Sailors manning an ocean liner, panic when they find themselves steaming toward an object of titanic proportions. In a scene reminiscent of a blockbuster movie, the ship’s crew work frenetically to keep the vessel from colliding with a mammoth object looming before them in the frigid Atlantic. The scene is part of a new commercial directed by Peter Dietrich for Chapita’s Molto croissants.
Senior VFX supervisor Shawn Hillier has joined the creative team at the Vancouver office of FuseFX. Hillier arrives following a 15-year stint at Industrial Light & Magic, where he contributed to such blockbusters as Jurassic World, Pacific Rim, Star Trek, Transformers, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith and all three titles in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. In his new role, he will supervise visual effects production for television projects including the Syfy series The Magicians and Dark Matter.
Oregon-based creative studio Sockeye has launched what it says is the first-ever cannabis YouTube commercial for a legal edible, said Sockeye’s president Andy Fraser. The centerpiece of the campaign for Legal, the flagship product of leading edibles purveyor Mirth Provisions, is a 90-second music video, created with long-time collaborator and friend of the agency, indie film director James Westby. (The Auteur, Film Geek.)
After 37 years in Manhattan, the Independent Filmmaker Project’s Film Week is moving across the river to Brooklyn. The event will set up shop in DUMBO anchored around its headquarters, the Made in NY Media Center By IFP. Film Week will run September 17-22. The IFP has also expanded to support television, digital, web, virtual reality and app-based series at its upcoming IFP Film Week. Series showrunners and creators will take part in the IFP Project Forum, the only international co-production market in the U.S. featuring stories for all platforms
Post Factory NY has appointed Liam Ford chief technology officer. Ford joins the company with more than a decade of post-production engineering and IT experience, most recently as vice president of technology at Company 3, New York. At Post Factory NY, Ford will assume the lead role in technology operations, strategy and planning. His first task will be to guide the technical aspects of a major expansion of the facility’s color grading and finishing services for theatrical and television projects.
The March on Washington Film Festival has named the winners of its inaugural Student and Emerging Filmmaker Competition. The eight films were selected from 75 projects that responded to the question: what’s your civil right? Jurors named winners and runners-up in narrative and documentary categories, for both student and emerging filmmakers. The winning films showcase diverse and powerful young voices, and cover a range of issues including criminal justice reform, immigration, racial justice, sexuality, and gender identity.
The Oklahoma Film + Music Office with producers Kristofer McNeeley of Marvista Entertainment and Stacia Crawford of SaigeBelle Films, are pleased to announce the start of production of the feature film Wicked Love in Oklahoma City and Guthrie, Oklahoma. The film is utilizing the Oklahoma Film Enhancement Rebate Program, administered by OF+MO, and will commence principal photography on July 25.
PostWorks New York has formed a new digital film distribution service, PostWorks Digital Cinema, and hired industry veteran Greg Fornero to lead it. The new unit will work with indie film producers and distributors, international film festivals and independent digital intermediate facilities. It will provide digital cinema package duplication, drive set rentals and sales, KDM management and broadband content delivery services.
As demand for higher resolution imaging grows, The Molecule expects to hire more than 100 people as it prepares to move to a new production facility at 29th and Broadway in Manhattan. “In the future, we are expecting our staff to grow to 120,” says marketing manager Audra Coulombe. “There is a lot to consider when building a new production facility in the current environment. Post-production is moving to higher and higher definition. Streaming services like Netflix and Hulu are now sending us footage at 4K and even 6K, and each VR production involves much more footage than a conventional project. So, we’ve designed our new facility to handle ten times our current capacity. We’re doing it right and planning ahead.”
The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers is celebrating its Centennial with celebrations worldwide. The celebrations include honoring SMPTE's Founders' Day and the 100th anniversary of its incorporation – July 24 and August 10, respectively. The festivities, which include cakes ornamented with the SMPTE logo and messages of well wishes, actually began in 2015 during the biennial SMPTE technical conference in Sydney and continue with global celebrations held by SMPTE Sections and partner organizations.
