Tagged With: Effects

Los Angeles-based Look! Effects recently finished 30 visual effects shots for the upcoming Universal Pictures release THE PAVILION OF WOMEN. Based on the novel by Nobel Prize winner Pearl S. Buck, the movie is about a frustrated woman in a traditional Chinese marriage and the American missionary who tries to help her achieve personal liberation. The drama stars Willem Dafoe and Chinese actress Luo Yan, who is also the writer, producer and director of the picture. Look! Effects had to create a sequence depicting Japan's invasion of China in the early days of World War II.

With the live-action comedy, BRING IT ON still claiming the #1 spot, New Lines THE CELL jumped up a spot to second in the U.S. box office charts over the Labor Day holiday. The serial killer mind trek, with primary visual effects by Toybox, grossed another US$9.1 million, raising its cume to $46.4 million. Also moving up a slot to third, SPACE COWBOYS showed that old guys have box office pull with a gross of $8.3 million. The aged astronauts, with primary visual effects by ILM, have wrangled up a total of $74.2 million thus far.

Digital Artists Agency (DAA) has signed agreements to represent Academy Award-winning visual effects supervisors Volker Engel (INDEPENDENCE DAY) and Tim McGovern (TOTAL RECALL). In addition, the company has also signed visual effects supervisor Patrick Shearn, an Emmy Award nominee for 3RD ROCK FROM THE SUN, and Eric Mises-Rosenfeld, a French national with 15 years of award-winning TV commercial and feature film experience.

Executive producers Michael Miller and Rick Wagonheim have joined Rhinoceros Visual Effects and Design, New York, as part of the partnership and management team. The duo will be responsible for expanding and redirecting the fledgling digital studio owned by Multi-Video Group, Ltd. Previously, Miller and Wagonheim worked at R/Greenberg Associates, where they produced many award-winning commercials from 1996-2000. Wagonheim said, "Rhinoceros had done work on one of our R/GA spots and we started talking to (CEO, Multi-Video Group, Ltd.) David Binstock.

The British Film Office has appointed visual effects veteran Meg Guidon as their visual effects marketing executive. The newly created position was created to increase the visibility of U.K. F/X houses with U.S. production companies. The hope is to bring more high-profile work to the U.K. like MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2 and GLADIATOR, both of which were done in London. Guidon will be based out of the British Film Office at the Consulate General in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. Previously Guidon worked at some of the UK's leading visual effects firms including Cinesite and Mill Film.

Swamping the July 4th holiday favorite, THE PATRIOT, Warner Bros. THE PERFECT STORM, with primary visual effects by ILM, has docked atop the U.S. box office charts. The seafaring spectacle landed an estimated US$64 million within the five-day holiday run. For the Friday-Sunday time frame, the wet wonder grossed a reported $41.5 million. The George Clooney-vehicle has the second highest debut of the year behind MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 2s four-day Memorial Day holiday opening of $70.8 million.

SteeleVFX, Inc. has relocated its visual effects studio to Santa Monica. The new facility includes: a Java-enabled Henry Infinity suite (with Masher and Chaser planned); a Mac Graphics Suite featuring After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Lightwave 3D; a Sony 2000 D1; a Sony A-500 DBC; Beta SP; 60 Sec. DDR; dubbing facilities; a Tascam DAT; and D2, PAL DBC and FTP file transfer services. SteeleVFX was founded in 1996 by Jo Steele and visual effects artist Jerry Steele and specializes in non-linear on-line editing and visual effects compositing.

London-based feature film visual effects company Mill Film has been assigned the principal visual effects for the highly anticipated Paramount Pictures' TOMB RAIDER. Directed by Simon West (CON AIR, THE GENERAL'S DAUGHTER), the live-action feature film is inspired by the popular interactive video game of the same name. Principal photography is scheduled to start at Pinewood Studios this summer.

Visual effects pioneer John Dykstra has swung onto the SPIDER-MAN project. The new project will reunite Dykstra with the effects team from Sony Imageworks, where he was recently special effects supervisor on STUART LITTLE. The Sam Raimi directed flick has also hired former PDI character animator Karen Goulekas. Dykstra told the HOLLYWOOD REPORTER that he doesn't know how many effects there will be yet, because the script (by Raimi and David Koepp) isn't done. "We're still sorting the character out.