The Visual Effects Society (VES) has appointed Eric Roth as the organization's new exec director to replace founding exec director Tom Atkin. Roth brings more than 15 years of strategic management, communications and public affairs experience to his new position. Through his work as the former executive director of L.A. Works, Los Angeles' premier volunteer action center, Roth also gained critical working knowledge of the non-profit sector.
Sean Coleman, a colorist with a strong following among leading commercial and music video directors, has joined Company 3's office in Santa Monica. Coleman arrives from Rushes/601 in Los Angeles, where his recent credits included spots for Nike, Nokia and Sony Playstation, and music videos for such artists as Sigur Ros and Lenny Kravitz. In his first project for Company 3, Coleman is handling final color correction on a campaign for Adidas directed by Park Pictures' Lance Acord for TBWA Worldwide.
The U.S. Army has struck a deal with French gaming firm Ubisoft to bring its combat training game to Xbox and PlayStation 2, reports the AP. This new development pact will be an offshoot of the Army's popular multiplayer online PC game, AMERICA'S ARMY, which was launched in 2002. The videogame is scheduled to hit shelves in late 2005 or early 2006.
The Denzel Washington revenge thriller, MAN ON FIRE, outpaced the Jennifer Garner comedy, 13 GOING ON 30, at the box office for the weekend ended April 25, 2004. The Fox film grabbed $22.7M compared to Universals $21M in their debuts. Meanwhile, Miramaxs KILL BILL VOL. 2 (with vfx by K.N.B. EFX Group) slipped nearly 59% in its second week to $10.4M and a cume of $42.9M. Lions Gates THE PUNISHER (with vfx by Fantasy II Film Effects) dipped nearly 55% in its sophomore outing to finish fourth with a total of $24.1M.
Angstrom Microsystems will be deploying Titan64 SuperBlade rendering servers at Industrial Light & Magic. These blade servers are powered by AMD Opteron processors to provide maximum performance and scalability of the rendering server farm. ILM is using the Titan64 SuperBlade servers to enable a significantly more complex and faster generation of movie vfx.
MASTERSFX has promoted Dan Rebert to the new position of FX producer. The company is involved in the production of special effects for KINGDOM HOSPITAL, SIX FEET UNDER, STARGATE SG-1 and STARGATE ATLANTIS, among several others.
Rebert originally joined MASTERSFX in 2000 as art director and shop supervisor. Since joining MASTERSFX, he has worked on numerous projects and continues to explore and develop new effects technology.
Shuffle Inc., an international television commercial production company with offices in Venice, California, and Tokyo, Japan, has named David Bando as its new exec producer.
In his new position, Bando will work with advertising agencies and Shuffle directors on the production of TV commercials worldwide. He will oversee all aspects of television show and TV commercial production, as well as post-production, and will also be responsible for the companys expansion and development of its TV commercial division and overall growth.
Board members of the Walt Disney Co. assembled at Disneyland on Monday for an informal two-day retreat to discuss, among other things, whether to renew ceo Michael Eisners contract, which expires in 2006, the LOS ANGELES TIMES reported. CalPERS and other pension funds recently demanded a meeting with the board, which is scheduled for May 21, 2004.
Edward Noeltner, svp, international distribution and head of sales at Miramax Films, has opened Cinema Management Group LLC (CMG), a new international motion picture licensing, distribution, marketing and sales firm, which will be taking the indie 3D feature HOODWINKED: THE TRUE STORY OF RED RIDING HOOD to the Cannes Film Market. From writer/director Cory Edwards and his writer/co-directors Todd Edwards and Tony Leech, the animated comedy is in post-production with an August 2004 completion date. Maurice Kanbar, Sue Bea Montgomery, Preston Stutzman and David Lovegren produced this Kanbar Ent.
Disney and Hanna-Barbera animtor Harry Holt passed away April 14, 2004. He was 93 years old.
Holt first went to work at Disney in 1936 during the hiring ramp up for production on SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS. Trained at the studio, he started out as an apprentice and worked his way helping develop the feature. He would later help design scenes for LADY AND THE TRAMP.
