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Film Headline News

Mill Film & Magic Camera Morph Into One

In December 1999, Mill Film announced that they united operations with

sister company Magic Camera. The combination will create a formidable

start-to-finish London-based feature film facility mixing Mill's visual

effects talent and technical strengths with the digital effects, miniature

construction and photography of Magic Camera and Magic Models. Antony Hunt

will serve as managing director of Mill Film and will take charge of day to

day operations of the combined companies. Hunt has been at the helm of

Animation Headline News

Santiago Studios In Search Of U.S. Co-Prod.

Several animation studios in Santiago, Chile, including Arce Studios, EMU

Ltd., ROOS Film S.A., and Trimedia S.A. have formed a partnership to

promote the animation business in Santiago. The partners are looking for

co-producers and/or investors for their products. Alvaro Arce, President of

Arce Studios, worked in the animation industry in the United States for

many years at Hanna-Barbera, The Walt Disney Company, and others. Alvaro

has several original series currently in development. Arce Studios is now

Animation Headline News

Triggerfish Animates South African Sesame Street

South Africa-based Triggerfish Animation, a leading stop-frame animation

company in South Africa, is currently shooting animation sequences for the

South African SESAME STREET, using an assortment of different materials

including local contemporary art work, creating a unique African feel to

the production. In addition, Triggerfish is shooting a 30-second commercial

using 7 plasticine characters for a new product being launched in South

Africa and Australia called Slo Jo -- a fruit smoothie.

Headline News

Clifford Comes To PBS

CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG will come to life on PBS' fall 2000 schedule. The

show will be based on the 39-year-old CLIFFORD Scholastic book series

written by Norman Bridwell. John Ritter will provide the voice of Clifford;

while Kel Mitchell (KEENAN & KEL) will voice the dog's buddy, T-Bone; Grey

DeLisle (RUGRATS) will voice Clifford's best friend, Emily Elizabeth; and

Cree Summer will voice Cleo.

Digital Headline News

Digital Domain Finishes Fiat Spot

DIGITAL DOMAIN helped Plum Productions create a virtual jungle/city for the

new Fiat Punto spots. Plum Productions' director Eric Saarinen worked with

Digital Domain's visual effects supervisor Paul Kirsch to create a city

full of people riding around on lion, tigers, and bears. The Punto drives

in showing how different it is compared to the other animals on the street.

Digital Domain had the complex job of combining five-days of greenscreen

shooting on the Paramount backlot into a coherent flow. "We made the

Headline News

Buzz Lightyear To The Rescue On Dreamcast

Disney/Pixar's TOY STORY 2 is coming to Sega Dreamcast. In March 2000,

Activision, Inc., in collaboration with Disney Interactive, will release

Disney/Pixar's TOY STORY 2: BUZZ LIGHTYEAR TO THE RESCUE for Sega

Dreamcast. The new release will be a third-person free-roaming adventure

game that uses 3D animation to deliver a unique mix of gameplay elements.

As Buzz Lightyear, players take on five big bosses in a quest to save Woody

from a toy collector over 15 levels.

Motion Headline News

Art In Motion Exhibit

* Friday, January 28, 2000. Los Angeles, California, USA.

Art In Motion focuses on innovative content and diversity. The criteria for

entry is time rather than medium based, and therefore video, film and

digital projects, animations, Websites, CD-Roms etc. are all eligible.

Hybrids are particularly welcome. There will be a $1000 "Best of Show"

award and "first place" allocations in each exhibition category. For more

information contact Jim Keller or Janet Owen, festival organizers at:

International Headline News

22nd International Short Film Festival of San Roque

* Monday, January 31 - Saturday, February 5, 2000. San Roque, Cadiz, Spain.

22nd International Short Film Festival of San Roque is open to all films

under 30 minutes made after January 1, 1997. Categories will include

fiction, animation and documentary. Cash prizes range from Euros 3,000 to

900. For more information contact Ilusre Ayuntamiento de San Roque, Semana

Internacional del Cortometraje, Cine-Teatro Alameda Alameda de Alfonso,

11360 San Roque (Cadiz) Espana; Tel.: ++ 34 (9)56-781074; Fax: ++ 34

Festival Headline News

Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival

* Friday, February 4 - Saturday, February 12, 2000. Clermont-Ferrand, France.

This year, Clermont-Ferrand Short Films Festival will be featuring its 12th

international competition and 22nd French competition. The festival will

highlight animated films based off of comic strips. Filmmakers and buyers

can take advantage of the short film market, which attracted more than 50

TV channels, 50 distributors, and 60 international festival organizers last

Advertising Headline News

Mobius Advertising Awards

* Thursday, February 10, 2000. Chicago, Illinois, USA.

