Iridas announced that Cinesite in London has purchased site licenses of FrameCycler Professional and SequencePublisher, as well as two seats of the new high-end FrameCycler DI application. Together, these will provide Cinesite with new review and file conversion capabilities, speeding up the facility's workflow and increasing efficiency.
Envy Post in London has made Fusion 5 from eyeon Software its principal compositing system.
Fusion is a perfect fit in every suite and were very excited to begin working with it, said Dave Cadle, co-owner and managing director, Envy. eyeons pedigree of A-list productions and dedicated support staff effectively made this an easy decision.
Nikki Grass joins Entertainment Rights (ER) as head of marketing at a time when ER is experiencing increasing demand for its content from the rapidly growing digital media sector.
Matthew McManus has come aboard RIOT as exec producer for commercials and other short-form work. McManus will oversee sales, marketing and production for the studios Los Angeles and New York facilities as they continue to sharpen their focus on the upper end of the advertising market and visual effects-driven, project-based work.
Anthem Visual Effects has once again been tapped to create visual effects for IDT Ent.s anthology series MASTERS OF HORROR, now in its second season.
This new season, a series of 13 original one-hour movies in HD produced by IDT in association with Industry Ent. and Nice Guy Prods., will feature a creative mixture of both former and new MASTERS directors and writers.
PipelineFX has signed RFX as a North American reseller. Under this agreement, RFX will market Qube! software and PipelineFX consulting services to its customers in California and across the U.S. RFX is a leading software solutions provider and serves a clientele that includes some of the industrys top film studios, post-production facilities and vfx houses.
WalkerFX announced the immediate availability of WalkerFX 2.2, a major point release in the company's advanced, production-proven, suite of visual effects and motion graphics plug-ins for Adobe After Effects.
POOHS GRAND ADVENTURE THE SEARCH FOR CHRISTOPHER ROBIN makes its DVD debut (Walt Disney Home Ent., $ 29.99) April 11, 2006. The 97 home video sequel to THE MANY ADVENTURES OF WINNIE THE POOH, finds Christopher Robin going to school and Pooh and company organizing a rescue mission in the Hundred Acre Wood after mistakenly thinking hes been kidnapped. Directed by Karl Geurs and written by Guers and Carter Crocker.
Paramount Pictures and Xbox have pioneered the first-ever Xbox Movie Showcase cross-platform marketing program between a movie studio and Microsoft's Xbox Live. Launching April 12, the Xbox Movie Showcase will feature free, high-definition, downloadable content from MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III, starring Tom Cruise and directed by J.J. Abrams (the creator of LOST and ALIAS), hitting theaters May 5, and NACHO LIBRE, a comedy starring Jack Black and directed by Jared Hess, NAPOLEON DYNAMITE) in theaters June 16.
On April 26, 2006, ZOOM SUIT #1 hits comic shops featuring an overt cover contest and a gaggle of covert Easter Eggs revealing phone numbers and websites that take readers out of the comic and into the middle of an Internet conspiracy. The comic is based on short film that has appeared in more than 60 film festivals since the world premiere at the Palm Beach International Film Festival on April 18, 2005 where it won Best Animation.
Animation Mentor, the Berkeley-based online character animation school, was selected by San Francisco radio station Alice @ 97.3 as a partner on its Alices 3-Minute Film Festival. The modern adult contemporary station unveils a new Morning Show-themed short film, each year, as part of the celebration. This years short was co-directed by Animation Mentors co-founder/creative director Carlos Baena, whose motion picture credits include FINDING NEMO and CARS.
The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced the winners for the first International Interactive Emmy Awards organized in partnership with Reed MIDEM, in Cannes, France. A Channel, Interactive Service and Program from the U.K., South Korea and France won the first ever International Interactive Emmy Award in their category. The inaugural Pioneer Prize was presented to Jonathan Miller, chairman/ceo of AOL for his innovative contributions to the field of interactive television.
Chrysler Film Project World Wide WebApril 20, 2006Deadline: April 20, 2006
2006 Stony Brook Film FestivalLong Island, New York, USAJuly 20-29, 2006Deadline: May 1, 2006
The Stony Brook Film Festival is a filmmaker-friendly, well-attended festival, which takes place at a 1000+ seat theatre with a 40-foot wide screen. It features independent features and shorts in competition; premieres, special screenings, filmmaker panels and receptions. The event is held at Staller Center for the Arts on the campus of Stony Brook University. For more information, visit www.stonybrookfilmfestival.com.
