When I say to friends and family that I am off to New York, France or other parts of the world, they all are envious.  They think that I am off for a couple of meetings and then off sunbathing on the Cote D’Azur or drinking at some swank place in the Big Apple. No Way!

For weeks up to the event, I am scrambling to get appointments -- dozens upon dozens of appointments.  I go to these markets with several goals.  I am want to pitch new properties, talk to producers about their production needs both in service work and in co-production and to hunt for new prospects.  My schedule is a veritable rainbow, all color coded so I know at a glance what the topic will be. 

 

Okay, in case someone out there doesn’t know the story of Renton Thurston, here it is. Flash forward 10,000 years. A sentient being has merged itself with the Earth, forcing humanity into space. On a terraformed planet teenage Renton dreams of lifting (surfing invisible waves in the air caused by a substance called trapar) and achieving a bigger, better life, like the kind his lifting hero Holland and the surfing, subcultural crew Gekkostate live everyday. All that changes when the Nirvash, an advanced bio-mecha unit, and its pilot Eureka crash into his life. 

 

 

There is a fine line between holding onto false hope and living in a perpetual state of denial. Here is where I’d like to introduce you to acceptance. Here is where I’d like to introduce you to acceptance. Acceptance means that you can’t alter how events play out in your life or the way people will behave towards you in any given situation, but you do have a choice in how you will react to those situations.

 

By Ryann Ferguson

We pooled our resources here in the office, as well as your votes from online to put together our top 10 most memorable, most inspirational Voice Over Performances. Ever. Now this is for an iconic single performance. We’ll get to actors with an all around amazing track record next week. From newer performances iconic to younger generations, to unexpected performances from actors we thought we knew, there is no shortage of innovation in voice over performances. Without further delay, we present these memorable performances to you now.

THE STORY OF ANIMAGIC, A cross-border North/South of Ireland Film Project. The making of an innovative animasted project to promote peace in a "troubled" time.

Shane Acker at Skywalker Ranch. © AWN Inc.

For young animators, no story from last year’s Oscars was more inspiring than Shane Acker’s tale. His student film, 9, not only earned him an Academy Award nomination, but a feature production deal at Focus Features with Tim Burton and Night Watch director Timur Bekmambetov producing. The feature is now in production at Luxembourg-based Attitude Studios and the voice cast includes Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly, Christopher Plummer and Martin Landau. I really enjoyed 9 and I look forward to seeing the feature, which looks to be something potential unique in the world of 3D animation.

By Tim Kridel

It takes guts to quit a good job to launch a company, especially during the worst economy since the Great Depression. But that’s what George Christopher and Suresh Kumar did in late 2011, when they launched Blue Innovations, a Chennai, India-based developer of apps for Android, iOS, Windows and other platforms. Their experiences are worth pondering if you’re a developer considering striking out on your own.

Childhood friends, Christopher and Kumar were working at separate software companies in 2009 when they started to develop apps in their spare time under the name 5dollarapps. Soon they were winning competitions and awards such as Intel’s Black Belt, successes that helped convince them to rebrand their effort as Blue Innovations and turn it into a full-time company. We recently spoke with Christopher and Kumar about how they decided when to quit their day jobs and what they did to increase their odds of success.

The nominees answer questions from the execs at Fox. © 2008 AWN Inc.

After screening at Sony, the next stop of the tour was 20th Century Fox. After Ron Diamond, publisher of AWN, introduced the filmmakers to the studios execs in the audience, the group took the chance to walk around the back lot and grab a couple of coffee.