The 29th Mobius Advertising Awards is a yearly event recognizing

outstanding television and radio commercials, as well as print advertising

and package designs. The competition is open to television commercials and

campaigns which have been produced, screened or aired in the past 12

months. The animation-related categories include: Animation-Computer,

Animation-Non-Computer, and Animation-Computer & Non-Computer. For more

Disney Headline News

Disney's Legendary Marc Davis Dies

On Wednesday, January 12, 2000, Walt Disney's legendary animator Marc Davis

passed away at Glendale Memorial Hospital shortly following a stroke. He

was 86 years old. Davis was a member of Disney's inner circle known as the

"nine old men." During his 43-year tenure at the studio, Davis brought to

life such classic characters as Bambi, Cinderella, Alice, Briar Rose,

Maleficent and Cruella DeVil. In addition to creating many of Disney's

female characters, he served as a key player in the development of many of

Headline News

MAD Mag's Martin Dies

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, January 12, 2000 at 12:00am

For over thirty years, Don Martin's crazy comics filled the pages of MAD

magazine. On Sunday, January 9, 2000, Marin died in a Miami hospital at the

age of 68. A representative of Baptist Hospital says the cartoonist died of

cancer. No further details were disclosed. Martin's weirdo humor disgusted

mothers and delighted young rebels for nearly three decades. No person or

tale was free from Martin's eye for twisted satire. For example, his strips

Million Headline News

Stuart Little Stands Tall In Top Spot

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, January 12, 2000 at 12:00am

Sony's hit film STUART LITTLE remained at the top of the U.S. box office

this past weekend taking in US$11.21 million in ticket sales. The

giant-sized flick, with primary FX by Sony Pictures Imageworks, additional

animation by CFX and Rhythm & Hues, and miniatures by Thunderstone, has

taken home a little more than cheese with a total purse of $95.3 million.

THE GREEN MILE squeaks by live-action flick THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY to

secure the second spot on the box office charts. The Warner Bros. flick,

April Headline News

Phantom Menace's Worldwide Release

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, January 12, 2000 at 12:00am

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and Lucasfilm Ltd. announced the

simultaneous worldwide VHS release of George Lucas' STAR WARS: EPISODE I

THE PHANTOM MENACE. Young Jedi wanna-bes around the globe will snag their

copy the week of April 3 - 8, 2000. The biggest box office hit of 1999 and

second highest-grossing motion picture of all time worldwide, will official

go on sale in North America on Tuesday, April 4, 2000. The US$922 million

Animation Headline News

NewTek Introduces LightWave [6] For Mac

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, January 12, 2000 at 12:00am

At San Francisco's MacWorld which ran from January 4-8, NewTek introduced

LightWave [6], the product's most significant upgrade in 10 years. The new

version of the already popular 3D tool boasts more new features than ever

introduced to the product in previous upgrades, many of which have never

been seen on the Macintosh system before. On the modeling side of things,

LightWave [6] introduces a whole new modeling paradigm, which gives users

control over the manipulation and animation of their models to a degree

Animation Headline News

Empowering The People With PuppetTime

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, January 12, 2000 at 12:00am

PuppetTime Inc. recently announced that it has released version 1.0 of its

PuppetTime Producer software, an easy to use 3D character animation program

that the company claims makes "the TV-watching generation, the TV-making

generation." PuppetTime Producer is not a character animation package for

animators, but a package for non-animators which allows them to create

'movies' quickly and easily without any knowledge of animation technique at

all. Users can create 3D animation in minutes simply by selecting

Headline News

Alias|Wavefront To Develop Maya For Intel's IA-64 Processor

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, January 12, 2000 at 12:00am

Alias|Wavefront announced that they would be developing a version of their

Maya software for Intel's forthcoming IA-64 Itanium processor, and

Microsoft's 64-bit Windows NT operating system. The IA-64 operating system

uses a 64-bit architecture and offers the robust performance required by

data-intensive 3D visualizations and computer graphics. Alias|Wavefront is

among the first software developers to port their software to Itanium, and

in doing so it will allow its customers to take full advantage of the speed

Film Headline News

Moondance International Film Festival

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, January 12, 2000 at 12:00am

* Friday, January 14 - Sunday, January 16, 2000. Boulder, Colorado, USA.

The Moondance International Film Festival's objective is to promote and

encourage women screenwriters and women who make independent films, in any

genre, including animation. There will be one winner in each category:

Filmmaker, Screenwriter, or Documentary Filmmaker. Awards: $2000 for best

original screenplay, $2000 for best independent film, and $1000 for best

documentary film. There will be 2 semi-finalists in each category. All

Disney Headline News

Disney's Chairman Roth Resigns

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, January 12, 2000 at 12:00am

On Wednesday, January 12, 2000, The Walt Disney Co. announced that Joe

Roth, their movie studio chairman, was resigning to form an independent

film company. He will be replaced by studio president Peter Schneider. Roth

assumed the chairman position in August 1994 after the departure of veteran

Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg. During his tenure, Roth helped Disney

lead rivals at the U.S. box office in terms of market share, with help from

Headline News

TOPIX/Mad Dog Catches Poke-ball For Sears

Toronto-based TOPIX/MAD DOG provided the CG images for "Flying Ball" for

Sears' new Poke-Mart. The 30 and 20 spots were produced for Young &

Rubicam. POKEMON hero, Ash, throws the famous Poke-ball which leads

children like lemmings to Sears' Poke-Mart section to catch all the new

Pokemon products. Diana D'Amelio produced and Patrick Coffey animated the

tags for TOPIX/Mad Dog.

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