Nordisk Panorama - 5 Cities Film Festival 2006Aarhus, DenmarkSeptember 22 27, 2006Deadline: May 15, 2006
Nordisk Panorama Event is the main platform for short films and documentaries in the Nordic region, offering an annual business venue and showcase, spanning all professional focus areas from development and financing to distribution and exhibition.
The Interactive Entertainment Merchants Assoc. (IEMA) and the Video Software Dealers Assoc. (VSDA) have voted to merge into a single trade association to represent the retailers and distributors of video and videogame products. The merger will bring together mass merchants, video specialty stores, videogame specialty retailers, online merchants, electronics retailers, entertainment combo stores, and others that retail and wholesale DVDs, console videogames and computer videogames.
Universal Studios and Mattel today (April 11, 2006) announced an unprecedented, multi-picture, multi-year alliance for worldwide marketing and distribution of feature-length DVDs. This will commence with a new fall release for Mattels hugely successful Barbie Ent. franchise and a first-ever, feature-length movie for the successful Polly Pocket! brand.
SOUTH PARK: THE COMPLETE SEVENTH SEASON is now available on DVD, featuring 15 episodes of wonderfully disturbing events such as metrosexual exploration and forced Mormonism. The compilation was released via COMEDY CENTRAL Home Ent. and Paramount Home Ent. is available in U.S. stories and is also available at www.shop.comedycentral.com.
Comedy Central is partnering with IFILM to launch," Comedy Central's Test Pilots," an online competition in search of the next big broadband show. Would-be show creators will get the opportunity to submit one to five-minute pilots to comedycentral.com with the winner receiving a development deal on Comedy Central's broadband channel, "MotherLoad." Live action, animation, sketch or hidden camera any format is acceptable.
NBCs SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE presents a special BEST OF compilation featuring SATURDAY TV FUNHOUSE shorts by acclaimed comedian Robert Smigel on April 29, 2006, from 11:30 pm to 1:00 am on NBC. The special will be hosted by THE AMBIGUOUSLY GAY DUO. Ace and Gary (voiced by Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell).
It will feature new material starring the subtly homoerotic superheroes performing an SNL monologue as well as interacting live with the current cast throughout the show.
In conjunction with the release of the fully re-mastered POOH'S GRAND ADVENTURE THE SEARCH FOR CHRISTOPHER ROBIN on Disney DVD April 11, 2006, Winnie The Pooh receive his Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. This being the characters 80th Anniversary the unveiling will take place at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood.
A study from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign presents the argument that computer animation uses in court cases to re-create incidents may present a biased view depending on which side created the simulation, reports ScienceDaily.com.
Released to coincide with the release of Peter Jacksons KING KONG, THE SCI-FI BOYS (Universal Pictures Home Ent., $29.98, a Best Buy exclusive) is a documentary that pays homage to the lasting influence of Forrest J. Ackerman (FAMOUS MONSTERS magazine), Ray Bradbury and Ray Harryhausen. Written, produced and directed by Paul Davids (production coordinator and writer for THE TRANSFORMERS animated series), THE SCI-FI BOYS recounts how the generation of moviemakers inspired by the aforementioned trio and has made its mark as sci-fi filmmakers.
Production house Radium lent its CG and visual effects expertise to create a high-energy street-party themed spot, PRODUCT PEOPLE, for Target, a client of Peterson Milla Hooks, Minneapolis.
Directed by Spaz Williams (THE WILD), with Radiums creative director Jonathan Keeton, the spot features Target store products that merge with each other to form dancing party people. PRODUCT PEOPLE is the first in a series of Target spots Radium will produce this year with Peterson Milla Hooks. It debuted April 2.
DAZ Prods. Inc., announced the first release of the DAZ Studio Software Development Kit (SDK) with the latest version of its free digital art software, DAZ Studio 1.3. By exposing the majority of the DAZ Studio API, the DAZ Studio SDK enables third-party developers to completely integrate their own technology directly into DAZ Studio. With this digital 3D art market now open to third-party developers, the growth potential for a variety of new DAZ Studio features, tools and plug-ins is tremendous.
