AWN Headline News

Mainframe Entertainment, Inc. has appointed Lou Novak as chief executive officer. In his new role, Novak will provide strategic direction as well as oversee all business and operational aspects of Mainframe. Prior to joining Mainframe, Novak served as president and CEO of Videosnap, a streaming media application service provider based in New York. Novak has held senior management positions at Galoob, Mattel and Coleco. In addition, Mainframe's former CEO Ian Pearson will assume the newly created position of chief creative officer.

Ring of Fire announced they have named Casey Dame as their new lead character animator. Dame started his career as a 3D animator on THE REAL ADVENTURES OF JONNY QUEST. His credits include feature films DR. DOLITTLE 2, RED PLANET, MYSTERY MEN and ARMAGEDDON. His television credits include BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and CINDERELLA. His commercials include spots for Ritz Crackers, AT&T, 7-Up, Universal Studios, Snickers and Sony. "We have been aware of Casey Dame's work for some time and we are great admirers of his talent," said Ring of Fire executive producer/co-founder John Myers.

Loop Filmworks' director, David Chartier, recently wrapped up a promotional package for Bravo Network's special screening of the GODFATHER Saga. Loop Filmworks incorporated story-board style illustrations and sound bites from Bravo's INSIDE THE ACTORS STUDIO to illustrate some of the behind-the scenes stories told by director Francis Ford Coppola and stars Robert DeNiro, James Caan and Al Pacino. The spots have a stylized rotoscope animation look and were designed to look like archived film footage from the 1970s.

TOPIX has just wrapped on two 15-second in-theater vignettes for Famous Players, Canada's top grossing and fastest growing theatrical exhibitor. "Feature Presentation" and "Coming Attractions," in both English and French, showcase the Famous Players theaters and their high-tech sound capabilities. The spots were created by agency Encore Strategic Marketing of Toronto. TOPIX designer/art director Mark Cutler describes the vignettes as a "millennium lava lamp, a visual stimuli that is non-specific but ties in with the music, maintaining the same fascination one has with the lamp.

Edgeworx recently completed work on a pair of spots for GMC's new SUV, the GMC Envoy. Edgeworx teamed with ad agency Lowe Lintas and Partners and designer Todd St. John of Hunter Gatherer in creating the design and animation of the commercials. "Comforts of Home" and "Relax" feature some of the GMC Engineers responsible for making the Envoy comfortable and safe. The graphic design frames key elements of the spot by placing them in a graphic timeline. Graphics for both spots were created using the Adobe suite of After Effects, Illustrator and Photoshop.