Philadelphia-based Shooters, Post & Transfer has added Janet Falcon as its second colorist, and upgraded equipment to expand its film transfer and color correction capability according to Ray Carballada, coo of Shooters.

David Brown, co-founder and ceo of Blue Sky Studios, passed away April 11, 2003 at the age of 64 in Westchester County, New York. Brown, joined MAGI SynthaVision to lead the newly opened New York sales and production facility. As the industry downsized in the late '80s he helped co-found Blue Sky Productions (later renamed Blue Sky Studios), in White Plains, New York in 1987. In the early years he concentrated on developing an animation language built around ray tracing mathematics. Blue Sky focused on photo realism and character animation.

Lisa Gregorian has been promoted from sr vp of marketing and research at Warner Bros. International Television Distribution to sr vp, Television, Warner Bros. Marketing Services. In her new position she will continue to oversee all marketing for WBITD and will take on marketing for WB Television (network television production) and WB Animation. She reports to Bruce Rosenblum, exec vp at Warner Bros. Television Group and will work closely with Jeffrey Schlesinger, president of WBITD, WB Television president Peter Roth and WB Animation president Sander Schwartz.

Creative solutions company mOcean is expanding its business outreach to the worldwide marketplace by naming Javier Prelooker director of new business development, international markets. Prelooker will focus on bringing the Venice, California-based studio's entertainment marketing services across all media to the Ibero-American marketplace. Kevin Aratari, managing director of mOcean, said, "The international Hispanic market has grown and matured enormously in recent years.

Cecile de Brunhoff, the lady who invented the story of the little elephant, BABAR, in 1931 to tell her boys as a bedtime story, has died of a stroke at the age of 99 in Paris on April 7, 2003, it was reported by the LOS ANGELES TIMES. Her husband, painter Jean de Brunhoff illustrated the story, actually named the elephant and created Celestre, Sephir and the Old Lady who takes care of young Barbar after his mother is killed.

Blanche Frankel has been promoted from exec director to VP at SAA Public Relations. Based in the company’s New York office, Frankel will continue to oversee the Latin American division, in addition to seeking expansion opportunities and developing new business for SSA and manage its New York office operations. Frankel joined SSA in 2000 as director, and in 2002 she was named to head SSA’s newly-formed Latin American division representing Latin American entertainment companies Globo TV and Comarex S.A. de C.V., as well as provide media relations and marketing representation for U.S.

Abbe Daniel has joined Click 3x in New York City as executive producer for broadcast to oversee the studio’s broadcast department which provides brand development, design and production services for broadcast and cable entities. Daniel had been working with Click 3x on a freelance basis for several months, producing projects for iN DEMAND, Nickelodeon, Lifetime and Discovery. She worked for several years as coordinating producer for award-winning television journalist Bill Moyers on a series of acclaimed documentaries for PBS and helped launch NOW WITH BILL MOYERS.

Radium, with studios in San Francisco and Santa Monica, California, has hired three new people to bolster various areas of the growing visual effects company. Julie Luehrman is on board as VP marketing & sales, based in the company’s San Francisco location. Executive producer Matthew McManus and technical operations manager Michael Chizzo have joined the Los Angeles office.

Joseph Gilland, who headed up Walt Disney Feature Animation EFX department in Florida for LILO AND STITCH and TARZAN, has joined Bardel Entertainment in Vancouver, Canada to be special effects supervisor on the SILVERWING animated series. "SILVERWING is just such a fantastic story. It is one of my son's favorite books and I absolutely jumped at the chance to be part of bringing SILVERWING'S story to life!" said Gilland.

Fox Kids Europe has promoted Benoit Runel from exec director of programming and acquisitions to SVP of programming. Runel will be responsible for sourcing programming not only for the FKE channels, but also for international distribution (currently serviced by Buena Vista International) and for FKE's consumer products division. FKE believes this operational expansion will also help development its online and interactive business. Runel reports to Bruce Steinberg, FKE's CEO, who is overseeing the programming strategy of FKE in coordination with majority shareholder The Walt Disney Co.

Gaspard de Chavagnac joins Fox Kids France as managing director, replacing Ronan Lunven who left the position in November. Prior to FKF, de Chavagnac worked for eight years at Canal+ Group. He also was EVP for the finance and development at Canalsatellite and project manger for Canal+ International Affairs. He reports to Paul Taylor, group managing director for Channel Europe and EVP of Fox Kids Europe.

European animation television vets Justin Hatfield and Cathy Laughton are teaming with Hungarian toon studio Varga to flex its international muscle. The two will handle presales across Europe, finance and distribution for Varga, as well as seek out co-production and partnering opportunities on new projects. Varga CEO, Andras Erkel, has set them upon securing int'l pre-sales for BJORN BEAR, a Varga, Happy Life (Sweden) and WDR (Germany) co-production.

Jerry Offsay will step down as president of programming for Showtime Networks at the end of the year. The search has begun for his successor at the cable net owned by Viacom. Offsay commented in a statement, "Last summer I announced to Matt [Matthew Bank, chairman/CEO of Showtime] that after my 50th birthday I intended to leave Showtime." He said they decided to make the announcement now, although his birthday is in December, to facilitate naming a successor and to make an orderly transition.