The 16th EuropaCinema & TV Film Festival takes place November 27-December 3, 1999 inRome, Italy. The deadline for entries for the animated shorts competitionis October 10, 1999. For more information contact EuropaCinema & TV, Via XXSettembre, 3 - 00187 Roma, Italy; or Tel. +39 06 42011184 or +39 0642000211; Fax +39 06 42010599; or E-mail: europa.cinema@agora.stm.it. Alsovisit //rg.unicri.it/europacinema/.
MIP INTERACTIVE INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT will debut the week of September 20, 1999 atwww.mipinteractive.com. The Spotlight will be bi-monthly and the on linesession will last one business week. Each Spotlight will explore specificprogram genres or territories with articles, executive viewpoints,programming highlights, special e-mail sections, bulletin boards,statistics and logistics, reviews and interviews, and more. The firstSpotlight will feature "The Science of Programming Children's Blocks."
Disney's sequel to its 1953 PETER PAN, which had been in production at Disney's Toronto and Vancouverstudios, has been put on hold, resulting in layoffs of animators and staffat the Canadian studios. The rumors that the studios are being completelyshut down appear to be untrue at this time, but the total number ofemployees who have been laid off is unknown. According to Laurel Whitcomb,a Disney spokeswoman, the PETER PAN sequel "was in early stages ofproduction and needed to go back into development for retooling of thestory."
According to Reuters, Patrick Naughton, 34, of Seattle, Washington,executive vice president of products at Infoseek Corp., the Internet mediasite which is part of Disney's Go Network, was arrested on Thursday,September 16, 1999 on the Santa Monica Pier, an amusement park area in WestLos Angeles. The arrest came after he met a female FBI agent who hadarranged to meet him there, according to Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for theU.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles. He is charged with interstate travel
Buena Vista's supernatural thriller THE SIXTH SENSE, with visual effects byDreamQuest, finished third at the US weekend boxoffice, grossing anestimated $11.2 million over the weekend, for a total of $216.7 million. Noother animation related films finished in the top ten.
SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT has hired MEL HARRIS as Co-President and ChiefOperating Officer, sharing both of those titles with Bob Wynne. MASAYUKI(YUKI) NOZOE has also been promoted to Co-President, Digital Entertainment.The three executives will oversee the day-to-day operations of the companyand report to John Calley, Chairman and CEO of SPE. Nozoe will focus on theDigital Studios division and technology expansion, Wynne will managecorporate and financial operations, and Harris will emphasize worldwidetelevision and related businesses.
Toronto-based NELVANA LIMITED has promoted EMMANUELE PETRY to vicepresident of Nelvana Europe International Limited. In her new position,Petry will be responsible for supervising the company's London and Parisoffices. She will continue to investigate co-production and financingopportunities in Europe, and she will also oversee the distribution of TV,video, theatrical and merchandising rights in countries outside NorthAmerica.
Denmark-based The Animation Workshop is running a short intensive week oflectures concentrating on storyboarding November 8-12, 1999, with JohnRamirez and Dan Jippes. Prices and details will be available upon requestbeginning October 1. For more information Tel. (45) 86672007; Fax (45)86675007; or e-mail colin@animwork.dk. Also visit www.animwork.dk.
The Walt Disney Company's Buena Vista Internet Group (BVIG) has named ABCInc. President Steven Bornstein as chairman. Bornstein will oversee BVIG'spreviously announced plan to merge with Infoseek, an internet searchengine, to form a single Internet business called go.com and issue a newclass of common stock to track the performance of the new enterprise. Thetransaction is expected to be completed by the end of the 1999 calendaryear. At that time, Bornstein, who is currently a member of the Infoseek
Animation Magazine and Brilliant Digital Entertainment, Inc., a producer of3-D animated content on the Internet and a developer of animation tools andtechnology, have announced that they will co-host the Dancing PixelFestival. Dancing Pixel will be the first all 3-D real-time animationfestival on the Internet. Animators, both professionals and aspirants, areinvited to submit their work for public viewing and judging on the festivalsite. Submissions will be taken from October 1, 1999 to December 31, 1999.
INFOGRAMES, a global publisher of interactive entertainment software, hasappointed a new management team. STAN ROACH, formerly executive vicepresident of marketing, will take on the role of COO overseeing sales,marketing and product development. YVES LEGRIS, formerly with Infogrames'headquarters in France, will become COO responsible for finance, businessdevelopment, legal affairs, studio operations, information technology andhuman resources.
New York City-based SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION has named Flame Artist FABRICEMAUREL as Design Director. Maurel comes to Spontaneous Combustion from LosAngeles, California-based Novocom where he contributed to the artdirection, design, implementation and special effects compositing oftelevision shows, commercials and music videos.
Mumbai, India-based GRAPHITI MULTIMEDIA has completed two :15 spots forLimca soft drink. In one of the spots, an animated version of Indian moviestar Shah Rukh Khan is chased by a dog while on a date with his girlfriend.In the other spot, a cricket player is taunted by a duck. In both spots,the characters are encouraged to "take it easy" with a Limca soft drink.Graphiti used Cambridge Animation Systems' Animo software to composite thehand-drawn characters with the backgrounds, which were created using AdobePhotoshop.
