ViewPoint Studios has completed the re-design of CNBCs RIVERA LIVE with a set of new IDs. The total program package included a new show logo, opening title, bumpers and support graphics for live interviews. "CNBC wanted an energetic open to showcase the best of Geraldo as RIVERA LIVE," said Michael Frederick, ViewPoint Studios design director. "The open portrays his active involvement, covering the days top stories from wherever the action is.
Rhinoceros Visual Effects and Design has created the design and imagery for a new series of Victoria's Secret commercials for the company's "Satin" line. Each of the three 30-second spots: "Rubies," "Diamonds" and "Emeralds" called for intricate design work in inferno* that highlights both the Victoria's Secret models and the "nine jewel-tone colors" of the new line. "The interesting challenge of the Victoria's Secret spots was to use Inferno to marry extreme close-up shots of these tiny gems with the live footage of the models," said Rhinoceros inferno* artist Vico Sharabani.
* Friday, February 2 Sunday, February 11, 2001. Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
* Friday, February 2 Sunday, February 11, 2001. New York, New York, U.S.A.
* Wednesday, February 7 Friday, March 16, 2001. World Wide Web
Sesame Workshop and Sony Pictures Family Entertainment have inked two big licensing deals for their PBS series DRAGON TALES. Kellogg USA has renewed its sponsorship of the series. Kellogg will be a strong presence in the advertising and marketing of the show, including positioning in the English and Spanish editions of SESAME STREET magazine and a link swap between Kellogg, Sesame Workshop and PBS' DRAGON TALES Websites.
In its last year on CBS, A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS is nothing but a holiday miracle. Airing at 8 pm on Monday, the 35-year old special scored an amazing 10.8 rating/16 share to finish in 17th place for the week. After its Christmas day airing on CBS, the classic holiday special will move to ABC. At #33, THE SIMPSONS took home a steady 8.7 rating/13 share for Fox. KING OF THE HILL placed #58 with a 6.4 rating/10 share. The Sunday 7:30 special broadcast of THE SIMPSONS finished in the 72nd slot with a 5.2 rating/9 share. CBS' Tuesday night Christmas block took the next two toon slots.
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HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS and DINOSAUR picked up steam at the international box office as former champ CHARLIE'S ANGELS faded a bit. In Mexico, THE GRINCH made its debut in first with a gross of US$2.29 million. BEDAZZLED fell to second with a ticket take of $1.51 million, raising its Mexican cume to $3.51 million. In fourth, CHARLIE'S ANGELS flew in another $645,425, elevating its Mexican cume to $3.91 million. Rounding out the Mexican top ten, THE CELL captured $48,406 to push its cume to $2.36 million.
Hayao Miyazaki's masterpiece, PRINCESS MONONOKE, is arriving on DVD from Miramax Home Entertainment. Hitting stores December 19, 2000, the film follows young warrior Ashitaka's quest to cure a disease that plagues his body and create peace between humans and the forest gods. The DVD features a special production featurette, English-language theatrical trailer and three language tracks in English, Japanese and French. The film will retail for US$34.99.
Rome production and distribution company Medusa Films has acquired financially strapped Italian toon house Lanterna Magica. The 20-year-old animation factory will remain under the watchful eye of executive producer Maria Fares and stay in its home in northern Turin. As part of the deal, Lanterna will produce an animated feature each year and an animated TV series for Medusa sister firm Mediaset every two years. Medusa CEO Federico di Chio will serve as president with Lanterna's Guido Manuli and Maurizio Forrestieri remaining in their roles as artistic and creative directors respectively.
