At 20th Century Fox, I Met the Walrus producer Jerry Levitan talks about interviewing John Lennon when he was 14 years old.

David Crane (l) and Steve Cartwright.

I was off to an early start this morning – the good news being the hearty breakfast I wolfed down when I learned more about Adobe’s new Director 11.5 release. Dr. Allen Patridge of Adobe ran the presentation, and he went over some of the things users can expect from the new Director software. He approached this from three angles: Dominate, Accelerate, and Impress.”

The Jilin Animation Institute is an incredible undertaking. It’s now celebrating over ten years of operation.  The student base is over 10,500.  That’s NOT a typo.  10,500 students….the largest animation student enrollment in the world!  To support these students is a staff of 1,400 instructors, teachers, technicians and artists including a smattering of foreign nationals.  The institute is in the process of expanding its campus to accommodate up to 20,000 students within the next few years.

Tom Hanks as Zachry and Halle Berry as Meronym in Cloud Atlas, distributed domestically by Warner Bros. Pictures and in select international territories. Photo by Jay Maidment.

VIEW conference director Maria Elena Gutierrez has announced that senior visual effects supervisor Dan Glass of Method Studios will give a world premiere presentation on the feature film “Cloud Atlas.” Directed by Lana and Andy Wachowski and Tom Tykwer, the Warner Bros. release received a 10-minute standing ovation at its Toronto Film Festival premiere. “Cloud Atlas” is scheduled for wide release beginning in late October.

“We’re thrilled that Dan Glass is coming to Torino to present the visual effects work on this innovative film,” Gutierrez says. “Dan’s brilliant career in visual effects has included supervising work on “Tree of Life,” “Batman Begins,” and the “Matrix” sequels, so he has much to share with us. He joins a stellar list of speakers this year at what promises to be a deeply rewarding conference.”

Other notable additions to the speaker’s list include:

Hugh Welchman

Hugh Welchman, who is nominated for producing Peter and the Wolf, has answered the Six Questions. From concept to today, he has been involved with this film for seven years! It’s a major part of his life and he’s happy that the Oscar nod will allow more people to see the labor of love. Here’s what he had to say:

David's photo op beside the skyline backdrop and the parking lot / floodable water tank.

By Dan Sarto

Our Paramount Tour started with coffee and sunglasses, our group basking in the welcome warmth of the sun after having spent the last few days in the cold, wind and sporadic Southern California drizzle. Like Sony and Fox, Paramount is a huge studio, complete with large soundstages and even larger cinematic and television history. As our electric cart motored off, our tour guide expertly peppered us with interesting studio facts and a brief rundown of some of the classic films made here at the studio.

We stopped at one point to take a picture with the iconic Hollywood sign balanced on the hills far behind us.  We drove past huge sound stages and production buildings, as well as a New York backlot that like Fox, you’ve seen in more shows and commercials then you realize. 

Well, I am back in Savannah (for now). The Incubator Studio ended and I sadly said “goodbyes” to the folks at Bloomfield College and Cicely Tyson High School.

Buy It Now!

Read my review of WINNIE THE POOH

Disney proves once again why Blu-ray is so great for animation. This 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer of the new WINNIE THE POOH feature shows off the richness of the hand drawn animation. Line quality is detailed throughout. The watercolor backgrounds are painterly. Colors range from the subtle to the striking primaries used for Pooh's shirt for instance. Blacks are inky and consistent. Digital compression issues are nonexistent. The picture is about as flawless as it can get.

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack isn't as dynamic as the picture, but that's the nature of the film rather than the quality of the mix. Dialogue, music and sound effects are mixed clearly. The rear speakers are chiefly utilized for the music. The LFE track is used minimally, but effectively when needed such as the Backson sequence. Directionality is subtle as bees buzz or Tigger bounces across the soundscape. Ambience brings in the sounds of the Hundred Acre Wood across all the speakers.

I deem that every people, whether fulfilled bluntly oppressed or subtly manipulated by own rulers, or puppet masters, or pacified by the covertly preselected candidates to “democratically elect” from, sooner or later will awake. As history has proven repeatedly, it is then that they rise, rebel, demand a role in the way their lives and futures are being shaped. We have seen such awakening in Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Russia, Iran, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and, to a tiny extend, on Wall Street. Many such revolts are hastily taken advantage of by those who shrewdly manipulate such prospects to clench control for their own benefits or, worse yet, those interests that are vigilantly hidden behind them.

If countries, judged by many as undeveloped, are nonetheless capable of higher ideals, struggle for true freedom, than why we, who deem ourselves as the most advanced, the leaders of the “free world”, avoid to look the truth in the eye and admit to ourselves that we are lost in a desert of consumerism, disposability and materialistic excess, blown every which way by the gusts of shortsighted greed?