has completed a series of five IDs for Nicktoons, Nickelodeons digital channel for animated hits. Global Mechanic was hired to design the character, concept the ideas, animate and score the music for the spots. The five spots: MARTIX, BUSBY, MARATHON, OUTA SPACE and GIANTS all feature a hip 3D cat in its "title" situation. Animated entirely in 3D Maya, the IDs are based around simple music driven scenes and take their cues from musicals and the music video world.
Columbia TriStar Home Ent. has announced that it will release the French CG feature KAENA: THE PROPHECY ($24.96) on DVD, September 7, 2004. Directed and co-wrote by Chris Delaporte, the film features the vocal talents of Kirsten Dunst (SPIDER-MAN 2), Academy Award-winner Anjelica Huston (ROYAL TENEBAUMS) and Richard Harris (HARRY POTTER).
Discreet has announced that its lustre digital grading and color correction system is now installed in 17 film studios and post-production facilities around the world.
Philip Anschutz's Walden Media has left Disney for Fox, reports VARIETY. The AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS producer will team with Fox on five features, including Kate DiCamillo's BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE (due for release January 2005); Katherine Paterson's BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA; Lois Lowry's THE GIVER; Wendy Orr's NIM'S ISLAND; and Adam Mortimer's as-yet-unpublished comicbook proposal BIBLIONAUTS. Unlike the past Disney deal, the Fox agreement is neither exclusive nor constrained by time limits.
Director Mark Osborne and Karen Dufilho-Rosen, producer of several Academy Award-winning animated short films, are partnering in Los Angeles to make THE BETTER HALF, a stop-motion animated short film, with a 2004/2005 Guggenheim Fellowship Osborne received to partially fund the making of the new short.
MEDIA's 2004 Creative Media AwardsNew York, New York, USASeptember 22, 2004Deadline: July 30, 2004
11th Annual Slamdance Film Festival Park City, Utah, USAJanuary 21 - 28, 2005 Deadline: October 11, 2004
IDG World Expo will host Macworld Conference & Expo, the world's most comprehensive Macintosh OS event. The event showcases products and services for professionals involved in media and creative content development for corporate and home applications, as well as consumers using the Mac at home. Macworld brings together the loyal base of Mac OS audiences in creative services, education, application development, entertainment, small office/home office and Internet-based environments.
Digital Video Expo East 2004 covers content acquisition and manipulation, delivery strategies and business practices. Highlights include: Audio Track, Business Track, Video Track, Apple Certified Pro Training on DVD Studio Pro and Final Cut Pro, Classes on HD and Digital Photography, One-Day Lighting Intensive, Two-Day Digital Video Documentary Crash Course and the all-new Xtreme Video & Photo Summit, featuring courses on extreme video. The conference runs July 12-16 with the expo and Xtreme Video & Photo Summit running July 14-16. The event will take place at the Jacob K.
Svengali Visual Effects has contributed visual effects to GARDEN STATE, Zach Braffs (NBCs SCRUBS) directorial debut that premiered to critical acclaim at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. Scheduled for release on July 30, 2004 by Fox Searchlight, GARDEN STATE is a dark, romantic comedy set in New Jersey.
DZP Marketing Communications (www.dzpusa.com) has added Ray Rainville as the company's exec producer. Rainville comes to DZP following a year as the exec producer of Design VFX for post house Betelgeuse Prods, New York. At Betelgeuse, Rainville led the launch of the Betelgeuse division, BETSY Design VFX, a design/visual effects boutique.
ArchVision Inc. announced the availability of ArchVision Composer, a new tool that lets users add Rich Photorealistic Content (RPC) to 2D renderings and photographs. With features like automatic scaling, shadow generation and Opacity, Saturation and Brightness controls, Composer lets users improve the quality of their renderings by quickly adding realistic entourage like RPC people, trees and cars. Composer runs as a standalone application or in conjunction with Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Photoshop Elements.