Falling behind the debuts of the live-action comedies, WHAT WOMEN WANT and DUDE, WHERE'S MY CAR?, HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS surrendered its U.S. box office crown, falling to third. The Who-ville fable, with primary visual effects by Digital Domain, grabbed $13.81 million, elevating its cume to an astounding $213.6 million. Disney's new animated feature THE EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE made a lackluster debut in fourth grossing $9.81 million. The screwball buddy film could see increased dollars over the upcoming holiday vacation, helped by good reviews across the board.
eyeon Software recently announced a major new release of their powerful digital effects and compositing software, Digital Fusion DFX+. DFX+ is a "modular" offering. eyeon has chopped Digital Fusion up into 5 different packages, created a new licensing system and presto their flag ship package is now highly customizable and accessible to all! eyeon also announced that a demo of the software is now available for download from their Website. "If you want to know how a software package performs in the real world, you have to kick the tires and take it for a spin.
Milan-based Phoenix Tools announced the release of RealFur 2.0 a major upgrade to their fur rendering technology. The new version introduces renders up to 10 times faster than the previous version. The key to this speed is that the old volumetric technology has been replaced with a new geometry-based system that allows artists to render millions of polygons without having to display them in the 3D authoring application. An optimized cylinder, with the given color, transparency and other global material parameters, replace each hair strand at the rendering stage.
AntEye has closed its eyes and its doors. The Los Angeles Netcaster shut down on Friday, December 15, 2000 and laid off its 20 employees. The company decided to finally close up shop after finding a buyer was unsuccessful. Matti Leshem, company CEO, told the DAILY VARIETY, "The party is over. We're shutting for the same reason that everyone else has; the market can't support this kind of company.
iFilm has laid off 15 employees, or 10% of its staff. The move was made to release some pressure on the Netcaster's capital. The cuts were across many divisions and come on the heels of the firm's launching of three new projects the iFilm portal, the relaunch of iFilmpro and an online testing business. In the past year, iFilm has purchased film industry business-to-business services such as Film Finders, the Hollywood Creative Directory, Lone Eagle Publishing and TV Tracker. However, rumors have flourished that the company is backing away from a b2b model and refocusing on content.
On Friday, December 15, 2000, Stan Lee Media (SLM) stopped operations and laid off "substantially all of its [140 person] staff." The company will keep an executive core to look into possible new directions for the company including selling off the firm's assets. The move comes as a result of the Netcaster's plummeting stock and inability to raise a new round of financing. Early in December, SLM announced it had obtained US$2.2 million as a bridge loan until it could finalize a $40 million financing round.
* Wednesday, April 4 Sunday, April 8, 2001. Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.A.
Entry Deadline: January 10, 2001.
The fifth annual KC Filmmakers Jubilee is a celebration of independent filmmaking. All experimental and animation entries must be 30 minutes or less. A US$1000 prize will be awarded in each category. For more information contact: Tel.: (913) 649-0244; E-mail: kcjub@kcjubilee.org; or Web: http://www.kcjubilee.org/.
* Monday, April 30, 2001. Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.A.
Entry Deadline: January 8, 2001.
* Saturday, January 6, 2001. Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
* Thursday, January 11, 2001. Westwood, California, U.S.A.
The Women In Animation Writers' Group starts up their new Seminar Series at Saban Entertainment, 10960 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood at 7:30 pm. Find out the differences between writing for animation and live-action. Learn comedy and gag writing techniques. Fee is US$5. RSVP is required to Jean Ann Wright at: Tel: (818) 360-8321 or E-mail: jjwright@gte.net.
* Thursday, February 1 Sunday, February 4, 2001. Lleida, Spain.
The 2nd PISAF festival includes an Animation Film Competition, as well as exhibitions, special events and workshops (Digital Animation, Clay Animation, PinScreen Animation).
MadCat International Women's Film Festival features independent and experimental works by women from around the world. MadCat is committed to showcasing women film and videomakers who challenge the use of sound and image and explore notions of visual storytelling. This year Madcat is embarking on its first touring festival with two programs of short films: Lost In Translation and Interior Worlds. All lengths and
NewTek has reinforced its commitment to the Macintosh platform by announcing that their newly released Lightwave [6.5] will also be available for Apples new OS X platform. Although NewTek only released Lightwave [6] on the MAC earlier this year, they have slowly moved their efforts toward the fruity platform.
