Monster! Distributes will be launching ROVER SAVES CHRISTMAS, a new one-hour program based on Roddy Doyles international best-selling childrens book of the same name, at MIPCOM. This is the first project to emerge from the collaboration between Oscar-nominated animation studio Brown Bag Films (GIVE UP YER AUL SINS) and award-winning feature film entity Treasure Entertainment (I WENT DOWN). All three companies are based in Ireland.
SIGGRAPH 2004Los Angeles, California, USAAugust 8 12, 2004Deadline: March 3, 2004
Broadway Video DesignLab has hired Lisanne McDonald, an exec producer with broad experience spanning vfx, design and live action for film and television. She reports directly to managing director Karen Stewart.
Prior to her permanent position with DesignLab, McDonald was a freelance producer with the company.
McDonald has produced broadcast design and network branding and re-branding packaging projects, in addition to episodics, talk shows, commercials, documentaries and new media applications.
R!OT Manhattan has promoted Tom McCullough to visual effects supervisor. In his new role, McCullough will design, budget and oversee visual effects work for commercials, episodic television and broadcast graphics. He will also provide on-set visual effects supervision. McCullough will retain his post as senior inferno artist and will remain involved in hands-on visual effects production. A multi-talented artist, McCullough is also skilled in 3D animation.
With captivating, contemporary imagery, eye-popping colors and an irresistible dance mix, Coca Cola's SPRITE REMIX high-definition spot recently spashed onto movie screens nationwide. Finished in 1080/24p by PostWorks New York, SPRITE REMIX is the creative vision of Ogilvy Mindshare, New York, to promote the new Sprite Remix tropical fruit flavored soft drink.
Instant Effects announced the company's first product, OfficeFX, which will become available later this month from www.instanteffects.com for $149.95. A seamless addition to the popular presentation software package, Microsoft PowerPoint, OfficeFX allows users to deliver effective presentations with the tool they already know. Instant Effects is also proud to announce that a trial version of OfficeFX will ship with all desktop products from ATI Technologies Inc., a world leader in the design and manufacture of innovative visual processor solutions.
Crowd!, a behavioral animation system built on a realtime engine called Neuro!Machine, will be released to the general consumer in November by Vital Idea. Retailing for $9,995, Crowd! 1.0 Suite -- Windows may be pre-ordered at http://store.vitalidea.com. With Crowd! digital artists can integrate SynThespians into shots.
![NewTek Releases Free Update to VT[3]](https://www.awn.com/sites/default/files/styles/small_featured/public/image/featured/13225-newtek-releases-free-update-vt3.jpg?itok=zKnyDFvx "NewTek Releases Free Update to VT[3]")
![NewTek Releases Free Update to VT[3]](https://www.awn.com/sites/default/files/styles/tiny_featured/public/image/featured/13225-newtek-releases-free-update-vt3.jpg?itok=Ar7oQskl "NewTek Releases Free Update to VT[3]")
NewTek Inc. announced the release of the first update for VT[3], the company's integrated production suite for live and post production and editing. The update is free to registered owners of VT[3], and includes enhancements to DV support and DVD authoring program support, enhanced integration with Adobe After Effects, and integration with Discreet's forthcoming combustion 3.
3D Festival 2004, Europe's largest convention and exhibition for the creative 3D industry, will happen May 3-6, 2004 at Bella Center in Copenhagen, Denmark. The festival encompasses animation, post-production, digital visual effects, games, architectural visualization and design. Leonard Teo, md, Ballistic Media Pty Ltd., will chair the conferences, with organizer Jimmy Hassel taking an advisory role.
Modern VideoFilm used da Vinci's 2K Plus color enhancement systems as a part of its digital intermediate (DI) workflow to remaster and restore Ridley Scotts new directors cut of ALIEN. The 2K Plus interfaces directly with the Quantel iQ servers in Modern VideoFilm's Glendale digital intermediate facility, enabling the staff to maintain a cohesive DI workflow that allows them to perform color correction, restoration and other post-production tasks through a single user interface.
Munich-based TV-Loonland has a two new series and pilots to unveil at MIPCOM and screen at MIPCOM Jr. Its U.K. production house, Telemagination, has completed production on its brand new, madcap animated series, METALHEADS, according to David Ferguson, coo, operating out of TV-Loonlands London office.
Responding to an ongoing demand in the marketplace for brand value programming, DIC Ent. will offer 91 half-hour animated episodes in the TOTALLY SONIC! package, which includes a private collection of never-before-seen episodes available for the first time to international buyers in all major language versions, at booth 17.01 during MIPCOM.
Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI) will bring a diverse slate of programming to MIPCOM, including the animated series ASTRO BOY and CYBORG 009, as well as STEPHEN KING'S KINGDOM HOSPITAL, JOAN OF ARCADIA, MISSING and RESIDENTS, the hit Chilean telenovela, MACHOS, according to SPTI distribution evp Peter Iacono. The SPTI booth will be at top of the Palais at M5.01.
Mel Alcock has joined Fox Kids Europe (FKE) as exec director of commercial sales to oversee the generation of advertising sales and sponsorship revenue for all Fox Kids channels and online and interactive operations throughout Europe and the Middle East. Alcock will work together with Fox Kids local Managing Directors and Sales Directors.
In recognition of his enormous impact on the vfx industry, George Lucas will receive the first lifetime achievement award from the Visual Effects Society at the Second Annual VES Awards ceremony on Feb. 18, 2004, at the Hollywood Palladium in Hollywood.
The Gnomon Workshop has released four new training DVDs by concept designer Feng Zhu. Focused on the traditional and digital techniques of the concept design industry, these four titles contain more than eight hours of instruction. Feng's clients include Lucasfilm, Disney, Blur Studio, Electronic Arts, GT Interactive, Origin Systems, Microsoft, Film Roman, Universal, Warner Bros. and Sierra. Feng has been teaching production design at Gnomon for two years.
The 2003 DIY Book Festival has announced the winners of its annual contest honoring independent authors and publishers. The children's book I LOVE YOU MORE, written by Laura Duksta and illustrated by Karen Keesler, took home the grand prize of $1,000 as DIY Author of the Year and DIY Publisher of the Year.
Turbo-charged with GenArts' Sapphire Plug-ins, Brickyard has been able to flaunt its effects and compositing systems on a number of new commercial projects, including "Pods Unite" (a shared marketing effort between VW and Apple) and the monster.com "Driver" Super Bowl spot. The work ranges from blowing up trucks into gas stations, to the slightly less glamorous removal of unwanted rigs.
With the appointment of five high profile industry leaders and four additional department promotions, Vancouver Film School (VFS) has stepped up its strategy for entertainment production training.
The new appointments announced by managing director Marty Hasselbach include:
Larry Bafia, head of 3D Animation & Visual Effects. Bafia previously served as a commercial animation director at PDI/DreamWorks, where he directed for Coca-Cola, Sega, Intel, Kraft, Circle K and Saturn. He also worked as sequence lead animator on ANTZ, BATMAN & ROBIN and A SIMPLE WISH.
Sonic Solutions has released Sonic PrimeTime Deluxe, the premium version of the PrimeTime line of DVD creation software, for Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition. Launched in conjunction with Microsoft's release of Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004, PrimeTime Deluxe expands upon the Media Center experience by making it easy to archive personal digital media such as recorded TV shows onto DVDs that can be played on set-top DVD players and multimedia PCs.
R!OT Santa Monica helped to make an "Angel" out of Pink by providing vfx and final post services for the singer's new video FEEL GOOD TIME. The song is the theme from CHARLIE'S ANGELS: FULL THROTTLE and the video, directed by Dave Meyers of @radical media, casts Pink as a fourth member of the secret agent squad.
DreamWorks confirmed that SHARKSLAYER would now be called SHARK TALE. A less violent title, which was desired, but this computer-animated tale by any other name is still about gangster sharks, opening Oct. 1, 2004. The comedic riff on THE SOPRANOS, THE GODFATHER and CAR WASH, the first computer-animated feature produced at the Glendale, California-based campus, rendered in mental ray, boasts an all-star cast of voices, including Will Smith, Robert DeNiro, Renee Zellweger, Angelina Jolie, Jack Black, Martin Scorsese and James Gandolfini.
Warner Bros. technical operations has promoted Darcy Antonellis to evp, distribution & technology operations, and Chuck Dages to evp, emerging technology. Both Antonellis and Dages will report directly to technical operations president Chris Cookson.
Industry veteran Jere Hausfater has joined Miramax Films as evp/co-head of Miramax International. Based in Los Angeles, Hausfater will report to Miramax Films coo Rick Sands, and will work alongside Stuart Ford in heading Miramax International. He will also work in conjunction with Agnes Mentre, who heads Miramaxs acquisitions group, to acquire product for sale and distribution outside of North America. Additionally, Hausfaters business affairs background will be tapped to help Miramax develop European co-financing structures.
NEMO is swimming up the stream of nominees for the 2003 Hollywood Movie of the Year Awards to be held Oct. 20, 2003 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. The Hollywood Film Festival's board of advisors announced the nominations in all categories, which are available at www.hollywoodfilmfestival.com.