After 20 years at Disney, he moved to Chicago to work in television production and art direction. Later he joined HB, where he worked on THE FLINTSTONES and TOM AND JERRY.
Attention all Animation World Magazine readers: the February Acrobat is now live. This month are crack staff of writers tackles the business of animation. All you kids and kids at heart can learn all about what's going down in the merchandising world in Karen Raugust's "Licensing 101" piece. Janett Hetherington profiles veteran toon factory Bardel Animation.
FITES (fit-ess) The Czech Film & Television Society has written a cover story in their bi-monthly magazine, SYNCHRON on Gene Deitch winning the Winsor McCay Lifetime Achievement Award at last year's Annie Awards.
In addition, Gene has received a nomination for a Harvey Award, the top honor in the comics industry, for his book CAT ON A HOT THIN GROOVE.
This week in the Theatrical Release Database, we have several release date changes as well as the trailer for Steven Spielberg's new film THE TERMINAL.
In 2003, AWN launched its newest resource site, the AWN Book Corner. Looking for books related to animation, then the Book Corner is the best place for you to visit. Readers can search through tomes dealing with 2D & 3D graphics, animation, applications, cinematography, digital video, entertainment, gaming, history & theory, post-production, programming & scripting and Web & multimedia. You can also browse books by title, author or publisher.
Test your skills and challenge your brain with AWN's Animation Trivia Quiz.
Joe Hartwick, Twentieth Century Fox's president of physical production, has been upped to oversee a new vfx department at the studio, given the high volume of effects-laden event films and the need to shift priorities and streamline costs. Hartwick will not only coordinate the visual effects needs of all Fox films, but also serve as liaison for the effects houses collaborating with them.
Cartoon Networks Boomerang will celebrate the 25th anniversary of its U.S. television debut of BATTLE OF THE PLANETS with an all-day special edition of Boomeraction, the networks weekly showcase for animated action-adventure programming. The 24-hour salute starting at 8:00 am April 25, 2004 will showcase newly remastered versions of the landmark series first 16 episodes of the epic interplanetary struggle that inspires five young orphans to join forces to help save the Earth and other planets from malicious invasion.
Warner Bros. and Scholastic are taking their animated CLIFFORDS REALLY BIG MOVIE on a bigger walk to more theaters on April 23, 3004, rolling out the theatrical to 471 houses across the U.S., following the test openings in several markets in February 2004.
After KING KONG, Peter Jackson and partners Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens are eyeing Alice Sebold's bestselling novel, THE LOVELY BONES, reports VARIETY. Closer in tone to Jackson's HEAVENLY CREATURES than LORD OF THE RINGS, BONES tells the story of a deceased 14-year-old girl who looks down from heaven to watch her grieving family and find the person who raped and murdered her.
Independent producer Steve Bing of Shangri-La Ent. has forked over $80 million to co-finance Warner Bros. feature, POLAR EXPRESS, reports VARIETY. Bing will not take a personal producing credit on the film, but the credits will read: "a Castle Rock presentation of a Shangri-La production." Unlike gap financing that must be repaid to an investor, Bing is taking the same financial risk as Warner, who will retain distribution rights worldwide.
Holland Animation Film Festival 2004Utrecht, the NetherlandsNovember 3 7, 2004Deadline: July 1, 2004
Dreamcatcher Short Film ContestSaint Joe, Arizona, USAFebruary 15, 2005Deadline: February 15, 2005
AWN is looking for an inside advertising salesperson, to work in our office in Hollywood.
Early Wednesday morning, the AWN Forums system was maliciously hacked.
Toon Boom Animation has launched Toon Boom Studio version 2.5 for Mac OS X, a program used primarily for 2D cartoon animation. Some of the releases new features include sound scrubbing in the Timeline, the ability to draw in Sceneplanning and support for scanning.
Toon Boom's client base ranges from major studios creating Hollywood blockbuster animated films to individual animators creating their first masterpieces.
The upgrade can be purchased online or from a reseller at $ 199.