Santa Monica, California-based SIMEX DIGITAL STUDIOS has completed "IceCliff," a spot for Dunlop Tires and agency Dentsu, Inc. of Tokyo, Japan. Inthe spot, five luxury sport cars race on rapidly eroding, digitallygenerated, ice covered cliffs. The camera moves back to reveal that thecliffs are created by a giant digitally created Dunlop tire. CGI ArtistJeff Chung used Alias Power Animator and Maya Media Illusion to create theeffects.
Manga Video is releasing MACROSS PLUS on DVD on October 12, 1999. MACROSSPLUS, directed by Shoji Kawamori, is a DTV (direct-to-video) which is basedon the original Japanese TV series SUPERDIMENSIONAL FORTRESS MACROSS, whichwas used as the basis for the 1980s American TV series ROBOTECH. MACROSSPLUS is set approximately thirty years after the original MACROSS and justbefore the events in the Japanese TV series MACROSS 7. In MACROSS PLUS, theuniverse's most popular virtual reality singer, Sharon Apple, comes alive
On Monday, October 4 at 4 pm Jean-Marie Messier, president of Vivendi, aFrench multimedia, communications and power company, will deliver thekeynote address for the special three day forum on convergence, TV Meetsthe Internet @ MIPCOM. The address will be entitled "21st CenturyTelevision: Visions for Next Generation Broadcasting.". . . Rome,Italy-based RAI TRADE will offer BROTHER JACOB, an animated edutainmentseries for children about a storytelling monk, as well as GONE WITH THE
Harrison, New York-based BLUE SKY STUDIOS has promoted CHRIS BURROWS andTIM SPELTZ to technical directors. Since beginning as a technical assistantat Blue Sky Studios in 1998, Burrows has worked on a variety of projects,including lighting and rendering for Blue Sky's Oscar award-winning short,BUNNY. Speltz has been with Blue Sky Studios since he graduated from BrownUniversity in 1997. Since then, he has excelled at effects, particle work,and lighting. He was credited as technical assistant and technical directoron BUNNY.
Tom Sito will host THAT '70s - 80s CARTOON SHOW! on Friday, September 17, at 7 pm. Meet Filmation directors Tom Tataranowicz and Ed Friedman; Lou Scheimer, Filmation's founder; Hanna-Barberas Jerry Eisenberg, designer of THE BANANA SPLITS and PETER POTAMUS; and Iwao Takamoto, designer of Scooby Doo and Penelope Pittstop. The evening will include screenings, plenty of stories and a chance to ask the creators about your favorite shows and characters. Admission is $5 at the door for ASIFA-Hollywood members and full time students, $8 at the door for all others.
Burbank, California-based DISNEY CONSUMER PRODUCTS has hired SUSAN GARELLIas vice president of human resources. Garelli joins Disney from Pasadena,California-based Avery Dennison, a worldwide manufacturer of self-adhesivematerials and consumer products, where she was also vice president of humanresources.
Two years after its release in Japan, Hayao Miyazaki's top-grossinganimated film "Princess Mononoke" will be released theatrically in the U.S.on October 29, 1999. It is noteworthy that the film is being released byMiramax Films, a Disney company. "Princess Mononoke" is one of the fewanimated features which can compare with Disney's in terms of audience andbox office. The film earned its spot as the all-time highest grossing filmin Japan, bringing in sell-out crowds, long lines at theaters and over $150
Puppet Animation is often associated with late Eastern European animatorssuch as Jiri Trnka, one of the greatest puppet animators ever, orsurrealist directors like Jan Svankmajer. Puppet animation is mainlyhonored at local events -- the "Deep End Puppet Theatre Happening," whichinvolves live puppet theatre performances and puppet film screeningsthroughout the region of Northern England -- academic conferences -- aSociety for Animation Study Conference's paper on "Puppet Animation Film in
While we just launched our annual Television issue, let's look at someof the trends in the animation television market. Ten years ago, it wasoften the case that American producers cared little about the internationalmarket for TV shows. While they did not ignore it, the amount of revenuesthe global market generated seemed insignificant compared to what was generatedby licensing fees to US networks and syndication sales to independent stations.However, with the proliferation of new television outlets around the world,
Animation World Network co-founder and president OF ACME FILMWORKS RonDiamond has begun curating "animation art" to be presented on Los Angeles'Sunset View Plaza Electronic Video Billboard on the world famous SunsetStrip. The video billboard provides all Sunset Boulevard west-boundtravelers an eyeful sampled from the world's most beautiful and evocativeanimation. Premiere, featured animation filmmakers are Aleksandra Korejwo,Poland; Raimund Krumme, Germany; Susan Loughlin, United Kingdom; Bill
It's fall and that means new TV! In this month's issue, Amid Amidi tells usabout the newest shows hitting the air. Sharon Schatz gives us insight intothe world of interactive television. Interactive television has beenavailable around the globe for years, but has only just come to the UnitedStates. We also go behind the scenes of Bob Clampett's "Time for Beany,"one of television's first daily live puppet shows, Japan's Toei AnimationStudios and one of France's hottest pilots, "Fats and Moe." We also have a
Since 1994, AllenWood has been addressing the needs of the animationindustry, developing and manufacturing Animation Desks and Specialty WorkStations...
